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Online data storage and backups

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:32 am
by matthijs
So, more and more online data storage services pop up, like Amazon S3 and dropbox for example. How many of you already use these services? Or how many are thinking about it?

I'm considering something like this to use as an extra backup strategy. Of course I have my local backup discs, but for extra safety I should have backups somewhere else. In case my house burns down or a thief robs everything. Of course I could copy my data to another HD and bring it somewhere else, but that would be impractical.

I could also put everything I have in subversion and put the repository on a server somewhere, but I don't know if that works for files in general (photo's, video, etc)

Re: Online data storage and backups

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:20 am
by JAB Creations
I've got two raid setups (C:\ Seagate 120GB and D:\ Seagate Enterprise 320GB), a 16GB Corsair USB flash drive for weekly backups, and dual-layer DVD's for occasional backups (such as access logs) that I don't want to waste space on the USB drive.

If anything I would say (as much as I hate MySpace) when a 300GB Maxtor bite the dust two and a half years ago I lost almost my entire MP3 collection and pictures of family and friends...thankfully the important stuff was uploaded to social networking sites.

Technically those online backup solutions should be using a raid setup though I'm not certain if most/all of them are. I recommend at least a raid 1 setup for anyone who is even half serious about their files. If you are serious have your raid 1 separate of your OS drive to reduce the associated hassles of reinstalling an OS to a drive that hasn't been formatted because you have important files on it. To keep myself from having to reinstall XP my C:\ is also a raid 1.

Re: Online data storage and backups

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:51 am
by matthijs
But do you have experience using them? I'm not so much interested in technical details like raid. At home I just make sure I have all my data on at least 3 separate hard disks. Not stored close together and updated regularly. An online backup solution would always come as an extra backup measure.

My main concern would be: how secure is my data there? And I'm not only talking about loss of data, but theft as well.