Jumping to the Cloud

yossarian084yossarian084 Norwich, VT, USA Member
edited March 2012 in Hardware
Gents,

I'd like to move a bunch of stuff (up to 2 TB) into the cloud to back it up in case of HD failure. Its happened too often to count and I'm sick of it. What is the best way to do this since it will mostly for data storage and not computing. I will most likely not be accessing the data on a regular basis as well. Any thoughts?

Comments

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian
    Why exactly do you require cloud storage as opposed to something like an external hard drive?
  • yossarian084yossarian084 Norwich, VT, USA Member
    I've had several crash on me, and the cloud seems more reliable.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    2TB of cloud storage is going to be expensive and unlikely to be more cost conscious than multiple external HDDs that are synchronized or whatever backup scheme you prefer.
  • yossarian084yossarian084 Norwich, VT, USA Member
    Yeah, as I browse around I'm finding that out. Storage is pretty cheap these days, so I guess having multiple backups is not a big deal.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited March 2012
    Don't know what your level of expertise is... but you could always build a home file server, get yourself a some 2TB drives (like 4 of them) and set them up using software RAID. Then do backups to that using something like backuppc. It can be kind of difficult to set up though.

    The other option that I'm aware of is http://carbonite.com, unlimited storage for a flat rate (per computer). Never used it though so I can't say firsthand how good it is. I've heard good things though.

    Personally, I'd take the time to do the first option, but that's just me. I like building things.
  • quake101quake101 Ohio Icrontian
    I agree that a local storage system (via network or usb and at least mirrored) would be the best solution. I say this because uploading 2TB+ of data is going to take a very long time and restoring it is going to be a pain also.

    With that said, I use Carbonite as my "off-site" backup and only backup things 100% can't live without. Carbonite is nice, plus it's cheap. If you end up using it, I would recommend creating your own encryption key as it adds an extra layer of security. :)
  • yossarian084yossarian084 Norwich, VT, USA Member
    Don't have any experience with RAID but am willing to try. I'm just nervous about losing all this data (music/pics/movies). HDs seem overly temperamental.
  • boasistboasist Troy
    www.backblaze.com

    Unlimited space,
    $3.96 a month for 2 years ($95 total)
    $4.17 a month for 1 year ($50 total)
    $5 auto-bill each month

    The restoration isn't a big concern, as one - you have all of your data....period.

    Me, I use it combined with a WHS in the house, nightly backups, then the WHS data is uploaded so I'm only paying for one computer. Works great. I have about 4TB of data.
  • AlexDeGruvenAlexDeGruven Wut? Meechigan Icrontian
    Chiming in with CrashPlan as well. It does the two things that Backblaze and Carbonite couldn't cover: Backblaze didn't deal with external drives, and Carbonite doesn't deal well with server OSes. CrashPlan does both for roughly the same price.
  • yossarian084yossarian084 Norwich, VT, USA Member
    When you want to access the data, do you have to redownload or can you open directly from the cloud?
  • boasistboasist Troy
    With backblaze you can download from their website, or order a disc or USB stick with your some or all of your data.
  • AlexDeGruvenAlexDeGruven Wut? Meechigan Icrontian
    All 3 require you to restore to access.

    I think what you're really looking for is something like Bitcasa, which is currently in beta right now. It allows you to 'cloudify' any folder on your system, making it available anywhere, any time (where you have the client installed).
  • yossarian084yossarian084 Norwich, VT, USA Member
    Yeah, that sounds more like it. I'll do some more research.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    Be cautious with Bitcasa. I installed the beta and it actually lost some important files for me: as in perma-deleted from my PC. Whether they're out there in the cloud somewhere is something I'll never be able to find out; they're not on my bitcasa account.

    I couldn't even delete Bitcasa properly. After I properly uninstalled it from the add/remove control panel, it still kept running. After a reboot it was back, fully installed, like malware.

    I had to manually kill reg entries and delete the folders to kill it for good.

    Bitcasa is VERY beta. Use caution.
  • AlexDeGruvenAlexDeGruven Wut? Meechigan Icrontian
    Hmmm... I've had it get crashy on me, but it's never removed anything that was on my system.

    That's a good thing to note.

    I also made sure to use it on unimportant folders to test it out.

    Big note(tm) - The Windows version is Alpha at this point, not even beta.
  • quake101quake101 Ohio Icrontian
    Correct me if I'm wrong but a service like Bitcasa wouldn't help if a hard drive crashed... I think that's the goal of the OP.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    Something like SpiderOak could also be useful for backing up select files... but for that much data it would be pricey at $10/mo per 100GB
  • AlexDeGruvenAlexDeGruven Wut? Meechigan Icrontian
    Quake, anything that's 'cloudified' with Bitcasa would be available to be re-sync'd after a crash and data loss. You can also use it to sync files between systems.

    But, as Brian said, it's still particularly buggy on the Windows side of things, so it's not something I'd trust with real data quite yet.
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