Backups

 

I tried and tried to get my previous off-site backup to work reliably, but in the end, it just wasn’t reliable…not what you want from a backup.

I tried both Livedrive and also Onlinestoragesolution and neither was particularly reliable. The thing I liked about them was that I could use them to store stuff – almost like an archive – but if I can’t depend on them, they are useless.

I have moved to using Crashplan.  They don’t have an archiving solution, but the backups have been reliable. I have been using them for about 8 months now. Initially, I had a few issues with the backups not going as fast as they should, but I worked with their techs and got it resolved.

For $6/month you can get a Family Plan which allows up to 10 machines to backup an unlimited amount of data. Additionally, for free – you can turn your own machine into a backup target for your friends and family – and they can do the same.

It has worked really well for me – no complaints. They even have a iPhone app so you can download something from your backup to your iPhone if/when you need to. I just wish it had an archiving feature and the ability to use FTP, but you just can’t get everything. I will take reliable over features everytime.