[Mightyburner]

I posted this in another thread but no one commented so let's do it again.

I know virtually nothing about hard drives, RAIDS, NAS and such.    Due to me having trouble with a backup hard drive, I decided to use Carbonite to backup my computer.  Isn't that theoretically the same thing as using a backup HD or a RAID but just using an off site server?   

The only real advantage I can think of for using Carbonite is that it doesn't have a file limit and being off site I don't have to worry about fire or water damage to my home.  FYI - My digital collection is a combination of FLAC files (80%) or downloaded MP3's if that makes a difference.

Somebody enlighten me please.

[bpape]

It's certainly fine.  While there's no file number limit, I'm quite sure you pay by size - which for a music collection can get pretty big.

The other thing is that backing up and retrieving over a remote network is going to be a lot slower. 

You also don't have the luxury of taking an external drive with you to a friend's house.

Bryan

[WGH]

I don't use Carbonite, but yes it is pretty much the same as using a backup drive. It is automatic so your backups will always be current but you will only be backing up your data. I use the free backup from Qwest for my business files and have a USB drive with copy's of my music.

Once a week I make an image file of the complete C drive. I can use the image file to restore the C drive in case of a catastrophic drive failure, that way I can be up and running on a new drive with all programs and data intact in a few hours like nothing happened.

Wayne 

[sleepysurf]

The key is to have some kind of backup system.  Even though my ReadyNAS+ has XRAID redundancy, I also use Elephantdrive.com, for offsite backup.  It's only $50/yr for unlimited storage capacity, and uses Amazon's S3 cloud for backup.  I've learned (the hard way) that with 900+ ripped albums, you can never have too much redundancy!

[Len_Dreyer]

Mightyburner/Sleepysurf,

How long did it take to backup your files the first time and approximately how many albums were backed up. I realize that after the first backup only subsequent changes are backed up. I'd like to get an idea of how much time it would take to restore in case of a failure. Thanks.

Len

[sleepysurf]

I'm not sure how long it took, as it runs in the background.  It's relatively slow, maybe 15-20 mins per FLAC album.  I don't really care how slow, as it's my secondary backup.

[jqp]

A web backup is better than nothing...but remember that you are completely at their mercy..besides charging outrageous prices for high volume of storage in the future, they can go out of business, or go offline when you need your backed up data. I don't see how this is a sustainable business model for the long run for these companies. I guess as long as lots of people don't back up lots of data and there is not lots of churn, there may be a profit margin in it. Its easy to collect money to backup data for one or two years, but where will they be in ten years?

With 1.5 Terrabyte external drives dropping below $129 I would try for redundancy at home, with offsite stoage of a hard disk/disk media in a safety deposit box for your most crucial data. Data is not 'going away' so its best to invest in managing it!

[Nick77]

Anyone have any experience with Time Warner Roadrunner "Safe Storage"?
Its free with my Roadrunner account but i have been skeptial about it. But its probably better than what i have now (nothing)

[Nick77]

double post