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online file backup service roundup

· blogger

I’m in the market for an online backup service for my files. I had a hard drive die at work recently, and would be devastated if that happenned at home. I’m too lazy to burn DVD’s every so often, not to mention i’d have to store them somewhere else anyways in order to have true protection (if my house burns down, i’d loose anything anyways).

Hence, online backup is the solution!! Heres a quick rundown of some options, and my initial thoughts.

My needs:

  • Photos

  • Music

  • Misc Data

  • Access from multiple computers, windows and mac, and ideally phone

  • Would like access from the web, and to send files/directories to friends

Sugar Sync

  • Mutli computers, no extra cost

  • They have mobile access

  • Can share files with friends via static and hidden links (ie your files are browsable)

  • They have a free trial, and decent pricing (premium 60gb for 100$/year)

  • Lots of good info on their site, including lots of details about how their s/w operates

  • Windows and Mac versions

Mozy

  • Unlimited backup is one computer only - hence the 4.95 is deceiving

  • Mention of gzip/rsync,etc. on their site makes me think for a savvy user they’d be good, but…

  • Its hard to find details of what you can actually do with their software!

  • Block level incremental backup sounds great… but really, most of my files will never change

iDrive

  • Excellent pricing 150gb for 4.95 a month

  • Good looking interface - focus on restore seems weird, and one of the main options from the web gui is “Enter your Credit Card”…?

  • Stores 30 past versions of your files! This is a great feature, even if you muck with stuff, or delete it, you can still retrieve.

Carbonite

  • Immediately turned off from their website - using fear to sell, not cool.

  • They say they backup your files twice… HA!! If they’re using a reasonable encryption algorithm, this is pointless, and hence either they don’t know what they’re doing, or they’re doing something non-standard. Either way i don’t need to investigate these guys any further.

Backblaze

  • Cute little intro, windows and mac is obvious from site

  • Backs up everything, ala mac’s time machine. I think i need more control than this…

  • However, its only 50$/year - mabye this is the way to go?

  • Its a new product, hard to say i’d trust all my data with it.

EVault

  • No pics of their software, or mention of its web capabilities - no go.

  • Looks like it will meet my needs - 59$ year

  • I actually tried this a while back, but they had some downtime and the client crashed a couple times… not sure if i should go back

Any thoughts or experiences out there? I’m leaning towards trying sugarsync’s demo on one computer, and perhaps backblaze on another one.

Update 1
-Some good comments on techcrunch about online backup services.
-iDrive requires a credit card to signup - makes it a no go
-JungleDisk is another option. Pay per use is interesting.

Update 2

  • My goodness, sugarsync doesn’t seem to support my external usb drive!!! YIKES!! I was very close to purchasing, but without this support this is useless to me! I guess its back to the drawing board, i’ll have to re-evaluate to ensure what i choose had this (i assumed an external drive would be transparent, i guess not).