Cloud backup choice

[mdijb]

I need to get an online, cloud backup.  I have an Imac and use a DROBO for storing my photo library.  The primary choices seem to be Backblaze or Carbonite.

What is the experience of this forum and which is recommended?

MDIJB

[BobShaw]

I have exactly the same setup of iMac and Drobo. I backup to a 6TB external hard drive (and another Drobo) and put the drive in my post office box. Cloud is useless for me.

[tsinsf]

I use Backblaze and find it easy to use and cheap ($6/mo). It will backup your boot drive and any external drives you tell it to. The only downsize is it takes awhile to upload your photos. I uploaded 6 TB and it took several weeks. It runs in the background, so all you have to do is start the process and leave your computer on. The time it takes to upload of course depends on your internet speed and the amount of data. If you have a lot of photos and slow internet it could take months.

[geneo]

Like Bob I don't trust my stuff to the cloud and if you do need to recover, well I hear trhey are ezxtremely bad.

If I were going to do it though, I would look into Amazon glacier.

[tsinsf]

"Like Bob I don't trust my stuff to the cloud and if you do need to recover, well I hear trhey are ezxtremely bad."

I agree, anybody would be foolish to use the cloud as their only backup. But as an adjunct to backing up on external hardrives, it gives me peace of mind to know I have one more level of security. My recovery experience with Backblaze was not "extremely bad". It was easy and great. I inadvertendly deleted a batch of photos and was easily able to go on their website, sign in, and navigate to my account which showed all of my 6 TB of photos. I chose the lost photos and pressed download and voila, they appeared on my desktop. They keep deleted files for 30 days, and for an extra $2/mo they will keep them for a year. You can dowload from anywhere in the world for free. If you have a lot of photos and don't want to wait for a download, you can pay $189 per 8TB and they will send you a hard drive with your photos. You can return the hard drive for a refund.

[geneo]

Btw, Amazon Glacier storage (Their lowest tier, presumably on tape, which is good) is $4/TB/month. I would trust them since they use the same service and storage for their business.

[mistymoon]

I use Backblaze and like it. It took about six months to back up about 14 TB of photographs and I exceeded my cable provider's data uploading limits, so I had to pay Comcast an extra $50 per month for two months. The biggest downside with Backblaze is that each computer and hard drive have to be connected to the Backblaze website periodically; after 30 days of no connection, all the data is automatically deleted and you have to restart the upload. For most people, this would not be an issue, but it could be an inconvenience–or worse–for a photographer who is on the road a lot.

[Joe Towner]

There's a great article laying out what Backblaze does regarding external drives being disconnected for a duration - basically hit 'pause' in the backups and you should be fine:
https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217664898-What-happens-to-my-backups-when-I-m-away-or-on-vacation-

Flipping over to their business side has a few advantages, plus things like B2 storage, which is pretty cheap.

Cloud storage is a race to the bottom - everyone wants unlimited space for next to nothing pricing.  Careful who you decide on, there's been a number of companies who went under & left their users stranded.  Backblaze is who I use & recommend.

[Osprey]

From what people have been writing here about Backblaze, it seems like Crashplan, which is business facing, has much more redundancy.  You can choose to permanently keep your deleted files and I don't think they care about missing computers.