I think file sharing and a cloud backup are different things. I mostly share on my website(s) or flickr but I'm sharing some full-size images of local events on my internet backup for people in the organization to use.
Big drives are really really cheap and I have what 4 levels of storage at home (with one traveling with me when I travel)? Trouble is they are all at home and I'm not enamored with whether I would keep an up to date copy in a safe deposit box nor do I have anyone near by with a good place to store one of my disks there. So I signed up with the cheapest online service I could find and am reasonably happy with it. If they go belly up it will only matter if at the same time my house burned down.
People have noted the plus and minuses of online backups. You cannot dream of getting everything back in a short period of time, nor dream of getting your backup "done" in a short period of time. I work at it all the time.
I have retrieved files from it! By onesies and twosies. I may want to consider it a place for originals and not update it. So far I haven't. Using normal backup programs, it is possible to lose an original. Something happens to the main copy and the backup program dutifully copies it to all of your backups. Poof, original gone. But if your cloud copy is an original, you will at least have the original because you never overwrite that. Yes, I've had that happen. I've also had my Windows system "think" that the images folder was empty and dutifully delete everything from the copy. Good thing I had more than one copy! And now I keep at least one copy of deleted files...
Internet backup is also useful if you travel a lot and may want a file or two that you failed to bring with you. It's always there. Now that gets me to which backup. Not Mozy. It doesn't fit me at all. I don't have a single computer with everything I want to back up online at all times. That's what mozy requires. So I needed one with unlimited backup and files don't have to be online on my computer. Hey, with mozy it's 30 days and we take frequent trips where my computer is off for over 30 days! I sent them email and yes, all of my files would (could?) be gone when I returned.
I also much prefer ftp for both upload and download. That is fairly rare with these backup companies who want you to use their tools.
I chose livedrive.com for price and for features that fit what I want to do. I'm a little iffy about them and would never ever put my only backup in the hands of any of the internet backup companies. But the way I use it, it's one more level of convenience and security.
Backups are pretty complicated and no matter what you do or how careful you think you are, you can lose files... First, get some big drives at home and a good backup program, set it up carefully, and use it. Then, if you can, find a local place that you will take an updated copy frequently. That probably means two more disks so one can be updated at home and then taken to switch out the other one on frequent intervals. Then figure out if you have a need for an internet backup as well. I'm happy enough that I will probably renew my membership for another year at least.
Judy
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1 comments:
This is great information and it is great to have online backups because it is the only way one can keep data secure and avoid them from getting lost.I personally love the online backup service called Safecopy backup.It is cost effective and so efficient.And this has saved from spending tons of money.
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