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I'm looking for an online backup solution simple enough that my father could use, so it needs to be simple, automatic and trustworthy.

My current advice is to use a portable USB drive, but I am now willing to move online to avoid having local data and the manual process of making copies. FTP, rsync and so on are not options here. The software should be easy to use and take care of what folders to backup, how often, transmit only differentials, keep some revisions, etc.

I've seen there are popping out options for online storage backup solutions. What have you tried? Any recommendations? It doesn't need to be free, but a free trial would be nice. Encryption?

I've seen a related question for business. It's related, but aimed at a different scenario.

EDIT:

Answering some questions that arised:

It should run on Windows. We have slow ADSL here, some upload speed is around 128-256kbps (that´s why differentials are important). The information is not CIA-grade sensitive, but I would prefer to have it encrypted, at least on the back-end. If they get hacked,I would not like all my documents open on the wild. No need for multiple computer support.

I guess I will try out Dropbox and Mozy, the current upvoted alternatives and let you know. I'm also tempted to try JungleDisk as the usage of an S3 backend seems elegant. Any other that uses S3?

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I guess this is covered at Upload-and-forget remote backup, superuser.com/questions/957/upload-and-forget-remote-backup (though that title could be better) – Arjan Jul 15 '09 at 15:39
Which operating system is this for? What internet upload speed is available? Is any of the information backed up sensitive or confidential you mention encryption but is this on the link or at the server end and, if the latter, who provides the keys - the user or the vendor? How many gigabytes? – mas Jul 15 '09 at 15:50
@Arjan van Bentem: please comment on that questions with a better title, and I'll update it if appropriate. I still think the questions are different - I want a one-time upload, while this question referrs to periodic, automatic backups. – Robert Munteanu Jul 16 '09 at 12:52
Dropbox is good, icons got messy sometimes when you're uploading files. But its good. I don't like the uploading animation on windows taskbar: the sync icon could be a little bigger. – Junior Mayhé Apr 26 '10 at 22:45
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Kids definition of "online storage": Email to self. Not kidding. – Hello71 Jul 22 '10 at 2:13
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closed as not constructive by Sathya♦ Mar 11 '11 at 4:00

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10 Answers

up vote 29 down vote accepted

Dropbox is the simplest I've used. I have got a couple of elderly people on to using it and they love it.

It's free for 2GB and is Windows, Linux, Mac compatible. Transfer and storage of files is encrypted (using AES I believe).

You can just tell your father that if he puts a file/folder anywhere under "My Dropbox" it is automatically backed up off-site for him. Also, deleted / renamed / moved files are automatically kept in sync off-site.

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Dropbox get's my vote! – MrBrutal Jul 15 '09 at 15:42
+1 for Dropbox... – Bo Tian Jul 16 '09 at 2:26
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One issue with dropbox is the pricing - 2gb, 50gb or 100gb but no inbetweens. They've said they can't change it because of their business model which is unfortunate as it has great tools – Chris S Jul 16 '09 at 10:40
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One of my favorite apps from the past five years. :) Free accounts can go up to 5GBs if you're able to max out the referrals. Only thing left on my short term wish list is a more secure implementation of encryption. Honestly though, I can't really complain - and I'm not at all. Great, great, GREAT app! – techtechmo Sep 14 '09 at 12:52
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up vote 15 down vote

Mozy is awesome and free if he has under 2GB of backup. You can schedule backups & only be alerted when there is an issue. Very worry-free

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+1 but I think MozyHome Free only has a 2Gb allowance – Mike1980 Oct 25 '09 at 19:52
@MikeR - You're right!! (fixed) – kpoehls Oct 26 '09 at 16:24
I have personally had a lot of troubles on Mac, but I'm still paying for it. It seems to be getting better, if slowly. I can't recommend it for Mac yet, but it's getting there. – donut Feb 12 '10 at 0:57
I've tried Mozy and the only thing I didn't like is how you recover files. You go to their site and then select the files you want. Later, about 1-3hrs later, you get an email with a link for the files you requested. I didn't like that amount of waiting. – Hondalex Jan 11 '11 at 19:51
I've had all sorts of problems with Mozy (on a PC). Also heard stories from people having trouble when it they actually need to retrieve a backup. – UpTheCreek May 26 '11 at 6:49
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up vote 12 down vote

I personally use jungle disk, because it supports my linux and window boxen. I believe mozy and carbonite are well regarded windows only solutions.

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+1 for JungleDisk. – Jon Tackabury Jul 15 '09 at 15:42
Last time I checked, jungle disk is not as simple as Dropbox and some others, don't forget it needs to be "simple enough my father could use" – Ash Jul 15 '09 at 15:46
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Don't do Carbonite. I tried uploading 30gb with their tool and it broke repeatedly 3 times. I tried to salvage the uploads and go told an equivalent of "tough" by their support. – Chris S Jul 16 '09 at 10:39
Mozy is available on Mac as well. – donut Feb 12 '10 at 0:56
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up vote 8 down vote

I have tried Mozy and Jungledisk on my Mac (which has Time Machine for local backups). Mozy got some bad rep about backups not being restored. I then switched to JungleDisk (paid for the software, and paying Amazon S3 for sotrage). Working fine, but not exactly painless to set up.

Recently my dad needed a backup solution and my brother-in-law realized his backup was lousy too. We came across Crashplan http://www.crashplan.com/

Now we use Crashplan to back up to each others machines. Quick, painless and free. We are each others remote backups. Data is encrypted. Much less fuss than Jungledisk. No noticeable fall in system performance.

Crashplan offers a paid online backup to their hosted servers also if you want to go beyond peer-to-peer backup. I think I'll ditch Jungledisk + S3 soon.

(JungleDisk does not play nice with 3G mobile internet connections)

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Just wanted to +1 this option. I used Mozy and Jungledisk for a long time before discovering CrashPlan. Not only does CrashPlan let you do remote backups, but these can be to friends or their cloud data storage system. Prices are pretty reasonable, $6/mo for unlimited data from 10 computers if you buy a 4 year plan. Also, you can backup to a local hard disk too. This allows you to easily seed remote backups and ensure you have extra piece of mind. For my setup, I use CrashPlan Central, backup files locally to a Drobo, and remotely a friends NAS. Works wonderfully. Restore via web is great too! – Pridkett Feb 22 '11 at 17:10
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up vote 7 down vote

Syncplicity has one of the best user experiences in this area (IMHO). You can get a 2GB free account too.

EDIT: I should also add that this is what I use, and I like it enough to pay for it :)

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+1 for great interface, referal program to get space up to 5GB on free account and very easy to use – ianfuture Nov 6 '09 at 11:11
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up vote 5 down vote

You could also try Windows Live Mesh which gives you 5GB for free.

Plus you also get an easy Remote Desktop feature as well.

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There are also APIs available to developers that will (in the future) allow them to extend capabilities to work with your Mesh. There are some great upsides coming to this technology – Jeff Fritz Jul 15 '09 at 15:43
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up vote 5 down vote

Another option I found out later was Backblaze. They offer unlimited storage for 5/month. No free storage for low-end users, but it´s cheap and they have a 15 day free trial.

They also feature a nice blog entry describing how to build a cheap storage system (serverfault users will be interested in that one)

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I was about to suggest that. It looks like it's everything one wants, unlimited storage and cheap. $5 a month is not expensive at all! – Hondalex Sep 2 '09 at 18:59
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up vote 4 down vote

Sugarsync is very easy to use, has a full web interface (and client to sync folders, if needed). It has 2gb as a starter for free, and iPhone app.

I've tried virtually every other provider over 2 years, and the only one that came close was jungledisk.com, and dropbox.com.

The Amazon S3 model however is expensive, as it's charged for bandwidth usage.

Dropbox didn't have an intermediate pricing option like sugarsync which put me off, but the web interface is very easy to use. Dropbox also uses S3 behind the scenes but you aren't charged for bandwidth.

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+1 I haven't tried Sugarsync, looks easy to use like Dropbox, thanks for the link. – Ash Jul 15 '09 at 15:49
That's getdropbox.com. D---b--.com is owned by a squatter. – phenry Jul 18 '09 at 0:21
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up vote 2 down vote

I use Carbonite.

It's cheap at about $60/year, space is unlimited, backups are transmitted over an encrypted connection, and the interface is simple - you just right-click on a folder to add it to the online archive. Also, there is a free 15-day trial.

The only downside is that it's slow as molasses (intentionally so - they can only offer the cheap price because their bandwidth costs are relatively low), so my initial backup of 100 GB or so took a few weeks. However, it should be noted that this was on a laptop, so my machine wasn't on 24/7. The incremental backups that occur after the initial backup are pretty quick, though.

The only thing is that I can't definitively recommend it because I've never had to restore from it (and hopefully never will).

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Also they won't back up your videos unless you go to every folder that has them and force it to back up. Was annoying enough to make me ditch it. – RandomEngy Apr 4 '11 at 18:33
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up vote 1 down vote

Scott Hanselman has several blog posts describing his family backup system using a combination of Mozy and external drives. See here. There are also several good backup plans discussed in the comments of that post.

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