kjp

I've finally gotten around to sorting out the backing up of my computer. I've signed up with Carbonite - an online backup service. Basically after you install the program on my computer, for files / folders / drives that you specify, the program compresses all the files, encrypts them and puts them of a server in a data centre somewhere in the US (I presume). When it detects that a file has been updated, then the new version is sent up. If a file is deleted, the backup copy remains for 30 days, after which time the backup is deleted. Within that time frame files can be restored from the backup files. Files are available as another drive in "My Computer".

It suits me, because: I don't want to deal with lots of media; I'm busy most of the time, so I want it to be automatic; the backup is offsite (so no problems if my place burns down / my place gets robbed, etc); I can backup unlimited amount of data (good for my many many photos); I have a good internet connection. The downsides - it costs a bit (US$50 / year) - but that's reasonable for the service, I think; it's a bit slow on the upload (with no option to increase the upload speed - they've gone for very simple interface). It's not a online drive however - it's a backup service - so you can't easily access your files from an arbitrary computer.

The first thing I've done with it is to backup my photos. This has also been a bit of a motivator for me to actually sort them out - I've had folders and copies of folders of photos scattered all through several partitions on my hard drives. So it's a bit cleaner now, which is good. I'm effectively on the first backup (ie: full, not incremental backup), which is taking a while (is still going).