LOL

If there's a fire at your house, there could be a fire at your online data provider. Guess who's paying for the fire protection at your online provider? You are paying for it, out of the monthly fees. Think that fire protection somehow comes magically free with no cost with an online service?

On top of that, they (which means YOU) have to pay for marketing costs, employees, all costs that I don't have to pay for with my set up.

I'm just someone who enjoys getting the most for my money, the most value and the most control. This can be done by a kid, extremely easy to set up.

:D


Ok, then list them here. What are the storage constraints? What do you have to give up in order to have this "free" service? Please, enlighten us.

This doesn't make any sense. You're paying for the market of hard drive makers and software makers instead of an online website.

And Mozy has fire-vaults.

I'm paying the hard drive maker *ONCE*. You're paying an online service *MONTHLY*.

And you're paying for Mozy's Fire-Vaults *MONTHLY* as part of your fee.

Think about it, please. :D

I know you're realllly trying to streeeeeeetch here... I am quite amused by the continued attempts to mock my method.

What difference does that make? By your own admission you've had to buy hard drives, some of which cost $100 some of which cost $50. Let's round that to $150. And then you have the software, a single license of which is $50. And then you have your nice fire vault - how many hundreds did that cost?

You're *easily* at $300 for your backup solution and that's before any of your drives fail and need to be replaced.

I can pay an online service for 3-4 years before I hit your startup costs. @:-)

LOL

Let me REPEAT what I said - most of the costs I incurred would have happened EVEN IF I HAD AN ONLINE SERVICE.

Because I happen to have a fire vault for my other valuables ANYWAY, there was no added cost.

Because I had Acronis True Image for PC cloning ANYWAY, there was no added cost.

So I spent $100 on a couple of portable drives. Which I WOULD HAVE ANYWAY to store various things any how, big freaking deal.

So my $100 one time cost is somehow more expensive than paying an on-line service to store 1 TB of data for me? Please, show me how that can be done.

Show me the error of my ways. What online storage service offers 1 TB of storage for less than $100 per year? This is assuming I throw away my 1 TB drives and buy new ones every year (not likely).

You're reaaaallllly streeettccchhhhing here. My neck has a kink from trying to see your stretch. :D

To make your argument even more absurd, I'll throw this in: Mozy and other online services require that you have a broadband connection. That can cost $50 - $100 per month, especially if you have lots of data requiring fast upload connections to back up your data. With my scenario I can cancel my ISP and pay $0 per month for online access, and my data is STILL protected. So you're stuck paying an extra $100 per month for an online service, so every year you're paying $1,200 for ISP access on top of online back up? How bloody costly and absurd!! (Like how I turned your absurd argument around in favor of my viewpoint? :D )

But that's just it! Not everyone is a computer dude with 20 different hard drives with various software collections. Not sure what is so hard for you to get about this. Your solution is cheaper because you would have bought this stuff anyway - it appears to be your hobby. Not everyone is like you. Not everyone buys 1-2 terrabyte drives for fun (nor do most people even have a need for that much storage).

Your solution works for you. But you have a unique situation.

LOL, a 1TB byte external drive costing $50 is less practical than paying hundreds per year for online storage, which requires also a super fast broadband access costing $50 - $100 per month to boot.

Especially since Walmart, Best Buy, Target all sell these nerdy things. Ok I get it, only nerds buy portable USB drives. :D

PS while we were enjoying our banter, I finished backing up 10GB of data in a few minutes. How long would that take via an online back up?

But we agreed that having one backup drive is stupid. You need to be honest with the costs. ;)

No, only nerds carry their backups with them at all times. Surely you wouldn't disagree with that. ;)

No, having NO backup is stupid. Having one back up is a bit risky, but not that stupid.

Having one back up ONLINE, and paying $$$ for it every month like a ransom is stupid, imho.

Yep, only nerd carry their backups with them, I'll agree with that. :D I'm a super nerd! As long as it saves me money you can even call me Shirley. :D

I'm not sure I understand this ransom argument. How am I paying any more ransom than you are? The only difference is the entity we pay. You pay a hard drive manufacturer. I pay an online service. Can you elucidate your thinking here?

Ok, let's discuss this one more time:

Online service = leasing. You always pay every month, and pay more the more data you have, and you have to pay for an ISP. If you stop paying at any time, you lose access to your data, and your data may get wiped forever. Therefore the monthly fee = ransom.

Having a local drive = buying. At the cost of $50 for a drive, the drive pays for its self compared to the cost of an ISP and an online service in about a month or two. The data is yours and you don't have pay another penny for that data you're storing on there, ever!

That is, unless you can find me an online service provider who can back up 1 TB of data for free (forever except for a $50 set up fee - to be fair to the hard drive scenario), as well as find me an ISP who can allow me tons of GBs of data transfer for free. ;)

I'm clearly not fully read in on the Mozy solution but my initial scan of their site doesn't indicate that they are providing drive or location redundancy for the data, just a single copy. Am I missing something?

Off-site is great to protect against a failure in the site. That doesn't mean it is best in other metrics, including cost over the lifetime of the solution, RTO, RPO, security and control, just to name a few. To state unequivocally that any one solution is THE one without considering that everyone has individual needs is missing the forest for the trees in a tremendous way.

Thus my three step method.

Good price! Link or source, please?

And maybe you two could, like, get a room? :D

That's nonsense. Ransom is withholding something until one is paid. Online backup services are as much about ransom as United Airlines is because they don't let you off their airplane until you pay. It's a completely asinine analogy.

The biggest problem your argument has is that online backup is cheaper. In many instances it's *free*. Good luck comparing the cost of the USB drive in your backpack to that. ;)