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We’re having a discussion on Critters at the moment.
It’s about Backups.
The problem with backups is that they tend to be a pain to do — so people don’t do them.
The services below sort that problem out, very simply and effectively.
I use BT Digital Vault, which comes free via my ISP, with 5gb storage. That’s where my books go, that’s what we use for all manner of data we can’t afford to lose.
Some solutions out there are these:
IDrive — http://www.idrive.com (2gb Free, more is $4.95/mo up to 150gb)
Mozy — http://mozy.com (2gb Free, more is $4.95/mo unlimited)
Amazon S3 — http://aws.amazon.com/s3/ (Not sure how much it works out as they charge per gb / time stored etc.)
Carbonite — http://www.carbonite.com ($49.95/year — unlimited)
HP Upline — https://www.upline.com/ ($4.99/mo US only, 1gb free version to try)
SOS Home Edition — http://www.sosonlinebackup.com/sos-for-home.htm ($19.95/year – 2gb, up to $49.95/year 15gb)
So… which would I recommend?
It really depends what you want.
Some of the above are Mac compatible, some are not.
Some will back up open files — some won’t. So be aware of that and read carefully.
Some have free trials, some don’t.
Some are free to use (with a space limit, but not a time limit), some are not.
I think Mozy doesn’t back up open files, but IDrive does. Not sure. 
Another factor is data encryption.
If you intend to store sensitive data, like tax reports and stuff like that, on an online storage system — where other people will have access to it, like their administrators (They have to.), then you’d do well to encrypt such data yourself.
The simplest way to do it, is to create an encrypted Zip file (you can do this from inside Winzip), or get some encryption software. There are plenty out there.
Fact is, even if you back up stuff to DVD’s, sensitive data should be encrypted before writing it to DVD, too.
Just for information… 2gb is a LOT of space for pure text data and if all you want to back up are your manuscripts, it’s going to last you a very long time before you approach the "pay" stage.
Whichever way you choose, if you back up the files you want to keep, you’re already miles ahead of the pack!
This was so timely and I know I have to do this! Thanks Silke!
Debora(Quote) (Reply)
Mozy does backup open files, in fact it is one of the better backup services to do so. Mozy will also backup SQL data files and locked Outlook files.
There is not a lot of difference between IDrive and Mozy, personal preference.
John Tucker(Quote) (Reply)
Thanks for the advice, John.
I don’t use either of them, so I don’t know. I just looked what’s out there and made a note of it. I just recalled someone mentioning Mozy didn’t do open files, but if you say it even does SQL — nice to know!
Silke(Quote) (Reply)