Backup and Storage Software

[Warrenden]

Hi All

I have been using a on-line auto backup service but after the first year they want to jack-up the price from £40 to £100+ and I was thinking of purchasing a 3Tb hard drive and some automatic backup software. Can anybody recommend a good software system.

Many thanks

Phil

[Tigger]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

check out Western Digital my cloud, 3/5/6Tb drives and once set up you can forget about it and will auto backup as often as you want

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products2.aspx?id=1140

[Bhuna]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

Can I ask who it was with so we all dont fall into the same trap and go with these people (was it in the terms and conditions?).

Thanks.

[Tigger]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

Can I ask who it was with so we all dont fall into the same trap and go with these people (was it in the terms and conditions?).

Thanks.

but how many people read the T&C ... I'm guilty of not

[Bhuna]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

I was asking it from a defending point of view than a blaming him for not reading them.

I read the majority of my terms and conditions I sign up to - I admit not all, but a quick skim through can point out the sh.t

I watched a program the other day about T&Cs - apparently one company put in their terms and conditions a £5000 prize to be claimed - it took 4 years to be claimed - it was done as a tester to see who reads the terms and conditions.

[Tigger]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

I watched a program the other day about T&Cs - apparently one company put in their terms and conditions a £5000 prize to be claimed - it took 4 years to be claimed - it was done as a tester to see who reads the terms and conditions.

LOL.. great - I'm off the read the T&C's now

I agree with you, would be nice to know which company is doing this "name & shame" and I really should read them more often

[2Beers]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

I still wouldn't trust my backups solely to a hard drive as they are still an electro-mechanical device.

I used to repair pc's and the number of customers the used to bring in these usb hard drives that had failed looking to get their data recovered from them and the look on their faces when you told them that data recovery would cost from £700 upwards.

[Tigger]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

I still wouldn't trust my backups solely to a hard drive as they are still an electro-mechanical device.

I used to repair pc's and the number of customers the used to bring in these usb hard drives that had failed looking to get their data recovered from them and the look on their faces when you told them that data recovery would cost from £700 upwards.

agree, I'm paranoid about backups as I had a HD die on me 7yrs ago with a backup that was 4 weeks old - took me a week to catch up and that was before I was into photography - I use three backups, 2 local ( Western Digital & Mac Book ) and one remote server - in my view you can't have too many backups

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

I bought a NAS with 6tb of disk inbit, mirrored so I have some redundancy. I'm also going to add at least one external 3tb disk for a secondary backup and am looking at amazon for offline backup assuming it's not too expensive...

[MX5]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

Having had a couple of HDDs fail at work within days of each other (they were server grade HDDs) and a friend had a SSHD fail and I've also suffered HDDs and CD/DVD failures and I've read stories about Cloud providers going bust ... and Cloud systems not being available 99.8% ... it is difficult to know what to recommend.

I run a NAS with mirrored 3TB HDD (NAS grade ones) with a secondary backup to a portable HDD connected to the NAS (ans a tertiary backup ... another HDD in the NAS). This lot mirrors the desktop. Syncing is done using Microsofts Sync-Toy. As with any backup system you need to check on a regular basis that you can actually retrieve files from it ... just to check all is well.

Oh the most important item ... a good UPS to ensure that power is maintained to the NAS (and Router in my case) if the electricity is turned off. If that is a protracted outage then the UPS tells the NAS to power down when it's down to 10% capacity. Mine lasts about 60 minutes before it gets to the state.

[Warrenden]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

Hi Bhuna

The company is MyPcBackup.com I started a year ago with a free trial and at the end it came in at £70/yr so I cancelled it and they came back at £38/yr and now after a year they want £12/month so I have cancelled it.

I must say that I like the look of the western Digital system.

Many thanks

Phil

[Tigger]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

I must say that I like the look of the western Digital system.

for a easy to use back up its very good -

Pretty sure i saw some good deals on Amazon, so maybe worth while checking it out

[antoeknee]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

Currently have 2 x 3TB drives connected to my photo PC.

Save all work to one and use a free bit of software, Syncback, to backup this drive to the other drive every day.
As this is an incremental backup so doesn't take too long.

[Bhuna]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

Thanks Phil.

I have got a WD MyCloud and a WD MyBookLive (there earlier version and what is now a MyCloud I believe), both connected to wired network.
My laptop backs up to the WD MYCloud plus I save photos etc there - the MYCloud then backs up to the WD MyBookLive.

I also use the 2TB Cloud option from Knowhow (PCWorld / Currys - it cost me £30 for the year and covers my laptop, my sons laptop, my desktop (attached to the tele) and can cover 2 other devices if I want - it wont cover NAS drives but will for an extra amount - not looked into.

I am however revisiting my structure currently and considering changing it about a bit.

[AndyA]

Re: Backup and Storage Software

My backup system is a bit Heath Robinson, but it works in a fashion.
I use some free software called FBackup, which syncs a 'Final' (edited) image folder from my Win 8 desktop, to another internal hard drive and also to a 'sync' folder on Box.com. Box offer a free version, which I think gives the user around 10GB space.

When I remember to, I copy my PC's Photo folder to a 500GB USB flash drive.