Thread: Cheap data storage

It's amazing how cheap some things have become... I just picked up two 8GB thumb drives on Ebay for $12 a piece with free shipping.

A close friend had his house broken into last week and lost a lot of his family photos and data and it got me thinking. At $12 for 8GB it seems like a no brainer to backup everything that's important every couple months and throw it in the safety deposit box.

I backup all my data daily between computers in the office and have all my reports and other critical stuff on the web but seeing my buddy go through hell when all his computers got swiped got me thinking.

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Mozy.com

I'm really fond of

Syncplicity - Syncplicity: Effortless Backup, Synchronization, and Sharing

As it not only provides online backup, it allows you to keep data files in sync on multiple PCs.

I have arrangement with another business in a nearby suburb where we back up critical data to computers each other's sites, so even if I experience a 100% loss of all my computers there's a PC 20 minutes away on which I can immediately start working - for around hundred dollars year I have what amounts to a disaster recovery plan for my business data.

Another advantage of the file syncing is that I can start a report (I use Homeguage) on my notebook, and if I'm working at a place where I have WiFi access when I get back to my home office I can immediately pick up where I left off on the office PC... or I can go in the other direction, go out for coffee or lunch anyplace with WiFi, fire up the notebook, and in a minute or two I'll be synced up with whatever I did on the office PC and ready to go.

One other advantage of syncplicity is that it can be configured to keep multiple revisions of files on the syncplicity server, and also to keep copies of deleted files- which can be really handy if you experience a crash while you're working or inadvertently delete something you wanted to keep.

I have some huge amount of storage available there - I think it's 100GB - and they regularly "special deals" if you renew, I think I'm paying $99 a year.

I use www.carbonite.com.

Background backup anytime I'm connected to the internet.

Haven't had to use it for real yet but tried several sample runs.

8 GB thumb drives were on sale at Frys Electronics recently for $9.99.

I have several one-terabyte external USB hard drives that I keep stuff on. Plug and play. Very cheap. Also at Frys Electronics. I don't like putting things on the Internet and relying on external forces to keep it safe and free from hackers, etc.

IMO, you are best off with both - internet backup is transparent, and local backup alone requires that you regularly remove a copy of you data to another location to be safe from fire and theft - which in my experience few do.

(An inspector I know recently lost ALL his archived reports, along with ALL his reporting templates, which had taken him years to create).

As for hacking of internet storage to download copies of old reports or password protected accounting files, someone is *far* more likely to obtain the same via stealing a home or office computer, - but how may of us are using hardware or even software based encryption to protect such data?

@ michael:
please provide more details on how the data was lost..crushed/burned hard drive?

sometimes not everything is lost..

just trying to help..

Internet based back-up has several advantages (Off-site, secure encrypted, easy) and only one real disadvantage, which is cost.
I think I pay about $50-75 per year for 10g of storage, so it does cost more than a do it yourself process.
The BIG advantage for me is that it is totally effortless, I don't have to lift a finger to may it happen. Everything gets done in the background when I am not using the system, it even figures out when I am not using the system. Even if I break my normal patterns and use the computer when it is performing the backup, it is totally in the background and does not hamper my use.
It is worth the fee just for the peace of mind and labor saving.
I may take old stuff (2-3 years) and archive it on CD or other just to reduce file size in the future but for now I am happy with Mozy.

Originally Posted by Joao Vieira

@ michael: p
lease prvide moore details on how the data was lost..crushed/burned hard drive?

sometimes not everything is lost..

just trying to help..

Don't know how he lost data.

This was a year or so back, I only found about it because he had loaned me some of his Homeguage templets when I was first starting out with computerized reporting and needed an example of how to layout Homeguage to make sure I covered everything required by the state.

He called to find out if I still had them - I did, but he still lost everything since, including, apparently, all his archived reports.

I just checked - I currently get 100GB of backup for $99/year.

Originally Posted by Michael Thomas

Don't know how he lost data.

This was a year or so back, I only found about it because he had loaned me some of his Homeguage templets when I was first starting out with computerized reporting and needed an example of how to layout Homeguage to make sure I covered everything required by the state.

He called to find out if I still had them - I did, but he still lost everything since, including, apparently, all his archived reports.

about encryption: TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux for local
I like to have a local copy on a different media

If someone needs data recevered feel free to send me an email..there are several techniques some of which I can perform .. sometimes I also just help ppl for free because I feel like it

Another aspect to consider is durability/lifespan of the back up medium used. Everything has a lifespan be it physical or age/obsolescence related. Remember floppies? Try to find a machine that can read them even if you have a drive in them.
I have a floppy drive but it will not read my old floppies anymore. I actually still have a 5-1/4 inch floppy drive in my junk somewhere!

Even CD/DVD's have their limits. Any backups should be redone on fresh media every couple of years. Flash drives have a finite number of read/write cycles until they become unreadable. Not a long term solution due to this and the continuing changing standard. They started at USB 1.0, are now on USB 2.0 and are bringing on USB 3.0 soon. Backwards compatability is not always assured. New readers may not read the "old" 1.0 standard you may be using now.

Backups are a multi-phase combination program. Temporary, short term can be USB flash drives or external HDD, longer term CD/DVD combined with online storage for the most critical data.
The question is not IF you will loose data but WHEN. Back it up today!