Who would you recommend for automatic file backups?

[Kemble]

I wouldn't do online backups with that amount of files.


I was just researching this 2 days ago.

Here is where I went to get my info:
http://data-backup-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

This is the product I'm going to get as soon as my hard drive comes in.
http://www.dtransfer.com/products/data-backup/pc-backup-pro/


Here is the Hard drive I'm getting.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136496

External hard drives only have a 1 year warranty, after reading reviews on a dozen or so hard drives I decided I'll just get another internal (1TB) (5yr warranty) and use it just for making backups.



Set up 4 folders, then set up a schedule to perform daily, weekly, monthly, and bi-monthly backups. You can back up your entire computer, or select the folders you want. You can have it back up everything each time, or have it only back up the files that have changed since last time you backed up.

 

[SignBurst PCs]

External hard drives only have a 1 year warranty, after reading reviews on a dozen or so hard drives I decided I'll just get another internal (1TB) (5yr warranty) and use it just for making backups.

But how does this protect you from fire, flood, theft?

 

[Kemble]

ummm, it don't

Not accounting for those, just on hard drive failures

 

[joeshaul]

Not all externals have a one year warranty. I'm pretty sure the one I use was a 3 year warranty. Probably will have better luck with warranties from the manufacturers of the drives (IE: Seagate/Hitachi/etc). The companies manufacturing the generic bays probably run into issues with the manufacturers they use, therefore cut down the warranty to cover their ass. I really don't care which manufacturer I use anymore, although I've been a bit leery of Seagate since I got one of the first 1.5 TB junkers where the whole model line required a firmware update to prevent the drive from crashing. Pretty much how it goes with all tech things though, jump ship to the next mfg until it does you wrong, then come back around full circle.

My major thing is I'm worried meth heads are going to either break in and steal my computer, or kids'll break in and trash my computer, so I do the offsite thing. Of course, a lot of times when someone asks for help fixing their computer and I tell em to bring it in a few minutes later a monitor arrives at my store... Fire's and floods I'm not as concerned about, but it helps for those as well!

 

[Jet Fast Printing]

you could always back it up to your home computer

check out CrashPlan.com

 

[mnapuran]

Mozy was at the top of the Google search results. They say that you upload it once, then only things that are changed or new are uploaded after that. Rates were $3.95/month + $0.50 per gig.

I guess I wanted something off-site that I don't have to think about. Set it and forget it as the infomercial went.

I appreciate any and all opinions though.
:U Rock:

I use Mozy for home PC's, but not the office. I just use SynchBackSE and a local "remote" hard drive (USB, firewire, network, etc)

Keep 2 hard drives and swap them between off site, and on site for backups. That way even in the event of a major catastrophe, you have an off site backup.

Do something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153066

And then just pick up 2 1tb or 1.5tb HD's for around $60-80 each

 

[signage]

Like I keep saying for years look into Acronis! I does a great job and is inexpensive, recovery is quick and you can even just pull of Directories or files if you wanted to!

 

[trakers]

You will want a multi-pronged strategy.

For local, automatic backups use Second Copy ($30) and an additional HD in your box ($60). You would also want to have at least a couple external drives ($99) to which you could backup to and remove from the premises, rotating the backups.

You would also want to install JungleDisk ($4 a month) and have it backup to Amazon S3 (Pennies per gig) for additional piece of mind.

So for the "humongous" outlay of less than $400 the first year and less than $100 for subsequent years you can have a bulletproof, automatic solution.

Using the above strategy we have never lost even one file, ever, and never will.

The key with backup is a single backup is worse than no backup at all. I can't tell you how many times I've saw and heard about people going to their "backup" only to find out it is non-functional when they need it most.

 

[SignBurst PCs]

Like I keep saying for years look into Acronis! I does a great job and is inexpensive, recovery is quick and you can even just pull of Directories or files if you wanted to!

If you have Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate, you don't need Acronis. You can do an image backup and restore to similar or dissimilar hardware.

 

[signage]

If you have Windows 7 Pro or Ultimate, you don't need Acronis. You can do an image backup and restore to similar or dissimilar hardware.

Good to know Casey!

I don't have windows 7 yet! But have been using acronis for several years!

 

[SignBurst PCs]

Good to know Casey!

I don't have windows 7 yet! But have been using acronis for several years!

Acronis is more robust than the image backup in Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate. If you like using the more advanced functions, then keep using it. I like it too, but for most people, the built in image backup is great.

Please remember that Pro and Ultimate are the only two that have the image based backups. The other versions only have file based backups (Pro and Ultimate have the option for file based in addition to image based).

 

[IsItFasst]

I second CrashPlan. I have tried a few others online backups and CP seems to have it right. Pricing is good and you can even have them send you a hard drive, back up your stuff to it and send it in to avoid the first upload. Obviously backing up off-site is the way to go in case of fire, flood, etc. They even allow you to back it up to another computer over the Internet so you could send your files to your home from your office (or vise versa). I use them to back up 3 computers using 1 account. And they also email you a weekly statement showing how much of each computer is backed up. This is nice in case one computer isn't backing up for some reason.

While I still backup to a hard drive every so often, I am really happy with how CrashPlan works. FYI. I use SyncBack for backing up to my portable drive.

 

[PMG]

i back my 60 gigs up on 3 external hard drives. 2 of the hard drive i back up every other day and the 3rd drive i back up 1 time a week,,,1 drive i keep at the shop,1 drive i take home,and the 3rd drive that i back up 1 time a week goes to the bank in my safety deposit box. takes about 50 min to back em all up.