Online storage services

[jazzstan]

This topic was touched on in some other threads over the last few months, but I'd like to drill down a bit deeper. From my first round of research I've found there are two flavors: Back-up and Storage.

The back-up services are automatic - meaning they run in the background and automatically upload any new or changed files from the users pre-selected list of target folders on the main drive of a machine. That doesn't sound that good to me on a couple of levels - I'm not keen on background CPU usage, and I might want to keep archival copies of stuff from my monster USB drive, from memory sticks, from my laptop, etc. File size limits, and storage limits (in the 50G range) would be restrictive (I've got half that amount in my 2010 music directory alone!). This might be OK for my non-music machine.

The storage services sound like it would be more suited to large files and large volumes, but would require a user-initiated process to upload (which would work for me.) I even found a provider with unlimited storage, but with a mediocre review for customer service. My music machine is NOT connected to the internet (on purpose) so I'm thinking I could copymy music files to my 250G USB drive, and then I'd schelp the drive to my business PC and upload to the storage site.

Any first hand experience? Other thoughts?

[jonathanm]

Box.net is worth checking out. I only use the free "lite" part of the service, but they have quite a few features for a reasonable monthly fee.

[llama]

Hey Stan. I like sugarsync at www.sugarsync.com. You can do manual uploads or let it back up in the background you can also sync the files on all your machines and the files are always accessible either by phone or computer.. Very versatile. Also a good price on large storage capacity. Check out their site. I used to have box.net but found them a little pricey for large storage so recently I switch to sugarsync. I'm liking it so far.

Derek

[suzdoyle]

I'm quite interested in this, too. In my research so far, Mozy is one of the best for automatic backup.

But I'm more interested in basic Archive options at this point. Anyone got some suggestions? Box.net is something I use for collaboration -- but it seems a bit spendy for unlimited backup compared to the automatic backup services that have unlimited space.

Thanks!
Suz

[jazzstan]

4Shared, ADrive, AllMyData, Backblaze, Badongo, BeInSync, Box.net, Carbonite, CloudBerry, Ctera, DivShare, DriveHQ, Drop.io, Dropboks, DropBox.com, ElephantDrive, eSnips, FilesAnywhere, FolderShare, Gladinet, HostedFTP, iBackup, iDrive, in.solit.us, iStorage, JungleDisk, MediaFire, MediaMax, MegaUpload, Memopal, Mesh, MobileMe, Mozy, MyBloop, Omemo, Omnidrive, Online Storage Solutions, Openomy, OrbitFiles, SkyDrive, Steekr, Storagegate, SugarSync, SwapDrive, Syncplicity, Tilana Reserve, TrueShare, Wua.la, XDrive, Yahoo! Briefcase, Yuntaa, ZumoDrive,


Out on the web, I found a table of information with 34 columns of data (such as: Free Storage PLan, Basic Plan, Storage Amt (GB), Pricing, Cost/GB/Month, Bandwidth, Max File Size, Online Storage(YN), Backup(YN), Sharing, ...etc)

I have it in an Excel spreadsheet. If anyone wants a copy, pm me.

[fusilierb]

I don't know how this compares to the other options but Google now allows you to store any type of file in Google docs. You get 1 Gig for free and can purchase much larger space for a pretty reasonable yearly fee. ie. 20 gigs is 5 dollars a year and 80 gigs is 20 dollars a year.

I don't use offsite backup services cause upload speeds are still so slow. So all my backups are sitting on external drives where they will be absolutely useless in the event of a major catastrophe.

[mazz]

If, like me, your music is 98% MIDI generated, you could store just your session files online. Session files are typically very small. If you augment your MIDI sessions with one or two live tracks, that's not that much data either. Sessions with large numbers of live, 24 bit tracks would take days to back up online and unless you had a dedicated computer doing that, the background processing could hinder the ability of your computer to process your music work. Not worth it, IMO. Until the US catches up with the rest of the world as far as residential broadband speeds, online backup is a non-starter for me. For someone storing Excel spreadsheets and word docs, it's ideal.

Get a couple of external hard drives and store one in someplace like the trunk of your car, your mom's house or at work, and rotate them out every week or so. Cheap, easy. 100% safe? Probably not. There are services that will drive by and swap out hard drives with you and take one to a secure storage facility. I'm not sure what that costs, but I'm not sure I generate enough data to make it worth it.

A "fireproof" safe might also be an option as would a hole in the back yard.

Cheers!

Mazz

[Casey H]

External drives with terrabytes of space are pretty cheap these days. Most come with software that allows you to schedule backups in the background when you want such as every night at 3am. I do that now. If you buy 2 such drives you can alternate backups between them and store one off-site so a fire or flood doesn't take out everything including your backup drive sitting next to your PC. (I'm at risk for that)....

Casey

[jazzstan]

....a hole in the back yard.

Mazz - that's where I keep the money the won't fit in the mattress. Not sure I wanna keep my back-up files there, too.

[t4mh]

....a hole in the back yard.

Mazz - that's where I keep the money the won't fit in the mattress. Not sure I wanna keep my back-up files there, too.

Mine's out there in a treasure chest. I have a map with an X...

Keith