offsite backup recommendations?

[awh]

I'm way overdue to start doing real offsite backup and abandon my old offsite backup method of backing up data and storing it at my work.

Does anybody have any thoughts on using a service marketed as a "backup service" like SOS pr Carbonite as opposed to one marketed as a "syncing service" like SugarSync or Dropbox?  SugarSync seems really convenient for things like music & photos since you can then play/view them from your phone and other computers.  However for large amounts of data it gets pretty pricey. 

Also, any recommendations on providers?  PC Magazine seems to really like SOS Online Backup, and they were also recommended by the NY Times.  Anybody have experience with them?

[Hollywood, Esq.]

I used SOS Backup -- had intermittant problems with it, backup failures etc.; its relatively inexpensive -- but found something even cheaper (at least when I priced them a year ago).  I now use Iron Mountain/Autonomy "Connected" Backup.  Very cheap for large amounts of data (I'm storing 250GB+ there now).  More cumbersome retrieval process, but I use it primarily for my worst-case disaster recovery and archived material -- not as a depository I routinely retrieve materials from -- but I have been able to do that relatively easily while traveling.  Have routine scheduled backups and never have had a problem on backup for past 12-14 mos I've now used it.  Used to get error messages and messages items not copied from SOS, and frankly, didn't have time to track all the problems down.

[Geauxcat]

I second Hollywood's suggestion and have used them in an Enterprise environment as well.

http://www.ironmountain.com/Services/Data-Backup-and-Recovery/Cloud-Storage-and-Services/PC-and-Mac-Backup.aspx

[Folsom]

If you have a friend who doesn't mind hosting, you can use crashplan to back up to a file at their place.  I think you can pre-load a hard drive, move it over there, and then do incremental backups.

[SteveD]

So I'm about to max out my external 40 GB hard drive backup (FireLite Smartdisk) and I found this thread with just a few replies so far so I wanted to bump it to maybe get a little more input.

I want to switch to online/cloud backup.  The only data I'm backing up is "MyDocuments" which contains about 10 years of my engineering work...Word and Excel files, pdf files, countless tens of thousands of photos, etc. 

Any other input please?  I would feel comfortable with about 100 GB.  Reliability, automatic backup, and relatively inexpensive are my main parameters. 

[dsnation]

So I'm about to max out my external 40 GB hard drive backup (FireLite Smartdisk) and I found this thread with just a few replies so far so I wanted to bump it to maybe get a little more input.

I want to switch to online/cloud backup.  The only data I'm backing up is "MyDocuments" which contains about 10 years of my engineering work...Word and Excel files, pdf files, countless tens of thousands of photos, etc. 

Any other input please?  I would feel comfortable with about 100 GB.  Reliability, automatic backup, and relatively inexpensive are my main parameters.

I love DropBox, but 100 GB is $200/year.  We use it at the office and it's pretty seamless. 

[soccer6]

I use dropbox for My Documents too.  I love that I don't have remember to transfer things, don't have to rely one some process to run periodically, and the bonus is I can reach documents from home or my ipad if needed.

[angryuser]

So I'm about to max out my external 40 GB hard drive backup (FireLite Smartdisk) and I found this thread with just a few replies so far so I wanted to bump it to maybe get a little more input.

I want to switch to online/cloud backup.  The only data I'm backing up is "MyDocuments" which contains about 10 years of my engineering work...Word and Excel files, pdf files, countless tens of thousands of photos, etc. 

Any other input please?  I would feel comfortable with about 100 GB.  Reliability, automatic backup, and relatively inexpensive are my main parameters.

I love DropBox, but 100 GB is $200/year.  We use it at the office and it's pretty seamless.

Yeah, for that price I'll buy a couple 500GB external drives, mirror the content on each and put one in a vault/office and the other in the closet. If the business is footing the bill on the other hand...

[Gmoney]

I've also heard Carbonite is pretty good....

[awh]

So I'm about to max out my external 40 GB hard drive backup (FireLite Smartdisk) and I found this thread with just a few replies so far so I wanted to bump it to maybe get a little more input.

I want to switch to online/cloud backup.  The only data I'm backing up is "MyDocuments" which contains about 10 years of my engineering work...Word and Excel files, pdf files, countless tens of thousands of photos, etc. 

Any other input please?  I would feel comfortable with about 100 GB.  Reliability, automatic backup, and relatively inexpensive are my main parameters.

I love DropBox, but 100 GB is $200/year.  We use it at the office and it's pretty seamless.

Yeah, for that price I'll buy a couple 500GB external drives, mirror the content on each and put one in a vault/office and the other in the closet. If the business is footing the bill on the other hand...

'

That is actually my current technique.     The only problem with it is that you need to remember to swap the drives every so often to keep the backup up to date.

I'm eventually planning on using crashplan, but I haven't gotten around to setting it up yet. 

[SteveD]

So I'm about to max out my external 40 GB hard drive backup (FireLite Smartdisk) and I found this thread with just a few replies so far so I wanted to bump it to maybe get a little more input.

I want to switch to online/cloud backup.  The only data I'm backing up is "MyDocuments" which contains about 10 years of my engineering work...Word and Excel files, pdf files, countless tens of thousands of photos, etc. 

Any other input please?  I would feel comfortable with about 100 GB.  Reliability, automatic backup, and relatively inexpensive are my main parameters.

I love DropBox, but 100 GB is $200/year.  We use it at the office and it's pretty seamless.

Yeah, for that price I'll buy a couple 500GB external drives, mirror the content on each and put one in a vault/office and the other in the closet. If the business is footing the bill on the other hand...

yes exactly.  Even tho the my business will foot the bill, $200 sounds like a lot to me.  Angry's method above is what I was thinking I would wind up doing.  I'm familiar with Dropbox, one company I work with forces me to use it...for some reason I don't really like it. 

[J. Grouchy]

For cloud storage there's also the new Google Drive.

They have 100 GB for about $60/year.

Cost comparison here.

[SteveD]

$60 sounds better...I'll look into that.  Thanks Grouchy

[Shamamama]

I have Dropbox and use it extensively.  The $200/year is really reasonable considering the rich features.  I have the pack-rat level with unlimited retrieval.  Because I share lots of folders with different groups of people I've used this feature several times and it's saved my ass.  I also have the app on my Android and when casually presenting to a very high-level client I was able to show them a sample document in about 30 seconds.  The other awesome feature?  I can remove permission to share files and those files will then disappear off the other person's computer.  Also a feature I have had to use and been thankful for.

I'm a freak about version control and Dropbox has great features for that. 

I am now on my 3rd computer in four months (work changes) and because of Dropbox all my files moved over seamlessly and with no hassle.   We still have our own server and I use that for some offline/archived files, but at around $2k a year to maintain - the $200 is a BARGAIN.

[SteveD]

I just purchased the 100 GB storage option through Google Drive.  The site said it might take up to 24 hrs for the storage to be reflected on my laptop google drive folder.  It's $4.99/month so I will see how that works.