Originally Posted by
magiciansampras
But we aren't discussing whether or not it makes sense to backup. We're discussing how one should backup given that they want to.
I would imagine you're in the vast minority on this. Terabytes? What in the hell are you backing up?
I would imagine most people have < 20GB, probably significantly less so. And in that case the slow upload speeds are perfectly adequate.
Several USB drives are expensive. Carrying around your USB back ups with sounds like a pain in the butt at best and absurdly paranoid at worst.
Sure you don't have a monthly fee but your startup costs with all those drives is high. You also need software to do the backing up (or spend time writing your own). And the risk of any drive failing and therefore needing replacement (more $$$$) is also high.
I would imagine I can get 3-4 years of online storage for your startup costs.
But how often does one need to backup or restore in total? Very rarely.
Sure, but they could break into your home network, break into your house, etc. Your storage isn't necessarily any safer.
One efficiency I enjoy from Mozy is the ability to access a given file anywhere on the internet. I can be in Moscow and access a backed up file. Very helpful.
A one terabyte drive costs under $100 these days. You can get some for cheap as $50. Buy two and you're still under $100. Even an ultra portable drive that is as small as a wallet.
Best of all, I can access and back up my data while I'm in flight or out of internet coverage, anywhere I need my data or to back up data.
So for under $100, a person can easily have two back ups, one at home, one with them in their backpack, car, etc.
With regards to data, I have videos, music, software, lots of documents, easily get over 20gb. I suspect most people have easily more than 20gb. I helped a friend buy a 750gb portable drive as he had never backed up any data before. His first back up was about 75GB of data. This was a month ago. Since then he's gone over 100gb of data.
If most people have less than 20gb of data, then it's even easier to carry a back up. Use a 32GB thumb sized flash drive to back up your data. Get a 32GB microSD card and pop it into your phone and you'll always have your data. It makes even less sense to have online backup when your back up is small.
Online backups may be good for some, but in most cases it's far cheaper and faster and more reliable to have your own back ups.
The main disadvantages of online back up for me are: price, speed, privacy of data, and offline access. The cheap portable drives and thumb drives negate all of these disadvantages.