Anyone backing up their data online?

[gonefishing]

I traditionally have backed up my data to an external drive. I do this maybe once a year as the data doesn't change that often.I recently started to do a backup to my external HD and started to get all sorts of errors from the drive. Think it's on it's way out (its a good 10 years old so that doesn't surprise me). I'll probably by another external HD but started to think about using an online backup service in addition to an external HD. Most of these are paid service for the amount of storage I would need (320 GB). Was curious if anyone here was using this type of service and what they were using. Doing a quick Google search, iDrive comes up as a popular recommendation.

Thanks!

 

[SirTanon]

I have way too much data to do an online backup. I use a local external hard drive, in addition to my RAID setup

 

[Brons2]

I have Office365 and I back up all my computer stuff to OneDrive, I get 1TB with my subscription level. I don't buy O365 primarily for the storage, rather primarily for Exchange Online and SharePoint, but the OneDrive storage is a nice add-on that comes with it.

I also have a 100GB subscription to Google and I put all my photos from my Android phone there at full resolution.

External hard drives for the sole purpose of backups for me are a waste of time, I can never match the scale or redundancy of a major cloud provider. I would only use one if I needed to take files somewhere where there wasn't going to be Internet access. But that need can normally be met by a thumb drive. I do own an external SSD but I don't use it that much.

If you get another external hard drive be sure to get an SSD. No spinning parts, and the less you read and write from it, the longer it lasts.

 

[Ursatdx]

Carbonite here.

 

[Sunnyinhollister]

I've used Dropbox for years. Works seamlessly.

 

[uc50ic4more]

3-2-1 rule. Always. 3 copies of data. 2 onsite, 1 in the cloud. In day-to-day practice I only keep the really important stuff in the cloud, encrypted. I have working copies on my working machine(s) (synced between 2 laptops) and a weekly backup on a USB drive that I disconnect both from data and power in between backups.

 

[supton]

Sorta. I just signed up for iCloud at 50GB (?) and am still in the process of moving stuff over. I am hoping it will fit in there, I haven't look at what is on my laptop yet but I suspect it'd fit with ease.

For years I wasn't sure how to do backups, you get CD's floating around, one each month, or DVD's, or thumbdrives. Maybe I should go to a RAID setup with dual copies... Eventually it dawned on me that I had little data by today's standards, and so using a cheap cloud service would be easy and fast.

 

[NO2]

Always keep a local backup, because restoring from the cloud takes a very long time. Cloud is fine for a few files or when there is no other alternative.

 

[KrisZ]

I had one external drive fail and one that looks to be on the way out (takes a really long time to spin up). After doing some research it seems to be caused by the enclosures, so no more external drives for me as main backups. My current computer case can accommodate six 3.5 inch drives, so that's where my backup drives are now.

If you don't have a computer case that can accommodate multiple drives, there are HDD docks that can copy or clone drives, even without the need to be connected to a computer. Afterward you can remove the drive and store it.

 

[zzyzzx]

No. I also use an external hard drive. Just wish it were usb 3 and not usb 2.

 

[atikovi]

Google drive $2 a month for 100GB. I wouldn't depend on a local backup if you are prone to natural disasters. And then, if your house burns down, your still screwed.

 

[Lyman]

I have 1TB of OneDrive with my office subscription. I use about 5% of it.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted by uc50ic4more
3-2-1 rule. Always. 3 copies of data. 2 onsite, 1 in the cloud. In day-to-day practice I only keep the really important stuff in the cloud, encrypted. I have working copies on my working machine(s) (synced between 2 laptops) and a weekly backup on a USB drive that I disconnect both from data and power in between backups.

Sounds like good common sense. So, redundancy is still a recommended practice even with cloud back up??

 

[Alfred_B]

With this post I realized that I haven't used a computer in a long time. Everything is done with my cell phone with all the files stored on Google drive.

 

[KrisZ]

Cloud is not 100% safe either, after all it is still servers and a bunch of spinning HDDs that can fail. Yes, there are redundancies built in, but failures and outages still can happen. Plus there is always a risk of security breaches which is probably far greater than data loss, but could be far more damaging if one has sensitive data stored on cloud.

I would also presume that a consumer cloud account probably doesnt have the same safety nets as a business or corporate one.

According to this article, data loss is up 400% since 2012 and that article is from 2017 and talks only about enterprise level.

http://bsf.co.za/the-global-cost-of-data-loss/

 

[barryh]

I use dropbox and in addition for critical backups I keep a local encrypted copy.

I also have onedrive but I believe that personal onedrive is not stored in encrypted form so I wouldn't trust critical files in that. Dropbox and Business onedrive are encrypted in storage.

 

[Chester11]

The cloud service I used for a few years left the consumer market. Not to jack the thread, but can someone point me to a walk-through of the various options?

Last time I looked everything else seems to be roll your own RAID (which I just don't have time to manage right now), or install buggy software running in the background.

Dropbox or Onedrive seems like the right way to go, but I'm hesitant to use for my financial data. Is it as simple as setting a directory to monitor?

 

[MrMoody]

On site backups, good. Off site backups, great. Online backups you have no control over, almost worthless. That stuff can literally disappear or be hacked into any day. I use OneDrive as a convenience, I don't rely on it.

 

[CarbonSteel]

Yes; OneDrive, GoogleDrive, and Dropbox. 3 mirrored copies in 3 separate cloud providers and all fully encrypted.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted by doitmyself
Originally Posted by uc50ic4more
3-2-1 rule. Always. 3 copies of data. 2 onsite, 1 in the cloud. In day-to-day practice I only keep the really important stuff in the cloud, encrypted. I have working copies on my working machine(s) (synced between 2 laptops) and a weekly backup on a USB drive that I disconnect both from data and power in between backups.

Sounds like good common sense. So, redundancy is still a recommended practice even with cloud back up??


Absolutely. Compromised online account, lack of internet connectivity, lost encryption key.