I've been using an external hard drive to do my back-ups on an irregular basis (ranges from weekly, to monthly +)

I just had a friend loose all his data, and it's made me rethink my backup system

i'm looking at something like Carbonite.com

anyone use an online backup before?

my main concern is giving someone else access to my info- but daily backups are tempting me

www.bqbackup.com all i can say about scott who runs the service is 100% spot on........

Thanks Mob...looked them up and it was all glowing revues- looking solid

you use them for your personal computer backup or server?

why back up to an online location?

With large capacity flash drives (and external hard drives)  so cheap these days you can do backups and keep one copy buried in the garden

I do a full backup, so I can just restore it to a new hard drive and all the settings come with it - operating system, the works

Im with matte, use Nortans ghost or some other shadow copy type software, make a duplicate of your drive and bury it, get another another one and just remember to backup eveery week. I backup all all the office emails and documents to a 200gb external every Wednesday, someone different takes it home every week Works just fine using windows backup set to incremental.

online backups are harsh on bandwidth, time consuming and how certain can you rally be that the backup server isnt in the middle of some natural disaster area... ye know... cheap storage and all that

got to agree with external storage. I have 2 Maxtor One Touch 500GB   cost £60 each.
I use one for daily incremental back  up and the other for monthly completely drive image - there is enough space to create a second image without out deleteing the former incase of corruption problems

i have had the dreaded total failer of a hard drive and it was very easy to replace and then upload the disc image back to A1
Also have put the image on a second comp

total cost £ 120 plus some hardware

to kindly quote myself at the top of this thread ...

Nic wrote:

I've been using an external hard drive to do my back-ups on an irregular basis (ranges from weekly, to monthly +)

I currently do use an external hard drive to do my backups

the only problem, is that the external hard drive is only as useful as it's owner

and without being too hard on the poor guy, he's not the most diligent when it comes to doing regular backups

even loosing a month's or a week's worth of files in between backup intervals can be a huge pain depending on what i'm working on

so to me, the really appealing thing about the online back-up systems is that they back-up any new files on your computer daily (when your computer is idle as not to suck up your bandwidth)

Not used any online services as like you Nic, I am hesitant to have my information available to someone else.

I use a 250gb MyeBook external harddrive. Automatically backs up anytime I close a program that has been designated to be backed up. If I forget to close a program, I have it set to automatically backup once per day.

the external hard drive is only as useful as it's owner

sounds like me
I also automate .I use acronis software for all my back up I dont even know its working - also use it in my girlfriends comp and if she can use it so can every one - lots of other options out there if this one is not for you.  I could not trust online storage i am afraid

ColoEagle wrote:

I use a 250gb MyeBook external harddrive. Automatically backs up anytime I close a program that has been designated to be backed up. If I forget to close a program, I have it set to automatically backup once per day.

+

allenion  wrote:

I also automate .I use acronis software for all my back up I dont even know its working

now i see...i was ignorant to such programs, but this makes a lot of sense

when i do it manually it just doesn't get done as it should

thanks a lot, will have to look at those

also when your computer is Idle, you will still suck up your bandwidth - not sure what prices there are like, but online backup would soon gobble up all my monthly bandwidth leaving none for me!

Plus, getting the info back off the online storage - you could be talking a 2, 5, or more GB download depending on your files and programs.

Hi Nic  -

I tackle it 2 fold - belts and braces job

1. I have a 500 GB network drive and use acronis to create incremental backups daily( sheduled)
2. I use Mozy.com ( online) on my 2 pc,s at home . Works well -  it is a pain to start the first back up as it can take up to 6 days depending on what you have asked it to back up.  Also it when say perhaps you dump your memeory stick - holiday pics or what ever it can take couple of hours to down load - then it restrics the band width.
To over come this I scedule both pc,s to back up at a time I know the are not bieng used - If that doesnt fit just hit back up when you know you have time

This has saved my bacon on several occasions espesialy with .pst files

I have never managed to get a shadow disk to work - ie gohst or such like  - always get the file corrupt message so I rely on online and network backups
David