Cloud backup alternatives... MozyHome Free ending

[pb4uski]

I couldn't find a recent thread on the topic so I created a new one. I've been using MozyHome's free service for my modest cloud backup needs for a number of years and today received this:

Hi there,

Thank you for being a loyal Mozy customer. Carbonite completed its acquisition of Mozy on March 19, 2018. We want to let you know about changes to our backup solutions that will affect you. We will be ending support for the MozyHome Free edition effective April 15, 2019.

On April 15, your MozyHome Free backup account will be irretrievably deleted. Should you have any files in your MozyHome Free backup that you wish to restore, you must do so prior to April 15, 2019.

What do you all use for cloud backup?... prefer free but a modest charge for a good service would be fine.

Thanks.

 

[braumeister]

For those of us in the Apple ecosystem, iCloud is great. But it costs.

50 GB for $0.99/month
200 GB for $2.99/month
2 TB for $9.99/month

 

[Bflotomny]

Google is 15GB Free, in addition to Google Photos

 

[COcheesehead]

My wife has hugh storage needs and uses these guys. https://www.idrive.com

I have much smaller needs and use iCloud for 99 cents a month.

 

[wmc1000]

Googled Drive has worked great for our needs and makes it easy to get a file on any computer I use anywhere.

 

[audreyh1]

I only use back-ups at home with Time Machine and multiple (redundant) backup drives. I don't like having all my personal files on any cloud.

I do use iCloud for sharing some contact info between iOS devices and I do use their iCloud File System to store some non-sensitive documents temporarily to share between devices when needed.

 

[audreyh1]

For those of us in the Apple ecosystem, iCloud is great. But it costs.

50 GB for $0.99/month
200 GB for $2.99/month
2 TB for $9.99/month

5GB for free.

 

[cathy63]

I use the 1TB of space that comes with an MS Office 365 subscription ($100/yr). I just sync my Windows documents folder using OneDrive so it's accessible from my iPad, Android phone and other computers. My phone also automatically uploads its photos to both Google photos and OneDrive.

In addition, I do a regular backup to an external drive once in a while.

 

[pb4uski]

We are Win10 and Android focused here so no iCloud for me. I do need to go through and re-examine what I'm backing up.. mostly just tax return pdf, Quicken files and some other Word and Excel files for the most part from what I remember.

FWIW, MozyHome has performed flawlessly... I've only needed to recove one file in the last 5 years... I messed up a key file that I use regularly and just went in and restored the backup... it was easy peasy.

 

[razztazz]

I only use back-ups at home with Time Machine and multiple (redundant) backup drives. I don't like having all my personal files on any cloud.

I am still proceeding along this line. Lots of back-ups but all in my house on different drives. But... I always worry about how my stuff will survive and how I will reconstitute in the event of fire, flood or burglary and a total heist of everything.

 

[audreyh1]

I am still proceeding along this line. Lots of back-ups but all in my house on different drives. But... I always worry about how my stuff will survive and how I will reconstitute in the event of fire, flood or burglary and a total heist of everything.

We use offsite storage for backup drives in a bank safe deposit box. That’s the standard procedure for handling location risk. We swap out backup drives often enough as we swap out backup drives regularly and we store most offsite when we travel.

 

[upset264]

I use the 1TB of space that comes with an MS Office 365 subscription ($100/yr). I just sync my Windows documents folder using OneDrive so it's accessible from my iPad, Android phone and other computers. My phone also automatically uploads its photos to both Google photos and OneDrive.

In addition, I do a regular backup to an external drive once in a while.

I use OneDrive also. Three computers, ipad and iphone.

 

[razztazz]

We use offsite storage for backup drives in a bank safe deposit box. That’s the standard procedure for handling location risk. We swap out backup drives often enough as we swap out backup drives regularly and we store most offsite when we travel.

I'm with ya on that. Whenever I leave the house for any length of time I put the removable hards in the bank vault and take the essential-essentials on a thumb drive with me in some sort of protected mode. But I can't be running to the bank vault every Friday to swap out hard drives. It's purposefully kind of far from my house. Altho if you want to do those logistics that would make sure you are never more than one week's worth of data behind

It's the 21st century already,c'mon people!

 

[Midpack]

I only use back-ups at home with Time Machine and multiple (redundant) backup drives. I don't like having all my personal files on any cloud.

I do use iCloud for sharing some contact info between iOS devices and I do use their iCloud File System to store some non-sensitive documents temporarily to share between devices when needed.

+1. Same here. I’m not putting any sensitive files on any cloud (they’re all secure, until they’re not), I maintain backup physical hard drives. We’re a Win desktop/laptop and iPad/iPhone house, iCloud plays nice with all. I only keep contacts, calendars, reminders and a few other files on iCloud, well under the 5GB free threshold.

 

[Alan]

+1 on Google Drive for docs (15 GB free)
And Google photos for all our photos.

A few weeks ago a friend of ours wanted to know how to download one of her old photos back to her phone from Google photos for printing a quality photo for framing, at the store she uses. (She had deleted loads of photos from her Android phone to make room). It was easy and once I showed her how it was done she was delighted.

 

[steelyman]

Google Drive fits my needs at 15GB per account. I'm trying to devise a solution to use cloud backup with more sensitive data, which is not a lot for me, storage-wise.

I think offsite backup solutions like safe deposit boxes will gradually go away as networking, storage, and security technologies improve and people continue aging.

 

[mountainsoft]

We use offsite storage for backup drives in a bank safe deposit box. That’s the standard procedure for handling location risk. We swap out backup drives often enough as we swap out backup drives regularly and we store most offsite when we travel.

Same here. I perform an image backup every night to an external hard drive, then swap that with a second drive I keep in my safe deposit box. I also occasionally burn important files to BluRay discs as an extra layer of protection.

Online backups would never work for me. I generate too much data each day recording TV shows and editing videos.

Online backups also backup only selected files and folders. I frequently hear from customers who lost data because they thought their online backup included a folder that wasn't backed up.

If my hard drive fails, or a power surge takes out the computer, I can't afford the time it takes to reinstall Windows, reinstall all my applications, and reconfigure all of my personal settings. With an image backup I can be back up and running in less than an hour with all of my programs and settings ready to go. And yes, I can restore individual files or migrate to larger hard drives, do it all the time.

 

[Chuckanut]

Thank you for being a loyal Mozy customer. Carbonite completed its acquisition of Mozy on March 19, 2018. We want to let you know about changes to our backup solutions that will affect you. We will be ending support for the MozyHome Free edition effective April 15, 2019.

I had Carbonite years ago when they decided to stop their Home plan and force everybody onto a business plan. It looks like they still don't care that much for the individual user.

I checked out iDrive. I liked it so I bought a 2 year 2 Terra-byte subscription for about $100. I back up two computers and an external drive to my iDrive storage.

 

[Sojourner]

I have never found a cloud backup solution that I thought was "worth it", considering all factors such as ease of use, security, performance, and ongoing (never-ending) costs.

My home grown solution is to use a combination of external backup drives, along with free cloud storage from Google (15 GB) and from Dropbox (20 GB, earned through referrals). I also do a periodic sync of all important files between my desktop and laptop. I figure this virtually ensures I won't lose anything critical.

 

[misshathaway]

I've been using BackBlaze for a few years. It's $60 a year, end to end encryption. It is completely handsoff. Don't notice it or have to think about it except on the rare occasion when I have to recover some file.

I also keep a disk image, changed out monthly, offsite and have a Time Machine (mac) drive doing automatic backups.

 

[OldShooter]

I am another one that doesn't want to entrust my private data to anyone.

I have a Synology 2-drive RAID box on our local network. Synology's suite of software includes a cloud app "Cloudstation" which maintains copies of files (of our choice) from our individual machines, so any file is on both my computer and on both of the RAID drives and immune to disk failures. It's totally seamless. Every once in a while I back the Synology box to a large SATA drive that I keep in my fire-resistant gun safe. So I might end up screwed after a really big house fire but short of that I think my data is pretty safe. Monthly cost? Zero.

 

[TheRunningMan]

Always remember, if you are not paying for the product, you are the product.

I currently have a $99/yr. MS Office 365 subscription that gets me all of the apps for my devices and 1TB of Onedrive cloud storage for each of 5 users. I do keep my Mac backed up with Time Machine as well.

 

[TheRunningMan]

What is the up-front cost of the software + 2 drive RAID and how often would you replace or upgrade it?

 

[ransil]

I lost my 2 year old hard drive last week no warning just dead.
most of my stuff is up on google drive, I have an older backup to restore older files but have not been keeping up.

best to get a basic configuration on your computer and then clone that for a backup, then keep data elsewhere.

Not a show stopper but has been a PITA to get everything configured as I had it.