Usually, it is a good idea to backup your computer; by usually, I mean it is always a good idea to backup your computer. My statement breaks down when it comes to online backup (because, if you go with the wrong service, your bill will be through the roof). I have been backing up my computer on a 3 TB external drive, but I realized, if both my computer and external drive (which are in the same area) were to experience an unfortunate accident, I wouldn’t have any of my priceless data. So what am I supposed to do? The answer is to use an online backup solution.
That being said, all online backup solutions stink.
I have recently tried both Carbonite and Crash Plan. My criteria for a good backup client is this:
- It Works
- It doesn’t slow down my computer
- It backups quickly
- No data limits
Did I find a backup solution? No…and I’m pretty upset about it. I found that Carbonite will only let you backup ~3GB a day (that includes your initial backup, so your first backup won’t just take longer, it might take a couple of months depending on how much data you have. I had 50 GB that it was going to backup and it said 50 days. My internet speed is in the double digits for upload and download, there is no excuse for uploading 3GB a day.
I don’t really have anything negative to say about Crash Plan because it seems that it meets all my requirements (and its cheaper than Carbonite at $50/year)…it just didn’t work on my computer. I’ll probably try again, but I’m, overall, very disappointed in the online backup solutions, so I might just have to write one 😉
If you don’t hear any more about the Backup Project, think of it as ZSWOI (zee-swoy), Zach’s Still Working On It.
UPDATE:
I realized I forgot to tell you why I stopped using Carbonite. It has a data cap at 3GB a day, but it doesn’t stop trying. It used the majority of my CPU all the time even when it reached a cap. For some reason, I found that it uploaded much less than 3GB a day, but was still using 80% of my CPU. So it didn’t work, didn’t backup quickly, has a 3GB data cap, and, worst of all, it slowed down Zeke.
Image Source: https://zysys.org//zycms/uploads/2012/02/online-backup2.jpg
