CrashPlan. I've got it backing up all my machines to a Drobo on my LAN as well as remotely to CrashPlan's servers, encrypted before it crosses the wire, and it costs me $5 a month. Been using it for years and have done several very large restores and it's worked like a charm.
Ask HN: What service do you use for personal file backup?
21–30 of 30 posts
Re: Ask HN: What service do you use for personal file backup?
#22Jungledisk! It allows you to store all yor data on your s3 account
This comes out to slightly higher then my Mozy account would cost per month. Does Jungledisk do any encryption or protection for you? I know Mozy encrypts everything.
Be careful with Mozy. If you haven't done a test restore, I strongly recommend you try one now. The Mozy restore process is extremely broken and has been for years.
You can read about my horrible experience with Mozy (and the horrible experiences of hundreds of commenters) here: http://wonko.com/post/it_turns_out_mozy_isnt_so_hot_after_al...
Re: Ask HN: What service do you use for personal file backup?
#23rsync.net has been fantastic over the years, I use them and several of my clients do as well. No first level support, straight to an engineer. Plus discounts for open source projects, students, etc.
In addition to their own backup agent; they support rsync, scp, sftp, ftp, rdiff-backup, Unison, duplicity, svn+ssh, WebDAV and any other combination or concoction you can come up with.
Plus, they have a ToS agreement that can't be beat: http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/tos.html
Re: Ask HN: What service do you use for personal file backup?
#24Amazon S3. cron job -> tar gz -> s3cmd -> s3 Their cheap, very reliable, and fast. What else can I ask for.
What else can I ask for?
How about faster, cheaper, and more flexible? If you back up the same or overlapping sets of files, tarsnap's snapshotting functionality will probably result in it using less bandwidth (and thus end up being cheaper) than a raw tar | gzip | s3 approach.
Re: Ask HN: What service do you use for personal file backup?
#25Jungledisk! It allows you to store all yor data on your s3 account
After some more research it appears jungledisk is the best option. I have never had to do a restore from Mozy, but the reviews and horror stories are enough to turn me off.
Thanks everyone!
Re: Ask HN: What service do you use for personal file backup?
#26Amazon S3. cron job -> tar gz -> s3cmd -> s3 Their cheap, very reliable, and fast. What else can I ask for.
What else can I ask for? How about faster, cheaper, and more flexible? If you back up the same or overlapping sets of files, tarsnap's snapshotting functionality will probably result in it using less bandwidth (and thus end up being cheaper) than a raw tar | gzip | s3 approach.
The --newer switch does the trick
Re: Ask HN: What service do you use for personal file backup?
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
What else can I ask for? How about faster, cheaper, and more flexible? If you back up the same or overlapping sets of files, tarsnap's snapshotting functionality will probably result in it using less bandwidth (and thus end up being cheaper) than a raw tar | gzip | s3 approach.
The --newer switch does the trick
--newer woks at the file level - I believe that tarsnap works at the block level. So depending on the nature of changes - tarsnap (or anything else block based) would likely still be more efficient.
Re: Ask HN: What service do you use for personal file backup?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
What else can I ask for? How about faster, cheaper, and more flexible? If you back up the same or overlapping sets of files, tarsnap's snapshotting functionality will probably result in it using less bandwidth (and thus end up being cheaper) than a raw tar | gzip | s3 approach.
The --newer switch does the trick
Incremental archives via 'tar --newer' are better than just storing complete archives each time, but they fail compared to tarsnap in two important ways: 1. If you modify a file and then perform a backup, you'll store the entire new file rather than only the parts of the file which changed; and 2. If you modify a file and then perform a backup, you now have two copies of that file stored, and you have to continue paying to store both copies even if you only care about the most recent version of the file.
Re: Ask HN: What service do you use for personal file backup?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
The --newer switch does the trick
Incremental archives via 'tar --newer' are better than just storing complete archives each time, but they fail compared to tarsnap in two important ways: 1. If you modify a file and then perform a backup, you'll store the entire new file rather than only the parts of the file which changed; and 2. If you modify a file and then perform a backup, you now have two copies of that file stored, and you have to continue pay…
Point taken. Of course you are comparing a full personal backup solution meant specifically for this task to a one liner :)
But for my purposes as personal data backup, I just wouldn't see a speed or price difference of that type of efficiency.
Re: Ask HN: What service do you use for personal file backup?
#302x 16Gb USB sticks and TrueCrypt.
I don't keep anything immediately replacable (like media).