Computer Backup Options...Carbonite/Google One/OneDrive

[WestUniversity]

I’m all Mac and I have all my devices backup to the Apple cloud. However I am a “belt and suspenders” guy when it come to data. I also have a 1 TB external USB drive I use to backup from my Mac. Bought the drive many years ago but as I recall it was about $60-$70. It’s not much bigger than a deck of cards...

 

[Katsmeow]

Like many I just copy stuff to an external drive. I do not back up programs. If my hard drive goes out I am going to want to do a fresh install anyway.

I do periodically copy stuff to an external drive. Some things I keep at multiple locations. For several years I have scanned in most docs and do not have them on paper. I keep most of these in Evernote as well. Some things I keep on OneDrive (I get 1 TB. storage from my Office 365 subscription).

What are all you folks saving that is so important that needs so much storage space (probably enough to run General Motor's Corporation entire accounting systems)?

My stuff does back up fine to a 2 TB external drive and I could get it down under 1 TB if I really had to. We try to keep as little paper as possible. I like having data so I scan in all receipts and most everything. I keep a lot (not all) of my email and periodically download a backup of that. I have a lot of photos. I had all of my parent's old photos scanned in and got rid of most of the paper photos.

I still don't get the terabytes of storage thing as that is a LOT of digital space. I can't even imagine what people would store on a drive that has that much space, besides thousands of photos.

Videos. Used to before streaming was so popular I used to buy videos and I have several of them that take up a lot of space (think entire seasons of some TV shows). Yes, this is replaceable but I already paid for them so I don't want to have to replace them.

I do have home videos -- mostly camcorder stuff that I had transferred to digital video. Those take up a lot of space.

 

[mountainsoft]

I'm open to other options than those I've listed, but I'm mostly interested in backing up to the cloud as opposed to an external hard drive.

I am not a fan of cloud or online backups.

1. They're expensive.
2. They usually only backup selected files or folders.
3. They're too slow if you generate any significant data.
4. You can't access your data if the server or your network is down.
5. If your drive crashes you have to reinstall Windows, all of your applications, and reconfigure all of your settings before you can retrieve your backed up data.

I prefer full image backups of my hard drive to an external hard drive. I use Macrium Reflect but there are many other backup programs out there.

I backup nightly to protect against accidental deletions and whatnot. Once a month I swap that backup with a second drive I keep in our safe deposit box. That protects against more major disasters like fire, theft, floods, etc. I also burn sensitive data like photos and financial records to a Blu-Ray disc once a year or so as an added layer of protection.

 

[mountainsoft]

What are all you folks saving that is so important that needs so much storage space

Video is my biggest storage hog. I edit and store all of our home videos on the computer. Currently my videos folder has over 500GB of data in it. I also have a TV tuner that can record up to four TV shows at a time. I can easily generate 10GB or more of data each night. I have over 40GB of TV shows I haven't watched yet from just this week.

Photos currently use about 90GB.

Music takes up another 22GB.

I have a 10GB encrypted file for all of our health and financial records.

Another 25GB is used for miscellaneous documents. Owners manuals, ebooks, installation files, magazine articles, etc.

About 20GB for local copies of my web sites.

Then there's a wide variety of other odds and ends bringing my total D: drive usage to 750GB. That doesn't include the 90GB for my C: boot drive (Windows and applications). I also have a third drive with about 200GB of temporary data on it, videos I'm working on and whatnot.

 

[Sunset]

Due to someone on this site, I now clone my SSD drive to another SSD and will probably do it about twice a year. This way I will have pretty much all my configuration and programs ready to use, to avoid the reinstall OS and configuration of all the applications I use. (this is additional to my backup of data).

I had to check, I have 300 Gigs of personal data (mostly vacation photos) so between us, we can fill 1/2 a terabyte per backup.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Samsung T5

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-T5-Portable-SSD-MU-PA1T0B/dp/B073H4GPLQ?th=1

 

[mountainsoft]

Samsung T5

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-T5-Portable-SSD-MU-PA1T0B/dp/B073H4GPLQ?th=1

I have three Samsung EVO SSD's in my computer, but still use standard hard drive's for backups. They're cheaper, have larger capacities, and I don't need the speed of an SSD for backups. The USB interface limits transfer speeds anyway.

I have an older model of these 3TB Western Digital drives, and currently have just over 2TB backed up on the drive. I would probably opt for the 4TB model if I was buying again today.

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digi...xternal/dp/B0713WPGLL/ref=dp_ob_title_ce?th=1

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I have three Samsung EVO SSD's in my computer, but still use standard hard drive's for backups. They're cheaper, have larger capacities, and I don't need the speed of an SSD for backups. The USB interface limits transfer speeds anyway.

I have an older model of these 3TB Western Digital drives, and currently have just over 2TB backed up on the drive. I would probably opt for the 4TB model if I was buying again today.

https://www.amazon.com/Western-Digi...xternal/dp/B0713WPGLL/ref=dp_ob_title_ce?th=1

I have 2 Samsung T series purely because of their size, about the size of a business card ad not even 5/16" thick, basically 3 x 2 x 5/16". So easy to carry around. An excellent reason to "Blow that Dough"!

Between Macrium Reflect (Free), Syncovery ($49) and the T's all is done. I have learnt never to cut corners or price on one's backups.

 

[mountainsoft]

I have 2 Samsung T series purely because of their size, about the size of a business card ad not even 5/16" thick, basically 3 x 2 x 5/16". So easy to carry around. An excellent reason to "Blow that Dough"!

I'm a big fan of SSD's but already need more storage than the largest 2TB T5's offer. Even if space wasn't an issue, $700 for a pair is too much for my wallet.

Also, I don't carry my backup drives anywhere other than the short trip down to the safe deposit box at the bank. So I don't need a drive the size of the T5 series.

 

[popntx]

Based on all of the responses (much appreciated!) I've decided to back up all of my photos to a thumb drive (cost me about $12.00). My other files I'll back up to One Drive. I've seen no one else mention Carbonite, so apparently this is not a popular service anymore, so I'm going to discontinue using it.

 

[Jerry1]

Based on all of the responses (much appreciated!) I've decided to back up all of my photos to a thumb drive (cost me about $12.00). My other files I'll back up to One Drive. I've seen no one else mention Carbonite, so apparently this is not a popular service anymore, so I'm going to discontinue using it.

Spend $12 more and back them up twice and the get one of those thumb drives off site. Family or good friend if you don’t have a safe deposit box.