Back me up on this one
March 5, 2009 8:36 PM Subscribe
What is the best off site backup solution for me?
I am interested in off site backup, but I am having trouble finding the right solution for my needs. Specifically, I am looking for the cheapest solution that offers unlimited backup and will backup my networked drives. I store my media files on an NAS drive and services like Mozy and Carbonite will not allow me to backup a networked drive. JungleDisk appears to do this, but is considerably more expensive (we're talking 200gb of storage at $.15 per month). Is JungleDisk my only realistic option, or is there something else out there that I am missing?
I am interested in off site backup, but I am having trouble finding the right solution for my needs. Specifically, I am looking for the cheapest solution that offers unlimited backup and will backup my networked drives. I store my media files on an NAS drive and services like Mozy and Carbonite will not allow me to backup a networked drive. JungleDisk appears to do this, but is considerably more expensive (we're talking 200gb of storage at $.15 per month). Is JungleDisk my only realistic option, or is there something else out there that I am missing?
Why can't you map the network share as a drive then use Mozy?
posted by wongcorgi at 9:04 PM on March 5, 2009
posted by wongcorgi at 9:04 PM on March 5, 2009
Syncback + Dreamhost? (Or some other cheap webhost?)
More details here.
posted by twins named Lugubrious and Salubrious at 9:08 PM on March 5, 2009
More details here.
posted by twins named Lugubrious and Salubrious at 9:08 PM on March 5, 2009
1) Get an old computer off craigslist for 25-50 bucks, slap a big hard drive in it, throw any linux distro on it.
2) Set up NoIP or another dyndns client, so you've got an address you can reach the server at
3) Set up rsync (or one of it's many wrappers) to do nightly backups.
4) Store the whole thing in your parent's basement and pay them 25 bucks per year for the electricity you're using. (replace parent with friend, relative - anyone who has high-speed internet that you can trust).
This will be faster if you copy your data to the big hard drive first - then all you have to transfer is incremental changes.
posted by chrisamiller at 9:16 PM on March 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
2) Set up NoIP or another dyndns client, so you've got an address you can reach the server at
3) Set up rsync (or one of it's many wrappers) to do nightly backups.
4) Store the whole thing in your parent's basement and pay them 25 bucks per year for the electricity you're using. (replace parent with friend, relative - anyone who has high-speed internet that you can trust).
This will be faster if you copy your data to the big hard drive first - then all you have to transfer is incremental changes.
posted by chrisamiller at 9:16 PM on March 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Sorry, I should have been clearer, JungleDisk is $.15 per GB per month, so $30 a month, plus the upload and download fees.
Mozy does not recognize network shares, even after they are mapped as drives. I know this both through experience, and through the many people on the internet who have complained about this lack of functionality in Mozy.
posted by soy_renfield at 9:19 PM on March 5, 2009
Mozy does not recognize network shares, even after they are mapped as drives. I know this both through experience, and through the many people on the internet who have complained about this lack of functionality in Mozy.
posted by soy_renfield at 9:19 PM on March 5, 2009
I use Mozy. But I use timed scripts on each of my network shares to copy all the backup-able files to one server, then back that one server up to Mozy. I get an extra layer of redundancy that way.
posted by Ookseer at 10:42 PM on March 5, 2009
posted by Ookseer at 10:42 PM on March 5, 2009
This might not handle all of your media needs, but if its just photos and videos you can get a Pro membership at Flickr for $24.95 / year and upload as much as you like. Set everything to private and its the same as a hosted backup, albeit without access to a file system. There are probably applications out there that will automatically uploaded for you, but I don't know about actual automated backup. Just a thought, possibly worth investigating because its so cheap relatively speaking.
posted by pkingdesign at 11:26 PM on March 5, 2009
posted by pkingdesign at 11:26 PM on March 5, 2009
$0.15/gb per month is Amazon's base rate for S3, and I've seen well informed analysis that suggests it might actually be a loss-leader at that price. Very few people are operating storage pools the size of Amazon, so it is pretty unlikely that anyone else is going to have the same economies of scale to have much chance to undercut them. Amazon stores 3 copies, I believe, so you might find it for less from someone who has less redundancy. Anyway, point is, you may not do a lot better than that price.
posted by Good Brain at 12:11 AM on March 6, 2009
posted by Good Brain at 12:11 AM on March 6, 2009
Backups are only as good as your ability to recover the data when you need it. If you want cheaper than JungleDisk, you'll probably have to put a lot of effort into building and/or testing the system. There are other online providers than the three you mention, but I can't vouch for any of them. I was going to do some research, but JungleDisk worked for my needs.
DataDepositBox.com
Crashplan
Mozy
Carbonite
JungleDisk/S3
ConnectedTLM
DropBox
Syncplicity
SugarSync
MediaMax (defunct)
ElephantDrive
Box.net
iDrive
DriveHQ
connected.com
FirstBackup
Acpana Data Deposit
GoDaddy online file folder
iBackup.com
adrive.com
allmydata.com
SpiderOak.com
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:21 AM on March 6, 2009
DataDepositBox.com
Crashplan
Mozy
Carbonite
JungleDisk/S3
ConnectedTLM
DropBox
Syncplicity
SugarSync
MediaMax (defunct)
ElephantDrive
Box.net
iDrive
DriveHQ
connected.com
FirstBackup
Acpana Data Deposit
GoDaddy online file folder
iBackup.com
adrive.com
allmydata.com
SpiderOak.com
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:21 AM on March 6, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by turgid dahlia at 8:57 PM on March 5, 2009