online storage, file backup

[Road Guy]

Do any of ya'll use online storage sites for backup?

We have lost 3 external hard drives each of the last 3 years, so I figure instead of paying to buy a new one every year, and paying to get the external fixed, I could just invest in online backup. Mainly pictures and stuff, but Photobucket is just to slow to deal with.

Anyone got any recommendations and costs?

 

[knight1fox3]

lusone: for dropbox. Heard good things about it but don't actually use it myself. I use a site called ADrive. I really like the interface and you get 50GB for a free user account, which is pretty tough to beat. You can also provide external links to any of your stored files (by making them shared instead of private) for others to download without requiring them to sign up. I use it in a similar fashion to what Highway said, work and school documents & programs. They have a multitude of paid storage plans as well all the way up to 10TB. Not too shabby.

Out of curiosity, what type of external hard drives would you be using that would need to be replaced every year? I've been running a NAS raid server for the last 5 years and haven't had any drives fail on me. The web interface provides S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of all the hard drives and will give ample warning before a drive is actually going to fail. I can provide more info on that if you like. Hope that helps.

 

[csb]

I use Mozy, because it does everything for me and I like being able to access my files from anywhere. I haven't used an external in a long time, mostly because I worry about if the house is destroyed. Yeah, weird to worry, but hearing the stories from Hurricane Katrina made me think a little harder about my personal files.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I've thought about copying all files to a thumb drive and keeping it in a safe deposit box. Just rotate the thumb drives every few months when you copy new stuff.

 

[Road Guy]

thanks

I dont recall the name but the external drives were in the $70 range- maybe I just bought cheap ones??

 

[knight1fox3]

thanks
I dont recall the name but the external drives were in the $70 range- maybe I just bought cheap ones??

'Tis a possibility. Was just curious because most mainstream drive manufacturers carry a 5-year warranty on a majority of their storage products. Which means they carry a fairly high MTBF rating.

 

[envirotex]

so having seen first hand how well those "fireproof" boxes/safes work (even the expensive ones)...I'm thinking electronic back-up is really the way to go

 

[csb]

What happened that you've seen them in action?

 

[FLBuff PE]

What happened that you've seen them in action?

She lives in Texas, and wildfires took out parts of her neighborhood. Scary sh!t.

 

[envirotex]

Saw my neighbors digging around in the ashes trying to look for their fireproof boxes...funny thing though, one of my neighbors found his Dell monitor still mostly intact...

 

[csb]

I can't imagine having to survive that. Our firebox has a handle on it and it's supposed to be one of our things to grab in case of emergency...but much of that stuff exists in other places too. Maybe we should put it all in a Dell monitor

 

[envirotex]

Yeah. Only we use Macs at our house. I wonder if they would work the same?

 

[csb]

Oh! I am so sorry. Is there anything we can help with?

 

[envirotex]

The families in our neighborhood are mostly OK, and they have lots of support. Bastrop just east of Austin is pretty much destroyed...They will need lots of help to rebuild, and there isn't enough temporary housing at this point. People are sending clothes and furniture but there isn't any place to use it yet...so at this point I would say donate to the Red Cross or the Bastrop Christian Ministerial Alliance who is coordinating donations for the city and the county.

 

[csb]

Sounds good. Money is easiest to send across the distance.

Here's the link if anyone else is interested http://bcmatx.org/

And here is the official city site which backs up that all donations should go through the BCMA http://www.cityofbastrop.org/

 

[IlPadrino]

I've been toying with minus a little bit. If anyone's interested in signing up, use this link: http://min.us/rbjGCrUb

Disclaimer: It'll give me some extra storage.

Good app support (particularly happy with Android) and it seems to work as good as dropbox.