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  #1  
Old 02-02-2009, 09:59 AM
Skald the Rhymer Skald the Rhymer is offline
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Recommend me a good web-based file backup service

I'm paranoid about losing files, as much of my income derives from freelance writing; though I have a 9 to 5 job now, there's been times when ALL my income was from writing, so I've always been religiious about keeping multiple copies of anything important. I had been using Yahoo! Briefcase, but they're phasing that out.

Anybody care to recommend a better one? I wouldn't mind hearing anecdotes about good and bad services.

Thanks!
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  #2  
Old 02-02-2009, 10:59 AM
Quartz Quartz is offline
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Not what you request, but how about getting a USB HDD and putting a backup of all your files in your car?
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  #3  
Old 02-02-2009, 11:00 AM
Santo Rugger Santo Rugger is offline
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I recently bought a WD Passport Elite. The hard drive comes with backup software, as well as online file backup. I'm not sure how much space you need, but it does it automatically for whatever folders you select once per day. It's worked well for me so far.

Last edited by Santo Rugger; 02-02-2009 at 11:01 AM.
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  #4  
Old 02-02-2009, 03:15 PM
Shagnasty Shagnasty is offline
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www.mozy.com is the best by far and it is free for the first few gigabytes. It is only $5 a month for unlimited backups. Be warned that the initial backup can take a week if you want to upload, say, 80 gb but that is a one time deal and you can still use your computer just fine. Nightly incremental backups only take a few minutes. I successfully did a near full restore from it and it worked with no problems. It is a legitimate company and many of us recommend it.

Last edited by Shagnasty; 02-02-2009 at 03:16 PM.
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  #5  
Old 02-02-2009, 03:20 PM
Skald the Rhymer Skald the Rhymer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Quartz View Post
Not what you request, but how about getting a USB HDD and putting a backup of all your files in your car?
You underestimate the depth of my paranoia.

I have a HD backup in the glove compartment. But the crazy part of of me thinks, "Okay, what if the house blows up and a piece of debris from the explosion lands on my car? What then, hotshot? What then!?!!?!?"

Thus I like to be prepared. I'm like Batman with 0.000% of the money, 10% of the assholery, and a wife.

Last edited by Skald the Rhymer; 02-02-2009 at 03:21 PM.
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  #6  
Old 02-02-2009, 03:54 PM
Scarlett67 Scarlett67 is offline
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Carbonite comes highly recommended by several tech gurus on Copyediting-L.

Me, I just rotate two external USB drives between home and my safe-deposit box (which also contains extra cables and backup software). If a meteor took out the house, I'd be out a few weeks' worth of data at most. (But I'd have other problems . . .)
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  #7  
Old 02-02-2009, 04:01 PM
Skald the Rhymer Skald the Rhymer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scarlett67 View Post
Carbonite comes highly recommended by several tech gurus on Copyediting-L.

Me, I just rotate two external USB drives between home and my safe-deposit box (which also contains extra cables and backup software). If a meteor took out the house, I'd be out a few weeks' worth of data at most. (But I'd have other problems . . .)

You're saner than I am.
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  #8  
Old 02-02-2009, 04:09 PM
Dewey Finn Dewey Finn is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shagnasty View Post
www.mozy.com is the best by far and it is free for the first few gigabytes. It is only $5 a month for unlimited backups. Be warned that the initial backup can take a week if you want to upload, say, 80 gb but that is a one time deal and you can still use your computer just fine. Nightly incremental backups only take a few minutes. I successfully did a near full restore from it and it worked with no problems. It is a legitimate company and many of us recommend it.
I also use Mozy. And as mentioned by Scarlett67, Carbonite is another, similar service. (There are others but I think they are the big two, with similar offerings.)
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  #9  
Old 02-02-2009, 11:40 PM
gaffa gaffa is offline
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If you can hold on for a bit, Google is on the verge of offering GDrive, their on-line, presumably free, file storage system.
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  #10  
Old 02-03-2009, 06:39 AM
tetranz tetranz is offline
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I'm happy with Jungle Disk which stores the data on Amazon S3.
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