Online Backup Limitations?

[BrightBiz]

Hi Everyone,

Life is so busy lately I don't get on here much at all, but recently my second external hard drive failed. It was only 3 months old and I am SO angry. Luckily I don't think it had anything life destroying on it, but I've got it in a the computer shop seeing if they can access the files.

It seems that many external drives have the same error, of not being recognised by systems after operating perfectly normal, so everyone take this as a warning!! I am just grateful I hadn't deleted any photos off our main computers or they'd be lost....

So, my question is, does anyone know if services such as carbonite or Mozy allow backup off usb externals that are attached to your computer? I read somewhere that they don't recognise external drives which makes me think twice about paying for that kind of service, but short of copying every individual file to cd or dvd I am not sure what other options I have!!

aaaahhhhh the joys of an "all technicological age".....

[Adam Randall]

Try restoring 100GB of data over the internet, it will not happen very fast.

So always choose a provider that can get you a disk delivered to your door the same day, this means picking someone in your own capital city.

Other than that, there is no real disadvantage to online backups.

The risk of something happening with an online backup is far less than the risk of your self setup backup working properly.

Ultimately you should have both.

The only decent backup is one that is checked regularly.
Biggest mistake with backups is the set and forget way of thinking.


Some Backup Videos from a rather charming, top bloke.

Online backup 1

Online backups 2

[Burgo]

I have been using portable hard drive for backup but I have discovered that the humble memory stick withh do just as good a job for smaller quantities.

I recently put all the photos of my overseas trip on a 2gb but a friend of mine told me that he has recently put 20yrs work on a 16 GB.

Handy back up tool that you keep on the key ring with your car keys.

( now where did I put those keys again?)

[Carbonite Australia]

Carbonite's current version will not do external drives. We will with the SMB version that comes out later this year. I do believe that Mozy Pro does handle external drives, but you pay by the MB/GB, so its not a flat fee. Our SMB product will be similar.

The only real limitation is the download speed as mentioned by another reply and possibly your ISP plan throttling your speed, if you pass your limit.

What I would also be careful of is going with a completely free option because there is always a catch. ie service & support. If your data is important to you then you should be prepared to pay to have it backed up.

Having a hard disk delivery option is great but if you compare what local operators charge for online backup with Carbonite and/or Mozy, you might think twice about this feature.

[Backup.com.au]

Backup.com.au's online backup service can backup data from a USB drive, networked shared folder or even multiple computers from multiple locations with the same account.

Like Adam Randall suggested, with your data warehoused within Australia we can provide overnight delivery of your data to most parts of Australia if there is a disaster.

[snicho]

As you have already identified, hard drives do fail. External drives that are physically moved around fail even more often. But any hard drive that is subject to physical impact is a potential point of failure (ie. that laptop you take when visiting clients, or between home and office).

When looking at backup limitations, it's worth considering what risk you are exposed to through downtime caused by failed hard drives. IT is not my core business - I focus on assisting SMEs with improving business processes. Often this crosses into the area of data maintenance and backups. Given the market space I address, I've seen countless instances where backups have unknowingly failed, backup jobs that din't backup "complete" sets of data, and backup media that's been corrupted or physically damaged.

Whatever solution you adopt, it needs to regularly be tested. This has to be a core part of your risk management. And when looking at all the different solutions, consider what impact a failed desktop or laptop hard drive would have if that desktop or laptop is your main or only computer. How long would it take to get that, or any computer functional again? Hours? Days? Could you even reinstall all those applications? What about all those emails (often forgotten in backups)?

Instead of backing up your "My Documents" folder, consider one of the backup options for your whole hard drive that can then be restored in the event of a hardware failure. These systems are more comprehensive, provide greater peace of mind, and remain very affordable (particularly for SMEs). It should also get you back up and running in the same day (downtime could be as little as an hour).

In the current "technological age", and given the current price of hard drives, backup systems that focus on "disaster recovery" should at least be considered as an option.

Stephen

[Carbonite Australia]

I sent a twitter message about this today in fact. Regardless of what system or process for backing up you choose, you need a plan that requires you to test. Otherwise even your online backup may have stopped working or the subscription has expired or what happens most often is that you think a folder has been selected for backup and it isn't. If you have a plan to test these things then you shouldn't have to spend days working at 50% capacity.

[Emroy]

Ahh, I experienced this one first hand myself a little while back.

Turns out in my case it was an issue with MYOB corrupting files, which caused the external hard drive to go into some cyclic error, or something like that.

I took it to Harvey Norman and they were absolutely exceptional in helping me get it sorted (I think I also called Chris Bates at about midnight too, hehe).

Harvey Norman taught me some tricks to get my data off and replaced same day with an upgraded version of the old Hard Drive.

Haven't had any problems since, but now have two backups in place which makes me feel more secure.

- Jake

[Carbonite Australia]

Great to see you got it sorted and are now backing it all up. Its also good news to see the guys and Harvey helping you out. Good customers service makes you want to spread the word.

[soliddata]

Hi all,

I only just noticed this thread. Our service can backup from external hard drives or any other attached storage. As long as the location can be accessed from the computer where the backup software is being run, it can back it up.

Adam made a couple of good points, and yes you should choose a provider that has their data stored in Australia and who provides hard drive recoveries when needed.

You should always watch your backup reports every day as Adam mentioned. One of the benefits of online backup over traditional tape solutions is the added transparency into the process, so you as a business owner knows what is going on. You need to utilise that and make sure you know if your backups are working.

I congratulate anyone here who is doing any backup at all - because you are a step ahead of many who put their head in the sand.

Well done.

Kevin