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Need Cloud Backup Recommendation


nikki605

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I've used SOS Online Backup for several years and it's worked well for me.  I recently received an email from Infrascale (parent company) of new pricing.  Basically, they have done away with unlimited storage and replaced it with a tiered pricing structure.  My cost will take a HUGE increase so I am looking for a replacement cloud storage to save some money.

 

I've read some reviews for CrashPlan and Carbonite, among others, but I'd like to get some opinions from experts I respect.

 

What cloud storage do you use and what are your opinions and recommendations?  Is there one I should avoid?

 

I am only looking to back up one primary desktop PC running Windows 7 to the cloud.  I have local backup to an external HDD taken care of as well as disk imaging so all I am looking for is cloud backup.

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Win10 Pro x64 Desktop (Speccy) - Win10 Pro x64 Laptop (Speccy)

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Thanks hazelnut.  I've been leaning towards CrashPlan.  No way to know if they will have a similar price hike.  I think SOS is taking advantage of the current ransomware scare.

 

Here's the more popular one's: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2288745,00.asp

Win10 Pro x64 Desktop (Speccy) - Win10 Pro x64 Laptop (Speccy)

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My mom's been using Backblaze for the last few years and it has definitely saved her butt. It allows for backing up external drives which other companies (at least when she was shopping for a provider) did not offer.

 

Also BB is unlimited in storage space

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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Just curious Nikki, what extra advantage does cloud backup give you that your external drive doesn't?

I realise it's a to-be-sure, to-be-sure, not-all-eggs-in-one-basket strategy, but if that's the reason, why not simply rotate multiple external drives.

Your 280gigs of data to store online is impressive, you must have decent internet speeds!

Backup now & backup often.
It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.
Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last.

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Just curious Nikki, what extra advantage does cloud backup give you that your external drive doesn't?

I realise it's a to-be-sure, to-be-sure, not-all-eggs-in-one-basket strategy, but if that's the reason, why not simply rotate multiple external drives.

Your 280gigs of data to store online is impressive, you must have decent internet speeds!

A fire in the house will melt external drives, an external drive can fail, your dog could do it's business on the drive. while, on the other hand, a cloud backup is mirrored/striped across multiple virtual servers in a likely safer location if not multiple places.

 

Always best to have both external and cloud imho/experience (particularly because down/upload speed and data caps)

 

 

ADVICE FOR USING CCleaner'S REGISTRY INTEGRITY SECTION

DON'T JUST CLEAN EVERYTHING THAT'S CHECKED OFF.

Do your Registry Cleaning in small bits (at the very least Check-mark by Check-mark)

ALWAYS BACKUP THE ENTRY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL BREAK IF YOU DON'T.

Support at https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

Pro users file a PRIORITY SUPPORT via email support@ccleaner.com

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couldn't agree with you more @Nergal which is why I have offsite external drives for just such a scenario.

a cloud solution is not viable for me for the very reasons you gave - quotas and bandwidth.

 

also, a cloud solution is no good if you can't get web access.

Backup now & backup often.
It's your digital life - protect it with a backup.
Three things are certain; Birth, Death and loss of data. You control the last.

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My backup strategy uses a combination of methods.  I have a USB HDD that I connect to backup just data files frequently.  I also use Macrium Reflect to take disk images to a different HDD.  But all those disk drives sit in my house.  In the event of fire or hurricane (I live in Florida) and my house is totally destroyed, my last ditch backup is the cloud.  Yes, it may take some time to get to a working internet connection in a disaster, but at least I know that my data is still there.

 

It's just worth the peace of mind to me.  My wife is POA for her parents and we have a lot of their documents scanned onto our PC.  It would be almost impossible to regain some of those old papers.

 

I have a 50/50 fiber connection, but once the initial upload is done, daily updates for only new or changed files amounts to only a couple MB and only takes about 2 minutes.

 

I used to keep backups in my bank safe deposit box, but running back and forth was a hassle and I found myself not backing up as often (got lazy).

Win10 Pro x64 Desktop (Speccy) - Win10 Pro x64 Laptop (Speccy)

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Interesting.  I let my subscription expire and then checked my credit card online.  Infrascale auto-renewed it for another year at last year's price of $79.99.  Not the cheapest service but at least no price increase.  If they grandfathered in existing customers, they didn't publicize it or notify me.

Win10 Pro x64 Desktop (Speccy) - Win10 Pro x64 Laptop (Speccy)

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I've never been a fan of image back ups. I would rather just reinstall the OS, ect. I do however keep multiple copies of my data(pictures, documents, ect.) 

I use Google Drive pretty much exclusively for that now. I pay $10 a month for 1TB of back up space. I used to use one drive, dropbox, and others but I prefer Google now. It just seems to work without issues and is available on the most devices. I do still use one drive occasionally though because its free with my office 365 account. I probably could go back to it now that they fixed the windows client in windows 10 but I hated how it worked in windows 8 and haven't switched back yet. (Office 365 personal gets you 1TB one drive space plus full office apps. Probably the best deal around right now for $70 per year) 

 

I do keep back ups on local hard drives as well but that is more for just piece of mind.  

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I've never been a fan of image back ups. I would rather just reinstall the OS, ect.

 

Problem with that is re-configuration to suit your needs can take weeks. Then having to input the registration codes in all commercial software. If you use any discontinued commercial software (and I have a few) and the software developer is out of business then getting your registration code to go through via web verification is impossible, etc. With a disk image everything is put back into working order in an insignificant amount of time with zero fuss.

Edited by Andavari
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Hi nikki.

 

Some relevant info here in case you (or anyone else) thinks of going down the Carbonite road ...

 

https://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=46169

 

Not my opinion of course in case we get any disgruntled Carbonite directors signing up for forum membership.

 

----------

 

Regarding Image backups (of which I'm a huge fan), you have to realise that these are also file and folder backups.

 

A Macrium Image for example can be mounted as a drive and explored like any normal drive. Files and folders can be copied from the mounted Image as simply as copying from a file and folder backup on a real drive.

 

A more extreme example is you also have access to things like the registry hives in "Windows/system32/config", which I have in the past actually copied and pasted from an Image to fix a registry issue rather than carry out a full restore. Not for the faint hearted but possible.

 

You have backups of stuff you wouldn't think to back up.

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Problem with that is re-configuration to suit your needs can take weeks. Then having to input the registration codes in all commercial software. If you use any discontinued commercial software (and I have a few) and the software developer is out of business then getting your registration code to go through via web verification is impossible, etc. With a disk image everything is put back into working order in an insignificant amount of time with zero fuss.

 

I guess I've got a simpler set up. I've pretty much transitioned to a cloud centered model of computing, even on my desktop/laptop. All of my files are on google drive in neatly organized folders. All of my browser settings are synced within chrome, my office software is just ms office 365 which I can download/install on pretty much any computer I want and then uninstall(really just unauthorize) as much as I want, all of my video games are in steam/origin/ect (even save files are in cloud), spotify has all my music(i don't bother with local files anymore except to listen offline on my phone), ect. 

 

I use about 6 devices regularly every day(my main desktop, laptop, iphone, ipad, work desktop, and work chromebook) not counting the other computers that I have set up but do not use regularly. I like that I can simply log into chrome and then pretty much everything else takes care of itself after I log into a few services. I can literally sit down at a new computer and have everything I want exactly how I want in less than an hour. I get the appeal of the image back ups but those are singular to one device. My system allows me to transition from device to device without carrying around any cds/usb drives/ect. Also keeping image back ups of multiple devices seems like it would be a hassle. I don't really spend anytime backing things up at all, its just done as I use the computer. 

 

Anyway thats just what works for me. :) 

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