Online file backup

[oceanchild]

Anybody use one?

I have a Mac with Time Machine backing it up to a removable hard drive. But my computer's hard drive is basically full, and I'm thinking the best solution is to move a bunch of my pictures to the removable drive permanently. So now I want a backup for the backup.

Feel free to also tell me I am being overly paranoid. There is nothing on my computer that is THAT important.

[SoonerTexan]

You're not being paranoid. But I have no advice about online backup

[Vanquisher]

DropBox and SugarSync. Awesome.

[SoonerTexan]

The only thing I'd caution you about is make sure you really really love the service. It sucks to move everything from one place to another when it is online. I'm working through that with pictures right now

[oceanchild]

DropBox and SugarSync. Awesome.

I looked at SugarSync. It looks like it won't automatically back up stuff that's only on an external hard drive. Instead I'd have to put those files in a web archive or something. Which is probably fine. Does that sound like I'm reading things right, though?

[MissCrabette]

You could try Mozy. I only use the tiny free version, so I can't speak from experience on how the external hard drive backup works, but they claim that they do it. I should stop being so cheap because my entire photo library is sitting on an external drive. If that fails...

[AmeliePoulain]

I had my favorite pictures on a flash drive in a makeup bag that I carried everywhere, filled with little emergency things like tampon, chapstick etc. I threw it in a tote bag one day instead of my purse. I was later involved in an accident and car fire... I grabbed my purse and forgot about my tote (also had boxes of stuff from my old room at my parents with me because we were about to leave TX)... it all burned It was dumb of me to carry it with me I guess, but I always feared losing it and figured this way I always knew where it was.

I am using Carbonite and have been super happy with it. So glad my friends encouraged me to get it b/c my laptop died and all my work information and kiddos baby pics were on it. After having the laptop wiped clean, I freaked out a little but thankfully after about 10 days of reloading, Carbonite put everything back!!

[Vishenka69]

I just signed up for SugarCync, as per recommendation above. It was super easy and everything was backed up in minutes.

[Sheherezade]

Has anyone done a recovery from any of these services? I've considered Mozy but haven't looked at SugarCync. Right now, I just do the multiple external hard drives back ups -- totally paranoid and ridiculous but I've lost lots of data before. It sucks. I try to keep all my photos on Photobucket and Flickr - but the video, music and actual work is not in an online home. I've only used Dropbox for group projects; hadn't thought of it as a total backup system. Is there a space limit?

[oceanchild]

I've been reading a lot of reviews, and one of the key differences between services is that some will send you DVDs to recover your data (for an extra fee). They all will let you download your data again, but if it's a full system restore, that can take a really long time.

Space limits vary by service. Backblaze has unlimited storage for a price comparable to more limited options. I haven't signed up for anything yet, but at the moment I'm leaning toward Backblaze.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

Bump - I really really really don't want to lose my pictures of DD...and there are a lot of them

I will probably want at least 1TB of storage, if not more.

[oceanchild]

Ugh, I still haven't done it.

I like Farhad Manjoo at Slate, and he recently recommended CrashPlan: http://www.slate.com/articles/techno...g_hacked_.html

[SoonerTexan]

I think online storage is great, but do you have them on an external drive to? Just for ease of access...it would be a big PITA to try and use Lightroom and I imagine aperture with an online file service

[GreyhoundsRUs]

The current plan is three places for "working" pictures, two for ones we just want to keep. I am currently backing up to an external HD. Only pictures that are more than 6 months old are getting removed from the HD. Archived pictures will be kept on the external and cloud (not necessarily iCloud, but a cloud).