I have been looking at reviews for online backup providers.
i.e. Carbonite, JustCloud, Mozy etc.
There are plenty to choose from, but I am never sure which are really honest reviews. Can anyone give me some insight into a provider that would be easy to use, inexpensive and reliable for a home computer with less than 100 GB of backup necessary. I am really nervous about losing my information and do back up my most important files on a thumb drive.
I just saw that Avast has a backup package also, but there were some problems. I don’t want to spend a lot for the service.
Any help would be appreciated. 8)
G’day Roro,
I don’t trust online backup providers at all, I would rather go and buy a Western Digital (WD) ‘My Passport’ their capacity you can buy from 500GB up to 2.0TB because it safer to do you’re own backup.
You can do a complete computer system image backup straight to you’re WD, make sure you installed the latest WD drivers first and create a new image bootable disk before you start a complete system image backup. Also you can do you’re own personal and private backup to WD, files you like to keep, family photo, etc etc the list can go on, I strongly don’t trust online backup providers against privacy you’ll be 100 times safer then doing this yourself and beside you save a lot more money in the long term when you have a WD rather wasting you’re money with online backup providers.
I don’t trust on-line backup either.
Not to mention the logistics of having to upload that volume of data you would need very fast broadband with equally fast upload available (almost always slower than your download speed). The uploading of this data is most likely to count towards your broadband bandwidth limits, so you may end up having to pay more for that.
Online backup is fine for pictures and documents etc.
Nothing beats an image backup that you create on a regular basis.
It will also be there when you need it and can be quickly restored.
Roro, online backup is very helpful imho. You can have peace of mind about physical crashing, media stole, manual doing backups, etc.
I’m an old user of Mozy (the free version allows referrals and you can increase your available space).
avast! Backup uses the same engine of Mozy. It has only the paid version. Works very well.
Dropbox allows up to 18Gb free if I’m not wrong (2Gb + referrals space).
I had problems with SugarSync in the past (messing file versions, deleting content, etc.).
What more do you want to know?
Thanks for your responses.
I guess what I really want is something very easy. I did back up my data on an external hard drive last year and do updates of important info on a thumb drive, but was trying to find a way of having this done automatically. My husband’s computer is available for networking and I can back up info on that too. I do realize that there are better options available, but easy, inexpensive and safe is what I am looking for. The problem with upload speed on Carbonite has been a problem with many people, and I was wondering if that is true of most providers, so what I am looking for is the best provider. I don’t have a lot of video or music files, mostly documents, emails and photos.
Why not simply upload them to either Google Drive or Skydrive ???
That would be fine, but I really want something that I don’t have to think about, and automatic updating of files seems to be what would work the best for me. I am checking out google drive now to see if it would suit my needs.
You can select to sync certain folders. Setting up those folders would be up to you.
online services to send and store files for PC
the adrive offers 50 GB free now the rest 5GB
Adrive – http://www.adrive.com/
CUBBY – https://www.cubby.com/
STORAGE – http://storagemadeeasy.com/
Minus – http://minus.com/
Cloud Drive – http://www.amazon.com/clouddrive
and
MAC: – https://www.icloud.com/
This shows how little I know. I didn’t realize that was what syncing files meant. So that means that if I sync files then they will automatically update on the cloud when I change them on my computer. Right? I noticed that Adrive said I could change them online, but I would really want to change them directly from my computer.
I guess I have more searching to do to find the best solution for my question. I really appreciate any and all of the information you all have given me.
Thanks so much, and if there is anything else that I should know, I will keep checking this post for updates or messages.
RoRo 8)
Roro,
What you need is a backup software to backup you’re everyday personal need (I guess weekly maybe) while you do a regular backup of you’re system image say monthly, if you get a Western Digital (WD) ‘My Passport’ for example and choose the software to you’re requirement and need see link http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-backup-program
You can run these software from the link I gave (I think) and you backup you’re everyday personal need straight to you’re Western Digital (WD) ‘My Passport’ or another HD drive instead of doing a complete system image backup all the time but only do a complete system image on a monthly basic, however this should save you more money in the long term and you have more control of the backup base you’re requirement if needed at any time. I would say right away from cloud backup I still strongly don’t trust them, however this is the easy option and the safest way you have the full control of the backup instead of online backup providers and cloud backup service whatever they call it.
I would go for ‘Free GenieTimeline’ http://www.genie9.com/free_products/free_timeline.aspx it what you really need it up to you 
;D
Image back up to protect your entire computer in case of a bad infection or HD failure:
Free Imaging Software for creating System Images
1-Click Restore Free - [u]http://www.keriver.com/oneclick_free.html[/u]
Drive Image XML - [u]http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/DriveImage-XML.shtml[/u]
Clonezilla - [u]http://clonezilla.org/downloads.php[/u]
Online (Cloud) backup for all your pictures, videos and other data you want to be able to access from anywhere.