online storage

[Jonathan Brady]

Hi.

Does anyone know of a good online data storage service? I am thinking
about keeping a drobo onsite for immediate backup but would also like
to backup what, at the moment, equates to roughly 1 TB of data, which
will only continue to increase, to somewhere offsite. I thought doing
it online would save the hassle of buying extra hardware and keeping
it locked up somewhere. However, it would be nice if it was reliable
and didn't cost the earth. Grateful for any advice.

Cheers.

Jonathan Brady
Photographer
tel: +44(0) 7931 541 489
web: www.jonathanbrady.net
email: jmeb...@mac.com, laddy...@gmail.com

[Jason Kitcat]

On 22 Jan 2009, at 20:01, Jonathan Brady wrote:
> Does anyone know of a good online data storage service? I am thinking
> about keeping a drobo onsite for immediate backup but would also like
> to backup what, at the moment, equates to roughly 1 TB of data, which
> will only continue to increase, to somewhere offsite. I thought doing
> it online would save the hassle of buying extra hardware and keeping
> it locked up somewhere. However, it would be nice if it was reliable
> and didn't cost the earth. Grateful for any advice.

If you've got a decent Internet connection without a usage cap then
this is a good offsite solution. I suggest using Amazon S3 via
JungleDisk. http://www.jungledisk.com

My full backup strategy is detailed at http://www.jasonkitcat.com/?be_id=423

All the best,
Jason

[Catherine Hunt]

Last week I had an email from Photojojo, recommending BackBlaze as an
online backup. It looked quite good, but I haven't actually tried it.

Best wishes
Catherine

Catherine Hunt

[Jason Davies]

Jonathan Brady wrote on 22/1/09 at 20:01

>Does anyone know of a good online data storage service? I am thinking
>about keeping a drobo onsite for immediate backup but would also like
>to backup what, at the moment, equates to roughly 1 TB of data, which
>will only continue to increase, to somewhere offsite. I thought doing
>it online would save the hassle of buying extra hardware and keeping it
>locked up somewhere. However, it would be nice if it was reliable and
>didn't cost the earth. Grateful for any advice.

I would look at Dropbox which does more than just backup stuff,
it synchronises with other machines. Not sure if it's the
cheapest but it's the easiest thing in the world to use.

[Jason Kitcat]

On 22 Jan 2009, at 21:16, Jason Davies wrote:
> I would look at Dropbox which does more than just backup stuff,
> it synchronises with other machines. Not sure if it's the
> cheapest but it's the easiest thing in the world to use.

Dropbox is quite neat but it loses lots of Mac specific file
attributes so I wouldn't class it a proper backup system.

All the best,
Jason

[Paul Owen]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for posting the link to your backup strategy - very interesting. You
might be interested in this comment from <http://tinyurl.com/68648j> posted
on 24/12/08.

"When you want to restore a file from a sparse bundle, mount the sparse
bundle manually. Then option-click the TM icon in the menu bar. You'll
notice that the "Enter Time Machine" entry has changed to "Browse Other Time
Machine Disks". Use this option, navigate to your sparse bundle and -- lo
and behold -- all your backups are there.:"

Perhaps that will solve your problem with TM and restoring from a Drobo?

I've just bought a Drobo for my office - still getting to know it.

Paul Owen

[Mat Walker]

On 22/1/09 20:01, Jonathan Brady wrote:
> Hi.
>
> Does anyone know of a good online data storage service? I am thinking
> about keeping a drobo onsite for immediate backup but would also like
> to backup what, at the moment, equates to roughly 1 TB of data, which
> will only continue to increase, to somewhere offsite. I thought doing
> it online would save the hassle of buying extra hardware and keeping
> it locked up somewhere. However, it would be nice if it was reliable
> and didn't cost the earth. Grateful for any advice.
>

I use Mozy at home for my off site backup. Its something like $5 a
month for unlimited storage.

Works ok but I find the client a bit ropey and it takes forever to
upload large amounts of data.

Mat

[Ranulph Glanville]

I have never password protected my computers (though i do have an
administrator password). If someone picked up my computer they would
easily be able to access many web sites because passwords are stored
in keychain on the computer. I think I should password protect the
machine on start up and wake up.

I had a look under users in systems prefs. But I'm not sure whether
the password I can change there is my administrator's password, or if
I can set up a password for the machine.

For some reason, help opens a blank window and then crashes!

Any pointers?

Thanks, Ranulph

[Jason Kitcat]

On 23 Jan 2009, at 09:28, Paul Owen wrote:
> Thanks for posting the link to your backup strategy - very
> interesting. You
> might be interested in this comment from <http://tinyurl.com/68648j>
> posted
> on 24/12/08.
>

> Perhaps that will solve your problem with TM and restoring from a
> Drobo?

Hurrah - thanks Paul!

I've updated my blog post accordingly.

All the best,
Jason

[Darren Morgan]

If you have an account with admin status then the password you change in sys prefs would be that admin password.

You can't really set up a password for the machine, each account would use their own password. There's a master password for Filevault, but I don't think that's the same thing.

I'm running Tiger, so there may be differences. Under the 'Security' tab of sys prefs is an option to 'Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver' and another one to 'Disable automatic login'. You'll want to tick both of these options.

Apologies if your OS is different and the above is meaningless drivel.

Darren

--
Darren Morgan
qua...@gmail.com

[Sam - MacAmbulance]

Hi Ranulph

Someone who knows what they are doing could easily access your files even with a password stored on your account. The only way of protecting the files is to use FileVault, which encrypts your entire home folder. Unfortunately this has a few knock-on effects.

Time Machine will no longer be able to make hourly backups, instead only backing up your entire home folder (or the encrypted disk image which contains your home folder) when you have logged out. If you want to restore an individual file you'll only be able to restore your entire home folder or nothing.

FileVault also needs to regularly trim the free space out of the disk image that contains your home folder, this can take a while but if done regularly shouldn't be a problem.

If you forget the password (or the master password set in FileVault prefs) you'll never be able to recover your files!

If you've got a 100GB home folder, you'll need at least 100GB free (most likely a lot more) on the drive to turn on FileVault. The OS will want to create a new disk image and encrypt all of your files, it'll then delete your unencrypted files after it's finished. Be sure to use Disk Utility to erase the free space on your disk afterwards or your files will still be recoverable.

Regards

Sam

providing affordable Apple & PC services
Sam Mullen
07747 778022
http://www.macambulance.co.uk
in...@macambulance.co.uk

[Jason Davies]

Jason Kitcat wrote on 22/1/09 at 21:24

>e.
>
>Dropbox is quite neat but it loses lots of Mac specific file attributes
>so I wouldn't class it a proper backup system.

can you say more? I'm storing pdfs and so on but have recently
moved my mailsmith mailstore there too- and haven't tested
whether something has gone wrong yet!

[Jason Kitcat]

On 23 Jan 2009, at 11:21, Jason Davies wrote:
> can you say more? I'm storing pdfs and so on but have recently
> moved my mailsmith mailstore there too- and haven't tested
> whether something has gone wrong yet!

I definitely wouldn't store your Mailsmith mailstore there...

read: http://mjtsai.com/blog/2008/11/26/dropbox/ including all the
comments down to the bottom.

All the best,
Jason

[Jason Davies]

Jason Kitcat wrote on 23/1/09 at 13:10

>
>I definitely wouldn't store your Mailsmith mailstore there...
>
>read: http://mjtsai.com/blog/2008/11/26/dropbox/ including all the
>comments down to the bottom.

that's helpful to know, thanks. As the thread says, there's no
definitive list of the implications of the handling of types of
files (i'm left slightly unclear exactly what I CAN put there
now!). But good to get the heads-up.