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OK, just lost another local external drive. Got a RAID box finally on order, BUT
.. I'd like to also use "the cloud". So I'm thinking: any of us using Dropbox "big time" .. i.e. backing up a large part of their digital ecosystem .. w/ the for-pay subscriptions? If so, how's it working out?
My backup world is pretty solid, I only lost my torrent library so .. whew! Current config:
- Time Machine for all machines. (BUT the disk that died was, you guessed it, the TM disk!) - Dropbox: "Working files" .. all the files I edit often .. workflow.
- Github: now my code backup - iTunes Match & Google Disk: all my music. (Complete move to bits last year)
- EMail: IMAP on Gmail. Pretty solid with local cache - Browser: bookmarks, extensions via Chrome sync
- SuperDuper: periodic bootable backups of each computer (3) Photos appear to be my weak spot .. but covered pretty well by SuperDuper.
So, the question is your experiences with Dropbox or other cloud storage for backup? -- Owen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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I got Dropbox mainly for collaboration (sharing datasets and R files), and now I use it as the central storage location for all my photos - they go straight from the card (which is then cleared to make room) to Dropbox through it's automatic transfer function. I have had no problems, although the occasional horror story of individual files being lost without a trace has prompted me to start uploading them to a photoblog.
I use Chrome sync[h] but because the computers I use are generally somewhat slow (especially with the number of tabs I am in the habit of opening) I don't often use the extensions that are synchronized. I am not impressed with the bookmark sync[h], as old folders that have been deleted on one computer are often restored from another. Then again, I have somewhat given up hope on keeping track of things I want to investigate with bookmarks anyway, as I create just too many. To-do lists have supplanted them for the most part; I still use Chrome's "save this window as a folder-full of bookmarks" function to save a browsing/work session for a time when my computer is less bogged down. For the most part, though, I have been trying to eliminate the need for backups altogether. As a student with not much budget for purchasing memory, and one that uses temporarily loaned computers and ones that break after only a year or two of use, I find it much easier to use online services for most program and data storage - using Google Docs rather than Word or Open Office, for instance. It makes collaboration and sharing a lot easier, too - I can worry less about file formats. To pick another example, instead of using iTunes or WinAmp or VLC (although I also have the latter for miscellaneous purposes) with a music library I use Grooveshark. There are still many things that need to be offline due to the paucity of Internet access in my house and sometimes at school, but many things can just be re-found - it is easier for me to re-download my ebooks, and various programs (Pidgin, GIMP, Inkscape, Notepad++, Chrome of course, a tuner program, and others including those mentioned above [Dropbox and VLC]) than to find and transfer them on a jumpdrive or such. However, I noticed I have also taken increasingly to putting all my files in one place - a folder on the desktop - rather than using My Documents. I even run programs that do not need to alter the registry and therefore self-install, such as tkMOO, from the desktop. With all this centrally located it is easier to pick up and move shop should I need to. And now I have a website I can put stuff I don't mind being public in one place, too. This all might be oblique to your question since I am not using the pay Dropbox, or Dropbox in a big way at all.
-Arlo James Barnes ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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I'd like to find a "cloud" service for images - problem is, I'd got approximately 300GB of images going back to 2001. Some duplication, but mostly lots of RAW files. Dropbox wants $500/year. I need a more affordable solution Any ideas?
On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 11:29 PM, Arlo Barnes <[hidden email]> wrote:
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Google+ has free unlimited storage of images but only at 2048 px. You can pay for >5GB of images at greater resolution. Android g+ has an automatic picture upload feature. --Doug
On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 9:14 AM, Mark Suazo <[hidden email]> wrote: I'd like to find a "cloud" service for images - problem is, I'd got approximately 300GB of images going back to 2001. Some duplication, but mostly lots of RAW files. Dropbox wants $500/year. I need a more affordable solution Any ideas? Doug Roberts [hidden email] [hidden email] ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 9:21 AM, Douglas Roberts <[hidden email]> wrote:
While looking into dropbox alternatives, I looked into Google Drive .. but hadn't heard about G+ for images. Some of the commentary on Google services was that they somehow "use" the data you keep with them .. possibly for face recognition searching and so on.
Couple of questions: - How well is Google Drive working for folks? It apparently is great for android but some said "still in beta" so to speak. It seems to have integrated with Google Docs .. so that might make it great for all "documentation" backup.
- Is G+ photo storage public? Separate from GD? Photo sharing may be the mention of Google use of user data. Does it do the conversion to 2Mpx during the upload? I suspect most of my iPhone images are too big due to the 8Mpx camera.
I did read an article on moving iPhoto libraries to either DB or GD. Both were identical so apparently GD has the same functionality as DB. -- Owen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Mark Suazo
I would say 300GB still seems to be a lot of data for the cloud. S3 quotes 28.50 a month just for the storage with ~5 bucks a month if you do around 50GB up and 50 GB down per month which is probably actually more than you are likely to be doing.
Their glacier product which does not have the same access but could serve for backup costs $3/month for that + 5 bucks a month for 50 GB up and 50 GB down. I sort of expect s3 to be the best option as many of these other services are built on top of them. There are a bunch of projects out there that turn s3 into a cloud storage tool, some free though you are obviously paying s3 for the data you store/transfer. --joshua On Jan 15, 2013, at 9:14 AM, Mark Suazo wrote: I'd like to find a "cloud" service for images - problem is, I'd got approximately 300GB of images going back to 2001. Some duplication, but mostly lots of RAW files. Dropbox wants $500/year. I need a more affordable solution Any ideas? ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Mark Suazo
My "solution" is external hard drives:
1. one-time purchase cost 2. relatively inexpensive 3. not dependent upon the cloud servers. I am not willing to chance a 1-in-a-100-years failure.. Joe On 1/15/13 9:14 AM, Mark Suazo wrote:
I'd like to find a "cloud" service for images - problem is, I'd got approximately 300GB of images going back to 2001. Some duplication, but mostly lots of RAW files. Dropbox wants $500/year. I need a more affordable solution Any ideas? -- "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." -- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1913. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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Yeah I agree with this, but hard drives do fail so data should be on multiple drives and should also be located in more than one location so a fire or theft doesn't lead to losing everything.
Not that I follow this in practice but in theory… --joshua On Jan 15, 2013, at 10:10 AM, Joseph Spinden wrote:
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I used to keep backups of my backups. Now I just keep backups. Cheap 3 TB usb drive + nightly rsync. --Doug On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 10:25 AM, Joshua Thorp <[hidden email]> wrote:
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In reply to this post by Joe Spinden
Owen:
I use to varying degree most of the services; I'm always testing them because I often talk about storage alternatives in workshops. Dropbox is easy to use, but be sure to pay the extra $30 or $40 to get its back up service. I've found that if I share a folder with someone, and at some point he/she deletes the files or folders from their local HD, then it also is deleted from the Dropbox folder in the Cloud. So far, I've been able to go in and restore all the folders and files, but that seems to be a shortcoming. I also like SugarSync, Gladinet and use the MS product(s). That's plural because MS can't seem to decided what to call it's products: Is it "LiveDrive" or is it "Mesh" or "SkyDrive." Most confusing. I also have external USB hard drives. -tom On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 10:10 AM, Joseph Spinden <[hidden email]> wrote:
-- ==========================================
J. T. Johnson Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA 505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h) Twitter: jtjohnson ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Joshua Thorp
3 copies of everything. at least 1 in a safety deposit box. also,
i expect I will have to upgrade the hard drives at some point as the
technology changes.
- Joe On 1/15/13 10:25 AM, Joshua Thorp
wrote:
Yeah I agree with this, but hard drives do fail so data should be on multiple drives and should also be located in more than one location so a fire or theft doesn't lead to losing everything. -- "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." -- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1913. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Tom Johnson
Good info, thanks. Yeah, I'm starting to get serious about paying Dropbox or one of the others.
One downside of the more automatic systems (I think) is that you don't get a shell that you can run backup scripts on. Why would I want to backup Dropbox? Well, the speed of the backbone network is really fast, so nightly mirroring your system onto AZ for example is fast, and their storage is quite cheap.
I've also started thinking more seriously about RAID .. basically redundant mirrored disks. Drobo was the first to offer consumer systems. Synology has also appeared on the scene at some pretty reasonable price points. Pogue has an article or two on these.
So after a bit of research, I decided on a 2TB pair of 3.5" disks in a Synology enclosure. It can be run as an attached system or a NAS .. I'll do the latter most likely.
The main advantage is that if one of the disks go, you have another which hopefully you can depend on until you get a replacement for the one down disk. I chose the so-called "red" or "server grade" disks which I hope will last a couple of years .. by then SSD's will have taken over and I believe they can be made even more robust and a hell of a lot faster.
-- Owen
On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 10:26 AM, Tom Johnson <[hidden email]> wrote: Owen: ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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I figured out the google drive vs g+ plan. It turns out they are integrated, a good thing I think. I was concerned it was yet another half baked stunt but this seems pretty well managed.
-- Owen
torage plan pricingLearn about your options for purchasing more storage for Google Drive, Google+ Photos, and Gmail. Store up to 5 GB between Google Drive and Google+ Photos, then pay for additional storage as your account grows. Here's how it works:
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I'll put in my two cents.
All the files I care about are on a Mac, so I use Arq, which backs up to Amazon's S3 and Glacier services. There are two levels of S3 service which vary in their redundancy. The higher level (S3 standard storage) claims: The price is now $.095 per gigabyte per month. I have watched it go down from $.15 to $.095, but it may not be going down as fast as hard drive prices. Amazon's Glacier storage is $.01 per gigabyte per month, but it has a time delay on recovery (about 4 hours, enough time for the gerbils to mount a tape). It can get expensive to move a lot of data in and out of Glacier, but it is fine for long time storage. So now I have my home folder tree on Time Machine and Amazon S3. I have a music and old data (carried forth from PC to PC since the late 80's) on Glacier, so for most of my data (but not bought applications) I have copies 1) on my Mac, 2) on my Time Machine, and 3) on S3 and Glacier offsite. The next problem is if (when) I have to reduce the amount of data on my Mac (when going to SSD, possibly) I will need a place for the data moved off my Mac and my Tiime Machine. I probably will go with a Drobo, which has a good bit of redundancy and which would require only a Glacier backup ($10.00 per terabyte per month) . I am putting some faith in Amazon, but their record is so far quite good, and a disk in a safety deposit box, at least in my case, would be updated rarely if at all. --Barry On Jan 16, 2013, at 9:30 AM, Owen Densmore wrote: I figured out the google drive vs g+ plan. It turns out they are integrated, a good thing I think. I was concerned it was yet another half baked stunt but this seems pretty well managed. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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Arq sounds great, thanks for the pointer. Looks like a winner.
Kinda interesting dropbox uses amazon too.
-- Owen
On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 12:50 PM, Barry MacKichan <[hidden email]> wrote:
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A bit OT but ... Hmm.. Just got thinking about about Amazon being used by Dropbox and their relative pricing.
Amazon charges $.095/GB/Month for its storage. That's $9.50/Mo or $114.00/Year for 100GB.
100GB is the first tier of paid Dropbox which goes for $9.99/Mo or $99.00/year (17% discount).
That's surprising: the same storage is actually cheaper on Dropbox! Why?
- Az only charges for what you actually use, while DB charges for the 100GB even tho you only use a fraction of it. My guess is that for most folks (say 50% utility) Az is cheaper.
- DB probably gets a volume discount but provides additional services for the user. - Arq is "just an app" but the same could be said for DB
But then Google gets into the act: Google Drive costs less, only $4.99/100GB/Mo. That's considerably less, but then GD is new to the game and it isn't clear just how easily it is used. Possibly Arq, DB and others could offer their services on GD for less?
But boy, this shows that there is considerable competition in the storage world! -- Owen On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote: Arq sounds great, thanks for the pointer. Looks like a winner. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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Aq looks great, esp. the retention of metadata (file dates). If only it supported Windows.
On Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 8:36 AM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote: A bit OT but ... Hmm.. Just got thinking about about Amazon being used by Dropbox and their relative pricing. Ron Newman MyIdeatree.com The World Happiness Meter YourSongCode.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com |
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In reply to this post by Owen Densmore
I love google drive for somestuff- It's great if you can use it from the same computer or have one that does java quickly
when uploading at school though for some reason it was dog slow-same for downloading-and that stuff was-illustrator files- or pictures--with those short comings acounted for google drive is slick--and more than once was how I turned in homework-by pointing the prof to a URL linked in some fation to the file. On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 10:00 AM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:
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In reply to this post by Owen Densmore
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