Online Backup
I just lost a 1TB network storage drive to some random hard drive failure. Would you be upset if that happened to you? If so, I feel bad for you. I really do. You know why? Because there are too many options out there for backing up your computer online that there really is no excuse for losing important documents, photos or home movies. I’m not upset because I have all my really important stuff backed up on Dropbox. I may have lost some music or some other files, but that’s okay. If there were on that drive, I probably haven’t used them in a while and won’t miss them.
I’m writing this mainly as a reminder to myself that my disaster recovery plan actually worked. It’s one of those issues you don’t really focus on until you need the safety net. But by then, it’s too late. So in a really odd way, it’s nice to see that the work and thought I put into setting everything up actually paid off!
So try one of the online services that backup your information and make it super simple to restore your files. I use Dropbox, but feel free to try SugarSync, Carbonite, Mozy, SpiderOak, JungleDisk, Box.net, iDrive or BackBlaze. NONE of these links are affiliate links. I just want you to have a nice peaceful, serene day when your hard drive crashes.
Do you use one or more of these online services? If so, which do you think is best?
Upcoming…
I don’t currently use an online service, mainly because the files I back up are huge and numerous. About 400G+ and growing daily. I also had my new computer hard drive crash in Feb. 2010 and it was only 3 months old. Luckily I was under warranty and they shipped me a new drive immediately. But oh the data I lost! Also because I know this is all too common, I had a 1.5 TB hard drive back up AND a 500G seagate free agent go drive where I had backed up all my photography files. Over 20,000 photos and digital scrapbook page files. I was able to recover all my files in a few hours at home onto my new drive and didn’t lose one photo I had taken in the past 10 years. Thank goodness! I checked into Carbonite, but they said their avg. user backs up 25G at most. It would have taken me a couple weeks to redownload all the files I have for the volume….not sure about uploading. We also only have mid-speed internet. So for now, I’m still backing up to multiple hard drives at home. AND printing the most important photos so they’ll never be lost!