Online Data Backup........

[mazz]

Anyone have any experience with this?I found this company and was wondering if anyone was using them or a comparable service (scroll down to unlimited data storage)?http://www.hiwired.com/services/Default.aspxLiving in earthquake country and starting to write professionally makes me think I need to protect my assets (and my ass!! ) and this company's price looks pretty darn good for unlimited storage.Another New Year's Resolution to add to the list!Cheers,Mazz

[gitarrero]

hey mazz,I'm currently going over the whole backup-thing as well - in times of bits and bytes it's just necessary.I've just checked out the offer of this company, but I think it's not very suitable for me personally:* my backup data would be something around 120 gb. it'd take a long time to upload that...* beside that theres an automatic upload (and maybe only uploading the files that have chanced) I don't really see a benefit compared to do it by myself: why not upload it to a secured folder of my webserver? files get stored there in a 3-way system and get backed up daily.* last but not least I don't like an internet connection and/or software with automatical timers on my music studio-PC. I'm not an expert in that, but as far as I know it can easely influence the reliability of the system.I think I'll continue with backups via the standard 3-way system (portable harddrive, another harddrive, dvds). blueray-disc would help, though cheers,martin

[matto]

It sounds great in theory. The problem I see is that in order to get back up and working quickly after a fatal system failure (whether caused by a natural disaster, house fire or simply a computer blowing up) I would need to store several hundred GBs remotely.How long would it take to retrieve, say, 600GB over the internet? My guess is too long to be getting back up and working "quickly"... matto

[mazz]

Networking is cool but both computers are still in the same physical location (or at least the same building). That kind of defeats my purpose although I hadn't thought about bringing a portable drive to the day gig. At least until I don't need the day gig anymore!! I agree that internet retrieval is going to be slow but I'm not working on 600G of material at any one time. Some of it will be cold storage, which means I don't need it right away, it's archived. But it does take a long time to get even 1G downloaded!I'm not talking about backing up my samples and applications although that might not be a bad idea in case the original discs are destroyed. That would suck pretty bad too!I'm not trying to be doom and gloom here but it's a concern with the growing collection of DVDs and hard drives I'm acquiring.Mazz

[sgs4u]

C K, you're a heckuva lot more than a pretty face. Great solution. Welcome to the Forum. Mazz, I hate to say it, but don't quit your day job quite yet, you still need a decent place to store back-ups...Quote:If you have a day job it might make sense - take the backup with you every day so it's effectively off site. I routinely leave backup drives at my office when I leave town -- I've suffered too many break-ins at home.

[anne]

Wow, C K - you live nearby AND your a mac user I just picked up a 500gb hard drive so I can keep one copy of all music in my house and in the studio in case of a break in or accident in one location. Mazz - do you have a mac? why not just get a .mac account as that supplies all your remote storage needs as well as some other functions for $99/ yr. I didn't remember what platform use for your music.

[ckbarlow]

Quote: C K, you're a heckuva lot more than a pretty face. Great solution. Welcome to the Forum. @ Steve: Canada DOES kick ass!

[matto]

Quote:I'm not talking about backing up my samples and applications although that might not be a bad idea in case the original discs are destroyed. That would suck pretty bad too!I'm not trying to be doom and gloom here but it's a concern with the growing collection of DVDs and hard drives I'm acquiring.MazzWell, the project files themselves are relatively small and easily backed up. For those this could work. Of course you could just keep a rewritable CD or two in your car or at work. Once the project is done, archive a DVD and send it to your mother .I am more concerned about applications and samples actually. Even if the CDs survive, most applications have probably gone thru several (downloaded) updates...and even if you were diligent enough to burn CDs of all of those, reinstalling/updating all the apps would take a LONG time. Same with the samples, which all have to reside in the same place on your drives(s) or you'll be using "search samples" on every cue you have to revisit.What I think you'd need to get back up and running quickly is an exact copy of all of your drives on (a) remotely kept hard drive(s).That way all you'd need to do is buy a new machine, put in enough drives, partition if necessary, then copy your backup harddisc(s) onto the new machine's and reauthorize all the software. This would still take a couple of days at least, but it would be relatively quick and painless...

[davewalton]

Quote:Even if the CDs survive, most applications have probably gone thru several (downloaded) updates...and even if you were diligent enough to burn CDs of all of those, reinstalling/updating all the apps would take a LONG time. I'll vouch personally for that. I'd adjust it slightly to read "reinstalling/updating all the apps would take a L---O----N---G time".

[ragani]

Hey Mazz,This is a great thread, and something I know I am always trying to better perfect. At present, I keep a working copy plus a back up here at my studio, and I send one updated drive off-site (done at the end of each week). The only challenge with that process is-- there is always one day a week where all my drives are at my studio (on the day that the off-site one is brought home for back-up). I don't really care how long an off-site one would take to upload, as I don't ever intend to need to use that one. It's really only there for emergency, in case of some real disaster at the home system site. So I will just be thankful to have the off-site system to recover data. However, I would love to find something that could be done out of town, as any weather disaster to my studio would likely affect my off-site as well (it's only 1 mile away). You have earthquakes, we have tornados, floods, and blizzards... So keep us posted if you (or anyone) has any tries or experience with backup storage companies. I'm always looking to improve my process for backup storage!Raags