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Talk to me about online backup

3 replies

robino · 23/01/2011 15:42

Our relatively old laptop would appear to be on its last legs but we cannot afford to replace it right now.

We desperately need to do a back up but both the disk drive and the usb ports are knackered. Can't get them to do anything.

Can anyone recommend an online back up site? And if you do use one what happens? If we were to buy a new laptop can you just hook it up and download all your stuff from the site onto you new computer?

OP posts:
NetworkGuy · 23/01/2011 16:24

Have a look at DriveHQ.com which offers free and paid-for services.

Whether a service is right for you depends on how much you want to transfer (and whether your ISP has limits or adds charges) and how knowledgeable you are about content on your PC.

For example, if you have MS Office, and a whole stack of bought software, there is usually no point in copying it onto backup storage if you expect to download it onto a new computer as the installation procedures build information into a Windows database (the Registry) and without doing that properly, the software won't run reliably (or at all, more likely).

Copying data in the form of documents, downloaded items (eg software installation programs), and so on, is fine. Copying any music or video that you have 'ripped' from CDs/DVDs is in a different league as that may be against the terms of the online service and would also take a lot of time/space.

If you do have items which you cannot replace then making them into a file archive (eg using ZipGenius) may avoid them being spotted as MP3 files for example, but they will still be large and take a long time to upload.

For anything over say 5 GB you will probably have to find a paid-for service. I have a few suggestions but not to hand.

How much data do you expect you would need to store ? I am assuming family photos etc and letters/ work related docs rather than copies of DVD-held films....

robino · 23/01/2011 16:38

Network Guy - It is indeed family photos and letters/ work related docs. DH has own business so there's quite a bit of stuff and I have a lot of teaching documents.

Not much bought software - wouldn't want to backup MS office for example.

Very little by way of music or video and we have most of the originals anyway.

If we did use an online back up and this laptop died before we replaced it I presume it would be relatively easy to download that sort of stuff onto a new laptop?

OP posts:
NetworkGuy · 23/01/2011 17:42

yes, it should just be accessed by username / password (and perhaps download of a small bit of software, sometimes they provide s/w to give an extra 'drive' shown on your file manager (aka Windows Explorer nowadays)

Having an extra drive letter allows you to drag and drop whole folders, and each time you boot, the s/w tries to login for you.

I would suggest having an online mail address such as a freebie from Live.com or Google Mail, so if there is some need to get a password reminder it can come through easily.

Would also suggest logging in to the account from time to time to check they have no special "we're being taken over" type news.

That happened to Humyo not long ago (another free off-site storage service, allowed 10 GB of files, 5 GB for media, 5 GB for documents).

BT does an online storage facility but i is costly compared with Carbonite and others.

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