My dd is going off to college and we rec'd a letter about an offsite backup service, which sounds like a good thing to have, its $50 for the year. Does anyone have experience with these types of services? Thanks! https://www.campusbackup.org/NCG6/newfeatures.aspx
Bandmom, at work I use Dell Data Safe. When I got my last Dell computer, it came with a free year of offsite backup. Then we decided to renew when it ran out and it is $29 per year. I have it set up to automatically backup each day at 3:00 pm. Bren
1. The maximum expected storage space you get for $50 is 2.0 Gig if you get a 50% compression ratio during transfer. 1 Gig is your alloted space. Don't count on the compression ratio. 2. Any file extensions outside of their list can not be backed up. Picture files are not allowed. (Read the Technical Specifications / File types.) Depending on her major this may be an important factor. A few not accepted: Autocad, Corel Draw, Adobe (other than PDF), and many image or vector related softwares. I would suggest buying the cheapest 2.5 dirve (120 Gig are $40) and an enclosure ($12). It fits in your shirt pocket. Plenty of free backup software on the web. You now have your own backup. If you need help finding the parts & software PM me.
Ddrdan has very valid advice. I would like to add one shortcoming with his method. Offsite backups in a different physical location offer protection from natural disasters that you don't receive when the backup media is stored in the same location as the computer. That being said, i personally have my backups in the same office as my computer. If you do go with an external drive, don't leave it connected all of the time to the computer to minimize possible damage from surges and or viruses.
There are also a lot of free services out there. http://skydrive.live.com/ http://www.idrive.com/ Sometimes the best things in life are free Just do a little research to see which one suits your needs the best
Nothing in life is free!!!!!!!!!! Be careful and look at the terms and condition. Why do I get the feeling the "free" places are mining data.
I've never been a fan of voluntarily handing over all of my personal data to a stranger. Even if they're legit, sites get hacked all the time and data gets stolen.
With anything in life you have to be careful. I've always used online sites and haven't had any issues. I also wouldn't put up information such as my ssn, bank accts, etc. But for school documents and photos, free online sites are great. If you are that worried, you can always password protect your documents as extra precautions. So for casual online back up they are great, but just use common sense and don't back up personal account information.
What about online banking? Your point is valid that even legit sites get hacked and data gets stolen but I still do all my banking online and wouldn't want to go back to the old way of doing things. Everyone has to make a decision what is best for them.
True, but.... A proper off-site backup (using a 3rd party) will encrypt the data on your PC before it is sent to the storage facility. The encryption methods used by backup systems is very strong, and some meet HIPAA requirements for storing data that contains personal health information. So, the backup site would first have to be hacked and then the data encryption would have to be broken. In real life a user is much more likely to pick up a worm or malware on their PC and have information stolen that way rather than through cracking a backup site. Theives are lazy and take the path of least resistence!
Agreed. For homework and pictures, I personally don't lose any sleep over using a free online backup site. But I use common sense when it comes to doing anything that I have to worry about security
