Online backup

[silvermusic]

Anyone use one of these online backup services, I'm keen to know what other people use and how they find the service? After a recent near disaster I'm considering using this sort of service as an extra level of safety for mission critical files

So far I've seen BT's

http://www.btbroadbandoffice.com/it-solutions/business-security/pc-backup

and Dell's..

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/shared/services/datasafe/en/emea/uk/bsd/datasafe?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

so far the Dell option looks very tempting.

[Dennis_McDermott]

I use http://www.idrive.com/

I have been using myself and suggesting it to my clients for over 1 year.

It keeps up to 30 copies (versions) of each backed up file, and provides quick restore.

You can also enable 'Continuous Backup' which runs in the background and backs up new and changed files.

[Fuel]

Just tried idrive, looks alright, indeed. Up to 2GB of storage are available in the free version. Our mission critical database is only 150MB, so this looks promising and cheap.

Thanks

[stugster]

Have you guys thought of an external hard drive?

[Dennis_McDermott]

An external drive is a good idea, I use both, an external drive and iDrive, if you suffer a break-in you may lose your external drive as well as all your computers, so for belt-and-braces I like to use online storage as well.

[silvermusic]

An external drive is a good idea, I use both, an external drive and iDrive, if you suffer a break-in you may lose your external drive as well as all your computers, so for belt-and-braces I like to use online storage as well.

Catastrophic hardware failure can and does happen, I'm living proof. The main and backup drives all taken out. There's a lot to be said for archiving data that's used but never or rarely changed to DVD/CD discs too. I have a copy of each years accounts stored on a duplicate DVD disc and leave it with my accountant.

[mike1337]

Network Attached Storage for me

[Dwebs-Ltd]

I hope everyone remembers when you backup to a system outside the UK they are not bound by UK data protection laws. You also need to be very careful you are not sending customers personal data overseas, it can cause a major headache.

[leemason]

I hope everyone remembers when you backup to a system outside the UK they are not bound by UK data protection laws. You also need to be very careful you are not sending customers personal data overseas, it can cause a major headache.

Good point. Also you never know where your data is backed up. A case in point is Mozy. However I am slightly biased - we store our online backup service data in the UK and have a replica copy of all data at a separate site.

[silvermusic]

I hope everyone remembers when you backup to a system outside the UK they are not bound by UK data protection laws. You also need to be very careful you are not sending customers personal data overseas, it can cause a major headache.

Good point. I don't keep customer details (names addresses, etc.) locally at all now and strip them out of downloaded data from eBay, PayPal and Web site payments that I use for my accounts. So there's no chance they'll find their way into the wrong hands.

[leemason]

Good point. I don't keep customer details (names addresses, etc.) locally at all now and strip them out of downloaded data from eBay, PayPal and Web site payments that I use for my accounts. So there's no chance they'll find their way into the wrong hands.

Any half decent online backup service would provide good levels of encryption anyway so hopefully your data would be pretty safe with online backup.

[rich998]

Has anyone any further points to add, as I'm considering using iDrive. Are there any other prefered choices other than iDrive?

[GTrotter666]

I wondered about this myself but our backups are large (50Gb+) so our broadband upload speed means it would take far too long to use one of these services - a shame really. Neat solution to off-site backup otherwise.

[MikeJ]

I use the free version of Acebackup (www.acebackup.com) and store files on my own webspace. It's got an inbuilt FTP setup, and it emails me a report each time it backs up (which I've scheduled it do do at about 3am).

I've 20GB of webspace, and use a fraction of that. I only back up a few key files that way, and use NAS hard drives (Buffalo) of which one only one is in the office at any time.

[leemason]

I had a look at the idrive web site and one thing that it does not mention is in-file delta. Basically this is a block by block copy of each file. For larger files (like Outlook PST files which can get very large) this is invaluable. It means that only changed blocks within the file are backed up. So if you have a 1GB Outlook PST file and only 1% of it changes then in-file delta will choose to backup only 10MB of the file rather than the whole 1GB if this technology is not available.

As I say I didn't see it mentioned but maybe another idrive user can tell you if this is available.

[GetTaylored]

Humyo offer a fairly decent service for the price. For £4.99 a month you 100gb storage and their sync/backup software is really good.

Sugar Sync also offer a decent service although i've started recommending humyo to friends/clients/family who want an affordable backup solution and don't need their own server.

You can try their service out free for 14 days at the following link:

https://www.humyo.com/pages/en/try-online-file-storage

You don't even need to put in payment details to start the trial.

[pcservicenetwork]

How about a NAS drive in a 1 hour fire safe hidden above the suspended ceiling (if you have one).

[Scootek]

I wouldn't touch anything from BT and Dell. They haven't been great on customer service.

I have found iDrive. Mozy and LiveDrive to be good. I have used services from all three.

iDrive and Mozy both offer 2GB FREE online backup. With iDrive you can get up to 10GB free, and it's a very good backup.

[extremedistro]

NAS and remote backup with globaldatavault.com

[mahutchinson]

adrive appear to be offering 50GB free. I only looked at the site briefly - am I missing something ?