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Backups, Cloud or Home?

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Jade Sinapu:
in relation to a thread starred by old rabbit, re. abti-virus, the topic of backups came to my mind.

So , what method of backup do you use?
Specifically, do you use a cloud based backup, or do you do something at your location?

Like this...
I use 2 external 1 terabyte spinning drives, which are off line all the time, unless I need to backup.  Backups are manual and can take time.

Super important data is backed up to the drives, and then to M-Disk BluRay disks.
I also keep a backup of many of those same files on USB removable media.
In fact I also have 1 spare Blue-Ray M-Disk Capable DVD/CD drive in a bag.  This is for the following reasons.
If there is a fire, I grab the data disks, and hard drives as well as flash drive.  The M-Disks are in a bag with the spare M-Disk BluRay drive.  This way I have a drive and the media.  So I can read them later.  This plan came to being, after I realized I was that one guy on earth who actually bought M-Disks.

But my weakness is that I do have to do a manual backup.  This is because I choose to leave my external hard drives off so that nothing can get written to them without me knowing.  Again, I can be paranoid.

I do not like Cloud based ideas at all, but I know its the way of the future.  And I am a backwards person I guess.
Cloud storage brings to mind the concept of ransom. After all, you turned over your duty to protect your stuff to a stranger.  They can raise rates, cancel services, sell data, sell services, go out of business.  The only thing I have on cloud based storage is junk I can lose.

Around here I heard of a moving company that swindled a lady out of thousands by holding her stuff ransom.  It happens.

For me, if I lose my data, oops, and I will work to avoid that.  If a cloud location loses my data, who do I complain to?

Movian:
as mentioned in the other thread briefly I use a cloud based solution (Carbonite).

As with any solution you are right it's not perfect, if you have a slow internet connection it can take literally weeks to get your initial upload complete...

To address some of the issues you mentioned.

Reliability, this is something that will vary company it company and it's always a concernt  "Wif ill this company still be here 6 months from now?"  "Will they screw me over and hold my data hostage?"

You can ask similar things of the hardware you purchase "WIll the hardware last?  will the plates crash in 6 months?"  you purchase your backup drives from a manufacturer you trust to have good quality control ... just as with cloud backups you would go with a company with a track record.

as with everything there are pros and cons to both cloud and local backups.

you mentioned if there is a fire you will grab the disks, what if you can't get to the room because of smoke?  what if instead of a fire there is a break in and your PC and disks are all taken  this would be where cloud storage shines.

on another note  I don't know about all services but I know Carbonite encrypts your data with two seperate encryption passes, and if you wish you can manage your own encryption keys so that Carbonite will have no way of accessing the contents of your backup making sure its secure   (I work with Health Information so I did some investigation on this specifically).

I believe it also has options for supporting an automated local backup in addition to the cloud based one but I have not looked into that as much, and depends on the license you get for the service...

Kobuk:
I have an external 1Tb drive and 2 USB sticks that I back stuff up to. I do not trust or like any of that Cloud type stuff.

cause the rat:
I have an external 3Tb drive that backs up everything. But you have to on a Mac. Apple will decide to upgrade a program. Doing so they can wipe out all your saved data within that program. Apple computers absolutely suck. Apple's mindset for those who use their products absolutely sucks. A few years back Apple decided to update they're DAW program Garage Band. I was given no warning. All I did was click on the program to open a project and instantly it started up upgrade. Wiping out hours of my music. Hundreds of hours of work gone. Apple doesn't need a virus. Apple is a virus.

Michen_S:
Currently all I have backed up are some files I would like to keep under all circumstances, including a few important one. Not that it matters much, as I need a new laptop soon anyways.

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