home/office computer backups

Icecube

Icecube

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Mar 14, 2007
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I have been using Microsoft SyncToy taking incremental backups to an external usb drive for quite some time but lately SyncToy, for some reason, seems not to be able to handle such large volumes of data, and hangs during the backup process.

I think it's more due to the number of files ( multiple copies of entire server backups and hosting accounts + rather large mysql test dbs + other standard stuff ) rather than size itself ( less than 130 GB )

how do you take backups of your home or office computer?
How much data are you backing up?
 


I am using Mozy to do online backups and like it. Slow to do your first backup (I think 30 GB took about a week), but the software grabs any new files and backs them up when your computer is idle.

With a promo code I think it cost me $80 for 2 years. Regular price is $4.95/month for unlimited storage... but of course the upload isn't super fast, so unlimited can be misleading. I don't have all my music etc. backed up yet, but all my files / photos etc.

--David
 
I like DropBox. It's pretty easy to use and doesn't use much resource-wise. The iPhone app has become very handy when I need to show someone something or grab a quick reference to a document.
 
I use Mozy at $5/mo - unlimitited space. I can upload at 5Mbps (my max upload speed w/FiOS), bu apparently they're capped at 5Mbps so if you have a faster connection, you'll still be limited to 5Mbps at most. I tried Mozy and Carbonite on free trials first to check my speeds, and then went with Mozy. Wasn't able to hit more than 1.5Mbps to Carbonite, but that might just be my routing - not sure if Carbonite is capped or not.

Mozy doesn't give you instant access to restore files (you have to make a request & then 10-30 minutes later, you get a link), whereas Carbonite does - but I had 300+GB of files to upload, and I didn't feel like waiting almost a month to get my first backup sent to Carbonite.
 
Just curious, why do you guys waste your time with online backup services? I can do a complete backup of my entire pc, move it to an external HD, and restore it if needed... all in about 30 minutes. Plus I'm not giving anyone else my data.
 
Downloaded Backblaze, and it tells me "Relax, your data will be backed up in 102 days"...HOLY FUCK! So, went into the control panel and excluded 3 folders from backup and got it down to 8 days.





























Apparently, I have too much porn.
 
subigo said:
Just curious, why do you guys waste your time with online backup services? I can do a complete backup of my entire pc, move it to an external HD, and restore it if needed... all in about 30 minutes. Plus I'm not giving anyone else my data.
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If your house burns down, or someone breaks in and steals all your gear, there goes your data.

I use external HD's too, just like the online backup services to get my data into a data center far far away.

Plus using a service tends to back up more frequently and automatically than I ever did with a HD.
 
hectic said:
If your house burns down, or someone breaks in and steals all your gear, there goes your data.

I use external HD's too, just like the online backup services to get my data into a data center far far away.

Plus using a service tends to back up more frequently and automatically than I ever did with a HD.
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If you're that paranoid about your house burning down, stick your HD in the fireproof safe... because if you're that paranoid, you have a fireproof safe.

I don't have anything on my computer that I wouldn't be able to live without if it (and all my backups) disappeared right now. The backups I take are purely to save me the time of installing an OS (and all of my programs) in the event that something does go wrong. If I had to do a clean install of my OS and then re-download and install all of my programs, that would take all day... with a backup it takes 30 minutes.
 
i just started using Dropbox yesterday and omfg does it rock - sharing things between me and my partner's offices/ multiple computers here at the house is sooo much simpler now :)
 
lol @ you guys using mozy. atleast in older versions of their service, the backups were impossible to get

maybe emc got their act together but i doubt it

goodsync
 
subigo said:
If you're that paranoid about your house burning down, stick your HD in the fireproof safe... because if you're that paranoid, you have a fireproof safe.
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Welcome to your free lesson on safes and fire proofing. Too lazy to quote the source, but:

"A typical fireproof rating is usually expressed as an amount of time — for example a 1 hour fireproof rating or a 2 hour fireproof rating. What this means is that the safe has been tested under actual fire conditions. A 1 hour fireproof rating means that the safe has been tested to withstand the effects of a 1700 degree F fire for a period of 1 hour, and that the temperature inside the safe did not rise above 350 degrees F. This is a low enough temperature to keep the contents of the safe from suffering any permanent damage."

So the good news is you can take your backup HD or DVD and stick it in your fireproof safe, and if it's a typical fireproof rating, you've got less than one hour to get all the contents out before the internal temp's hit over 350 degrees, which surely won't hurt your jewelry but will fry your HD and melt your dvd. And that's assuming you can get to the safe during the fire to begin with.

I don't have anything on my computer that I wouldn't be able to live without if it (and all my backups) disappeared right now.
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You run a business, how on earth can you say this and be serious?
 
Roundabout said:
Welcome to your free lesson on safes and fire proofing. Too lazy to quote the source, but:

"A typical fireproof rating is usually expressed as an amount of time — for example a 1 hour fireproof rating or a 2 hour fireproof rating. What this means is that the safe has been tested under actual fire conditions. A 1 hour fireproof rating means that the safe has been tested to withstand the effects of a 1700 degree F fire for a period of 1 hour, and that the temperature inside the safe did not rise above 350 degrees F. This is a low enough temperature to keep the contents of the safe from suffering any permanent damage."

So the good news is you can take your backup HD or DVD and stick it in your fireproof safe, and if it's a typical fireproof rating, you've got less than one hour to get all the contents out before the internal temp's hit over 350 degrees, which surely won't hurt your jewelry but will fry your HD and melt your dvd. And that's assuming you can get to the safe during the fire to begin with.



You run a business, how on earth can you say this and be serious?
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Glad someone else realizes this..
 
Roundabout said:
You run a business, how on earth can you say this and be serious?
Click to expand...

What exactly would I need on my personal computer that's business related? It's not like I keep all of my client information in an excel spreadsheet... Anything business related is pretty much handled by my support/billing script, which is part of my server network that is regularly backed up to a special backup server. None of this is at the "home/office", which this thread is about.

And I don't have a fireproof safe, I was just saying... If everything in my place burned to the ground tomorrow, cool, I get to buy all brand new things (renter's insurance). Things like birth certificates, passports, etc... are all in a safety deposit box.
 
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