What's your favoured online backup service?

June 3, 2010 11:15 AM

What's your preferred online backup service, and why?

This question has been asked several times before, but not recently, so I'm after the latest info.

I currently use the free service (limited size) from Dropbox, but would like to move over to backing up everything on my Windows laptop.

At the moment I'm favouring Carbonite, any pros/cons here or other ideas? Reliability is my number one priority, very closely followed by price. I would prefer to pay a flat fee per year rather than one based on data transfer levels.

posted by ask me please to computers & internet (18 answers total)

I just dropped Mozy (after about 3 years with them) - it hasn't successfully backed up in 16 days (manually or automatic) and what pushed me over the edge was that customer support was abysmal to nonexistent. When I had to restore from them last year it was painfully slow.

I used Carbonite 2 or 3 years ago, and I don't recall any issues, but I never needed to restore.
posted by mrs. taters at 11:29 AM on June 3, 2010

rsync.net - somewhat expensive in that they aren't free but they really don't screw around. Tech support is outstanding and they aren't just shuffling your data off to the amazon cloud. They actually run the servers that your data lives on so reliability is fantastic. They will help you set everything up, not matter what kind of system you have or how complicated it is.
posted by ChrisHartley at 11:39 AM on June 3, 2010

I like Carbonite a lot. The few times I've had to restore, it's worked like a charm. I also love that you can access any file in your backup from any computer with a web browser, and they have a free iPhone and Blackberry (not for Android yet, I think) app that lets you do the same thing, though the iPhone app could use a bit of a UI rejiggering.

The initial backup with Carbonite took a loooooong time, but every time since it's been very quick.
posted by cerebus19 at 11:44 AM on June 3, 2010

I use Mozy on a mac, and I'm basically happy with it. I have the 2gig free option. I paid for the unlimited service for a year, and dropped the unlimited because getting a initial backup never worked. That was probably at least half the fault of my older machine, but talking to others, I think you need pretty ideal conditions to back up a whole music and picture connection using Mozy.
posted by mercredi at 11:49 AM on June 3, 2010

I use the free droppbox now but when I'm able I plan to get an extra external hard drive for my office and run a nightly rsync between them. Between that and running an FTP server you can get the same benefits. It's not for everyone but it's an option.
posted by monkeymadness at 12:17 PM on June 3, 2010

I second rsync.net. They're serious about what they do, and the support is definitely top notch. They also have a warrant canary so that you can know whether or not your data has ever been compromised by government entities.
posted by odinsdream at 12:24 PM on June 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

My dad's computer crashed (disk failure) and he was using Crash Plan. It worked like a charm. It is $5 per month if you wish to use it's online storage features.
posted by yoyoceramic at 12:38 PM on June 3, 2010

A friend of mine recommended Backblaze -- $5/month per computer with unlimited storage, Mac/PC compatible, very easy to use. I haven't had any problems with it and every time I double-check, it's already backed up all of my new files.
posted by cranberry_nut at 1:11 PM on June 3, 2010

I still use and like jungledisk on the mac. Its not the cheapest but compared to some other experiences its much better. For example, mozy just does not work with external-drives. All it takes is the usb mount not working once, or the drive is off and *poof* all the backups are removed. And support blows.
posted by H. Roark at 1:46 PM on June 3, 2010

I like crashplan, it is very easy. Jungledisk is like a puzzle, and was very slow.
posted by plexi at 1:59 PM on June 3, 2010

I have Carbonite and it's worked great for me so far. The deciding factor for me over Mozy was the remote access, which I've used a few times. I haven't had to do a restore (knock on wood), but I did use their subscription transfer process when I built a new computer last year and it worked like a charm. Like cerebus19 said, the initial backup was sloooooooooooooooow, but since then it's been extremely fast to upload my files.
posted by sbrollins at 2:22 PM on June 3, 2010

I've been using Backblaze for about six months now. I chose it because it will backup external hard drives. Also, it's only $5 a month.

I've restored files several times with no issues.
posted by gregr at 2:26 PM on June 3, 2010

Carbonite is probably pretty good, but I would never use them for political reasons because they advertise VERY heavily with Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. (I believe they even pay Rush to insert "ads" into his commentary, like "Your question reminds me of the time I deleted a file on my computer...")

I too use Dropbox, and like it. If I wanted to upgrade, I'd probably go with their Pro 50 account, 50gb for $99/year.
posted by ErikaB at 3:28 PM on June 3, 2010

For Linux, I am using, and really liking s3rsync.com. It is a variant of the Amazon cloud system which supports partial updates. That is, it makes it cheaper and faster to backup to the Amazon Cloud.

On my Macs, I use Mozy, but they do seem a bit flaky. I may convert them to s3rsync as well, on one of those days where I don't want to do client work.

For clients, I use rsync.net, since they are paying. It is more money, but less effort to understand.
posted by Invoke at 4:17 PM on June 3, 2010

Thirding BackBlaze. By default it backs up everything. $5 a month, unlimited continuous backup. No configuration required. Restore for free via web interface, or pay them extra to send you a DVD with the restore data.
posted by spherical_perceptions at 3:40 PM on June 4, 2010

Mozy is messing up again -

http://community.mozy.com/t5/Mozy-for-Windows/The-quot-REAL-REASON-quot-Mozy-backups-are-slow-intermittent-and/td-p/4324

they hadbig problesm 2 months ago. I'm sick of them & would recommend someone else
posted by lalochezia at 11:33 AM on July 18, 2010

I have actually quit mozy. don't use them.
posted by lalochezia at 3:03 PM on July 29, 2010

I'm way late to this party, but nevertheless, let me throw in another vote for rsync.net - I've been a customer for a few years now, and have had zero problems. Plus their privacy policy is unparallelled, as is their support.
posted by namewithoutwords at 9:36 AM on January 9, 2011