Small Business | Forum « Online backup or backing up to an external hard drive?

Online backup or backing up to an external hard drive? (15 posts)

Topic tags: backup computer files, document imaging, online backup, paper scanning

Trudy Phillips said
1 year, 2 months ago:
I am curious as to what method folks are using to back up your documents and pictures files. I use a local provider and my system is backup incrementally nightly. I also have and external Seagate HD used mainly to back up my QB accounts regularly and a huge picture file I have. I am considering getting a scanner and daily scanning paper documents I want to keep safely.
@trudy | # | Top
Dea Irby said
1 year, 2 months ago:
what volume of info do you have? is this for all your clients? and/or your own? why wouldn’t only one or the other be enough? just wondering, I sporadically backup locally. @trudy
@deairby | # | Top
Anita Cohen-Williams said
1 year, 2 months ago:
I use 3 methods. Carbonite (which backs up daily or weekly, depending on your settings), DropBox (where I put my larger files), and an external 1-terabyte drive.
@anitacohen-williams | # | Top
Trudy Phillips said
1 year, 2 months ago:
Huge documents file of entire history of my File Management Co, – 6 yrs of info for non-profit I started, Client files, my personal files. In other words my life for the past so many years. Pictures of Bassets recused by BHRA.org over the years, real estate I own, family and lots of others some from clients. And it is amazing how often I have to track back to an older document or picture.
Having spent lots of years as a records management consultant, I am all about disaster planning and backup, backup, backup and make sure the backup is off the property. Hence the online backup. The external is a onsite safety precaution. In the event the computer crashes, I can quickly restore my files and still be in business. My bad is that I have not tested the restore function of the online backup. Shame on me as I know that is a disaster planning protocol.
Please set your computer to back up more regularly than sporadic. I back up QB monthly in the event of a crash or emergency,, I do not want to reconstruct more than 1 months data.
@trudy | # | Top
Trudy Phillips said
1 year, 2 months ago:
@anitacohen-williams Good for you!
@trudy | # | Top
Jay Traylor said
1 year, 2 months ago:
Nothing better than Carbonite for me, except their politics.
@tracourt | # | Top
Preston Odenbrett said
1 year, 2 months ago:
@trudy I have heard of Carbonite but have not used them. Have had a hard drive external backs up all the data once a day.. but I should probably look at outside also. I think someone in this forum heard my complaint with an online service provider… I just don’t want that to happen again. I do have drop box but have not used them there is also one called something like drop box, i liked it better, but I have not been there in months… you can download all your files in one point and click
@prestonodenbrett | # | Top
Diane Bianchi said
1 year, 2 months ago:
I use Carbonite and I thinks it’s great. I also just bought a new Dell computer that came with 1 year of free online backup and that seems to work to.
@dianebianchi | # | Top
Jules Webb said
1 year, 2 months ago:
@trudy I think you’ve got it right. I consider an on-site external back up and an off-site back up to be ”best practices.”
I use a 2T Network Attached Storage solution (NAS) for on-site back up and Carbonite for off-site backup. One big back-up occurs initially, and then incremental backups occur nightly on files that have changed.
@juleswebb | # | Top
Kristy C. Cartier said
1 year, 2 months ago:
@trudy Great question! I have used an external hard drive and CDs.I believe that my Norton program provides online backups for me.
@anitacohen-williams @tracourt @dianebianchi Thanks for providing feedback on Carbonite. I will check their services out.
@kc_kreative | # | Top
Thomas Flügge said
1 year, 2 months ago:
@trudy I backup using two methods. 1) For each CMS I have my standard backup plugin/module/extension that secures both CMS and DB on my harddrive and on the server. 2) Since I host most of my clients’ sites with bluehost I use their extensive included backup routines that provides me with regular (daily/weekly) full backups.
@ecumenix | # | Top
Debbie Lynn Butler said
1 year, 2 months ago:
@trudy My IT guy does a fabulous job with multiple hard drive backups. I’ve heard good things about Carbonite exce[t when they are backing up your system during a thunderstorm and the power goes out.
@debbielynnava | # | Top
Trudy Phillips said
1 year, 2 months ago:
@debbielynnava Well I can certainly understand the thunderstorm and power outage. It is so great to see that you all are doing double backups. Really surpriseing. Hope more of our compaderies will start at least doing single off site backups. Particularly if you l live in a tornado prone area. Or even a major snow storm area.
@trudy | # | Top
Mary Larson said
1 year, 2 months ago:
I use Backblaze. I’ve also used Mozy in the past and had to do a restore from them, but they hiked up their prices way too much so I switched to Backblaze. It backs up continuously. Now when I travel, I can get access to any files I need.
I also have a EHD, but I only put certain files on that – like photos.
@marylarson | # | Top
E N Brown said
1 year, 2 months ago:
At one time, I used Mozy too. But now have all items now backed up to external hard drives – I trust me more than I trust them. Heh.
@supereb | # | Top