Saving files from the internet to an online backup account?

krishgayle

Ok, the thing is, I have many important documents and contacts that I would like to backup (about 2 GB). But I do not know which method to use: Online Backup or a Hard Drive Backup? A hard drive backup may be the cheapest and fastest route, considering that the only cost would be for the hard drive itself and that the USB 2.0 data transfer rate is faster than my internet connection’s upload speed. I have thought about online backups as nothing beats the reliability of multiple server backups that most host sites advertise, but my upload speed may be an issue when backing up large files. Does anyone have any advice as to which Backup System provides the best bang for the buck?

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” –Lao Tzu

Forsaken_GA

If you backup to a provider, you need to get a few things set in stone first -

#1 - What guarantee's do they provide for access to the data? Your offline backup does you absolutely no good if you can't access it when you need it.

#2 - What happens to your data if the company goes under?

#3 - Does the company have a good track record for security?

Backups are wise, and keeping multiple backups is even wiser, especially if some of them are offsite.

Personally speaking, I don't trust anyone else to do my backups. I maintain two backups at home, one to a portable hard drive, and one to my file server. I also lease a server in a data center on the other side of the country, and it's backed up to an encrypted file system over an encrypted stream of data. I don't want my data intercepted in transit. The dual backups at home protect me against one or the other failing, and the remote backup that I control protect me in the event of natural disaster, or both my backups at home miraculously go bad at the same time.

krishgayle

Those are good points about online data backups. Are there any external hard drives out there that people have found the most reliable?

RTmarc

Just curious, what are the backups of? Personal or professional data? Reason I ask is because if it is personal, I'd setup a GMail account and use it for backup purposes then there are no costs involved.

dynamik

Only three links to backupright.com? Is this spam?