It’s a stark reminder that online backup isn’t bulletproof. Online backup is susceptible to data loss just like any other online service.

Really though, anyone whose involved in IT knows that no online provider can truly provide a 100% guaranteed service, hence why so many web hosts only go as far as guaranteeing 99.99% uptime.

The reason why I use online backup is for the convenience, and because it keeps a much frequent backup of files than my other backup methods, (more on that later).

I’m fully aware that there is some probability that the provider could lose the data. Although after 18 months with SugarSync, this hasn’t to me so far. Fingers crossed.

This post is intended to serve as a word of warning more than anything. Online backup users need to understand that online backup providers assure no liability for data loss what so ever. In most cases they will refund your membership fee, if that.

When you sign up to an online backup provider and click the ‘I agree’ button or install the backup software, you electronically sign away any liability for data loss from the provider. Case in point below is an excerpt of my pc backup’s limited liability clause dated 2/March/2012.

This does not make online backup bad per se. But rather you should have the mentality that you could lose the data stored on their backup servers at any time, and you should have contingencies in place for other backup methods.

I have several methods that I use to cover my back

• Local Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive backup, it acts like a small data server at home. Files are routinely sent over the network and stored onto my NAS drive, usually once per day. The hard drives are mirrored, so if one hard drive goes down the other keeps a mirror image of it. On its own NAS is weak, but combined with online storage it’s reasonably strong.
• USB flash drive backup. I like to store my most valuable files on a USB flash drive, it’s the only “offline” data backup I have. It’s detached from any live hardware so it’s free from human error as long as it’s disconnected. I take out the USB flash drive and keep it locked inside a fireproof safe.

The combination of all three of these backup methods means that I stand a far greater chance of having my data stored safely and having some data source to restore from if my live data is destroyed.

It’s important to bear in mind that no backup method is bulletproof, so the best strategy is to hedge your risk by creating several different backup sources.

Limited Liability by Backup Services And What It Means to You. is a post from: Top Online Backup Services Reviewed and Rated

What many users don’t know is that many of these unlimited backup plans claw back some useful features in order to offer unlimited storage. Features such as synchronisation, and unlimited computer support. It’s often the case of a getting one advantage over the expense of another. So actually taking your time to see what your storage needs are can be useful in determining which storage service to go for.

It also helps to know how much data you need to backup before hand because many online backup providers charge based on data used. So your costs can vary.

Use the instructions below to find out your data use.

Windows 7 users

1. Click on start, then click on your login name at the top right of the menu

2. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on my documents, my music, my pictures and any other folders you think are useful

3. Either right click on a highlighted folder and click properties -or- just hit Alt+Enter on the keyboard

4. In a few seconds Windows will calculate the storage space used in your personal folders like below

My storage use

As you can see I’m currently using 45.5GB storage space in total, so a 55-60GB storage plan would be perfect for my needs. At a stretch a 50GB plan could serve me perfectly well, but I may run out of space shortly and will be forced to upgrade storage space or remove some folders from my backup, at some point in time.

Because of my low storage use, an unlimited storage plan isn’t going to be much use to me, it would be better to simply go with SugarSync 60GB plan or SOS 50GB plan as they have plenty of useful features like full synchronization, and smartphone/iphone app access.

OSX instructions for checking storage use.

Very straight forward, just open the folder you use for storing personal files and the storage used will be displayed at the top

You do not need to store everything

It’s important to stress that online backup should not be used in the same way as a local backup, you should not backup your downloads, and any large media files like movies, game downloads or web browser cache. Online backup should be reserved for your important user files only. Because of slow upload speeds on home internet connections, it is difficult to upload too much data online, so it’s important to throttle back and just backup your most important files.

Duplicate data and old versions of files do not count towards data use

In most cases, such as with SugarSync, data synchronized over several computers only count once on your storage quota, they also omit any old versions of files from the count so you do not have to account for them. Other backup services that do not offer synchronization will no doubt count your files twice for each copy of the file stored on each computer.

To compare the different backup services available look at out online backup reviews page. If you have any further questions post them in the comments below and I will reply back within 24 hours.

How much storage space do I really need? is a post from: Top Online Backup Services Reviewed and Rated

Some of the new features include

• Facebook backup
• iPhone/iPad backup
• Mac support (previously it was PC only)
• Android support through online app

One of the criticisms that I made about SOS a few months ago when I first reviewed the software is that SOS seemed to be designed for advanced or experienced computer users.

It’s nice to see now that SOS has probed deeper into this and released a much more user friendly backup service which will be more accessible to more computer users.

Facilities like the 3 click setup will allow users to install and get the service up and running very quickly. You can also simply accept the default settings and have your data and music automatically backed up. This can be a hairy process if you’re not adept with where the files are saved and stored by default in your computer.

They have also upgraded the versioning limit, many backup services only keep 30 day version history or worse 5 versions of files. Which can be used up very quickly when you save your work frequently. SOS is different it will keep copies of all versions, right from the moment you created the file. In theory for a standard word document this could mean anything up to and over 100 changes.

There are all sorts of fantastic features which has got me all excited. For a full and comprehensive review read the [now updated] SOS online backup review page.

SOS Online Backup Releases v5 is a post from: Top Online Backup Services Reviewed and Rated

The stash feature has been in private beta testing, I’m guessing it was restricted to staff and other VIP users. They have now released a public beta so all Mozy users can test out the stash feature. Some users may be elated and happy to try out the beta service on their data, me personally, I prefer not to take chances and wait till a final release is out.

This move represents a trend in all backup providers, eventually all will offer instant data synchronisation as a key feature. This is due to the fact that the vast majority of computer users are now using more than one computer. So a feature that allows all your computers to stay updated with all the changes you make to your data is paramount.

Though it should be borne in mind that Mozy isn’t rolling out synchronisation to all folders, rather just for the stash folder.

Mozy users will not be automatically enrolled onto the stash service, they will have to opt in to the public beta of stash by logging into Mozy and clicking Join Now in stash.

Now if the talk of data synchronisation has whetted your appetite, you should check out the backup reviews page for a full rundown of all the backup providers that support data synchronisation.

Mozy Stash adds synchronisation ability to it’s service is a post from: Top Online Backup Services Reviewed and Rated

Synchronisation is the process of allowing two or more computers to mirror the data stored within their storage devices. It can take place between a workstation and server, between multiple workstations or a combination of both. However where combinations are used in most cases the server will act as a node which be the “bridge” between the various workstations. So no horizontal synchronisation actually takes place. As demonstrated in the diagram below

How synchronisation works with online backup

A software utility is provided by the online backup service which runs in the background at all times monitoring changes made to files. It is the job of the utility to monitor for file access and modification. A user may be working on two computers at the same time so the software needs to work out which version is current and to prevent users from editing the same file simultaneously which may lead to data redundancy.

Often it will upload a file automatically to the server when changes are made to a file and then unlock the file for access by another computer or user. The other computer will then receive files from the server in cases where the file saved on the server is more recent.

This isn’t always as straight forward.

Challenges posed with synchronisation

In most circumstances synchronisation works seamlessly, however there may be some instances where it does not go smoothly, some examples are listed below.

• When a file name somefile.doc is left open on Computer A without saving changes, and then the user reopens file in Computer B and edits and saves changes which is then uploaded to the server. User then returns to Computer A and finds somefile.doc open and may save the file causing the user to lose all changes made from Computer B. A solution to this problem is to use file locking, this is used very well by SugarSync, it will alert the user that a newer version of the file is available on the server, and will ask you to either a) make another copy of the file or b) ask you to close the file without saving to download the newer file.
• Drastic changes made to directory structure of synchronised folders may cause data redundancy, in the case of moving a folder, the utility may misunderstand this to mean that a user has deleted a folder. This may cause files to be deleted as well. It’s always best to manage any movement of folders from the online backup utility first.
• Cross user synchronisation is always a challenge, many online backup services will deal with this problem by creating multiple versions of a file, in the case where two or more users have edited a file at the same time.

Benefits of Synchronisation

In a world where users own and use multiple devices, and increasingly smarter mobile devices which can open and edit files designed for desktop computers. There is a demand for synchronisation features which take the hassle out of file management across computers.

Although synchronisation isn’t perfect it’s still provides some very useful benefits, which can save time and potential data loss caused my user error by overwriting a more recent file with an older version.

It allows users to worry less about where they may have saved a file, and spend less time searching for them. All the folder structures and files are kept consistent across all computers, so users can focus on their work or art rather. Because the files and folders are kept exactly the same across all computers, the folder structure is familiar and much easy to navigate.

A great service that has fantastic synchronisation features is SugarSync and you can read the full review here

How synchronisation with online backup works is a post from: Top Online Backup Services Reviewed and Rated

Cluttered mishmash of startup applications

If you’re anything like me you probably have several dozen applications that all try to load up at once when you boot up your computer. Over the years you accumulate more and more applications that you “just can’t do without”, so it just keeps on piling up and adding to your startup times.

I finally reached a pivotal moment when my computer was taking 5 whole minutes to get to a usable state where I can begin working or browsing the net.

Soluto

There’s a freeware app called soluto which puts some of your non essential apps on delayed start up, such as your spotify player, torrent program, skype or snagit screen shot utility. I used it for a while but cutting down your boot from say 5 minutes to 4 minutes, for me isn’t really a huge accomplishment. You might appreciate it at first but sooner or later 4 minutes still feels like a long time to wait to use a computer.

SSD

I always wanted to get my hands on some but the cost of a realistically large SSD seem to be a be prohibitive. Recently though, while the ageing mechanical drives have been shooting up in price, the cost of SSD was falling.

For instance the cost of Crucial 128GB M4 SSD costs a mere $210 today. Just a year ago the same would set you back at least $350. So I finally decided to take the plunge as all the teething issues of the technology have been ironed out, and the price is acceptable.

After installing the crucial m4, restoring the image clone of my drive and aligning my parition, I manged to get an easy boot of around 1 minute to a usable desktop, and that’s not even the fast. I’m using a SATA 6Gb/s SSD drive on a much reduced 3Gb/s SATA interface, when I upgrade my motheboard with a SATA 6Gb/s interface I should get 25% more speed on boot out of the drive.

Teething issues

SSDs aren’t perfect, while they arguably reduced power consumption [a point of debate], decrease system boot times by at least 5 times [I managed to get my boot down from 5 minutes to just one minute], there are a few drawbacks to SSD.

Old style mechanical drives can write and rewrite data virtually unlimited amount of times, where as SSDs can only rewrite a thousand times or so.

This is easily solved though by move your frequently rewritten data such as your search index, browser cache and other frequently updated information onto a secondary mechanical drive.

Need for backup

It’s up to you to work out whether an expensive SSD drive with it’s limited rewrite operations is worthwhile for you, it isn’t uncommon for SSDs to fail as well. the M4 is more reliable than others which is why I picked this.

Thankfully most SSDs come with warranties which protect you, and entitles you to a replacement drive. So it’s should go without saying always backup your data, I use online backup as well as LAN based backups for double security. Read the online backup reviews page for full recommendations.

Turbo start your computer with SSD is a post from: Top Online Backup Services Reviewed and Rated

Although the green credentials should be praised, one cannot ignore the productivity beenfits of having all your documents stored digitally. The ability to easily and quickly search the contents of all your files in one go means that it can drastically improve your productivity.

The time saved in never having to leave the desk to look for paperwork, and having all the files available to just a few seconds means that companies can spend resources and manpower on more important tasks.

Recently HMRC (British tax authority) stated that it’s firmly in support of electronic invoicing systems and the digital format is just as valid as the paper counterpart. As long as it has all the necessary information, it’s perfectly adequate.

Typically British companies are required to keep invoices for as long a sup to 6 years, for a firm involved in high volume and low cost retail operations this could mean that the company has to store up to hundreds of thousands of invoice every year. Over 6 years this would certainly mean that the firm would have accumulated a substantial amount of paper documents required by law to keep which would cost the firm a fair amount in storage to keep.

Bear in mind there are certain standards and legal guidelines for storing a) paper and b) documents of financial importance.

Security and risk

Certainly paper invoices are volatie and prone to fire damage and other hazards, for one thing invoices can easily be misplaced making them impossible to find.

But all your accounting documents in computers is far more volatile, given how common it is for computers to malfunction. Businesses need to take necessary precautions to cover their backs.

It should be assumed that every computer at one point or another is likely to fail, in fact 25% of computers lose all their data each year.

A good system to keep backups is to store your important documents safe offsite, using a archiving only system where by documents are poeriodically backed up but never accessed or accessible by the end user.

Good practice for small business and sole traders

Sole traders need to pay particular attention to this as they are far more likely to lose their important data.

• Backups should be kept on a LAN drive, which is automatically processed once every two weeks (or a extrnal drive)
• Backups should also be stored on online backup services like the ones here
• Backups should be kept on optical media, and kept in a fireproof safe of vault.

Online Backup and Storage Crucial for Paperless Accounting is a post from: Top Online Backup Services Reviewed and Rated

Data loss is more than just losing a few computer files, often it can destroy a business.

According to the University of Texas 94% of businesses that have a major data loss do not survive, 43% will cease trading immediately, and 51% are affected so severely that they close within the next 2 years.

Shockingly 77% of tape backups tended to fail when tested according to the Boston Computing Network. Now how useful are these backups when 3/4 fail?

More worryingly 96% of business computers are never backed up (according to CPSRC)

Why are small businesses and sole traders at such high risk category for data loss?

During my time as a computer security analyst, I observed that the root cause of all inadequate security policies for sole traders and SMEs often comes down to one or more of the following reasons.

• Inadequate knowledge of data security, due to lack of technical expertise available to small businesses
• Insufficient time for sole traders to invest in learning how to use backups
• Reluctance in maintaining a scheduled backup plan.
• Importantly: failing to test integrity of backups to make sure they are safe and error free to recover from.

In this article I will analyse the various ways in which data can be lost, and how to avoid losing your data.

What are the causes of data loss and corruption?

Source: David M. Smith, Ph.D., Pepperdine University

Study by David M. Smith suggests that data loss takes place due to the following reasons

With that in mind, let’s beging knocking out the main reasons for data loss one by one.

1. Treat computers like a ticking time bomb, expect them to fail spontaneously.

Mechanical hard drives eventually wear down and at some point they will grind to a halt, although before doing so they will sparingly loss some of your valuable data. If you computer gives off warnings that there are missing files, and you’re certain it’s not a software issue. Chances are that your hardware (more importantly your hard drive is to blame).

There is no two ways about it, every hard drive fails at one time or another, it’s a given! So you can manage this by creating backups on a completely separate backup machine. A secondary hard drive can be great, a NAS with mirrored hard drive (basically a backup of the backup) is preferable. In addition to this you should account for data that might be created and edited away from your workstation, or to hedge the risk away from flood theft or fire damage. A good way to account for this is to use online backup, read the online backup reviews section here for the best recommendations.

2. Accept that at some point someone is going to accidentally delete an important file.

You can’t trust anyone let alone yourself to accidentally delete your files, or be reckless with computer equipment by hitting the power button on a computer instead of shutting down properly. So accept that at some stage you will hit delete accidentally and lose an important file and not realise it. This is sadly inevitable and happens to the best of us. The worse part is you only realise you lost the file after weeks of going without it. The only real solution is to back up, using a service that also supports versioning history so you can go back up an earlier version of the file.

3. When you start getting error messages from your software act promptly.

Having lived through Windows XP, I’m well aware of how badly software can play up. The BSOD (blue screen of death) was a common occurance for me, and almost became a daily ritual. Although Windows has come along a long way since then. There’s no denying that your files and data are vulnerable to software bugs.

If you receive an error message, you will most often be able to perform a google search on it, and locate a page on the web which wil help you resolve it. Do not ignore software glitches, they can take out your entire system.

4. Lock up, lock up, lock up.

There was an epidemic in the UK a while back of smartly dressed thieves going into busy offices and swiping laptops off of unattended desks. This led to a nationwide shake-up of computer security, leading to workers requiring to lock their laptops onto their desks using a Kensington lock.

While your office may have these security policies in place, what about your home office or when out an about working in a train or coffee shop. Be sure to take take your Kensington lock with you, and lock up all your computers and other equipment to your desk to avoid theft from burglary.

5. It’s a given, make sure your anti virus is up to date

Unless you’ve never used a computer before in your life [or just used macs], you should be aware of the need for good anti virus software. Windows is a prime hunting ground for script kiddies who want to exploit vulnerabilities in the system. The best anti virus suites that I’ve used have been avast, f-prot and AVG, all of them are available as free versions for home users.

However no antivirus software is 100% safe, don’t open files that you don’t trust, such as executables and zip files sent via email.

6. Test your backups

Even I’ve been caught short with this one, I created a system image using Acronis once and didn’t test the backup by restoring from it. So after a huge hard drive crash, I needed to recover my data by restoring the image, only problem was that the boot recovery disk did not recognise my hard drives and kept saying “drives not found”, fortunately I was able to work out that I had an out of date boot disk, so after creating a new boot disk I was able to restore.

Every bit of the restoration process needs to be tested, I know you’d rater be doing something else, believe me you won’t realise how important it is until you try to recover one day and the backups fail.

That should do it, if you have any questions fire away. I’d be glad to answer them for you.

5 ways you can easily lose your data (and probably your job) is a post from: Top Online Backup Services Reviewed and Rated

Editor’s Rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars

Avg. User Rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars
(4 reviews)

MyPCBackup Review Summary

Pros

• Unlimited storage space
• Synchronisation ability for multiple computers
• Ability to sync multiple computers

Cons

• New company, therefore lacks long term user feedback
• Lacks Mac and Smartphone support
• Lack of extended features

Conclusion

MyPCBackup is good value for money service that offers unlimited computer backup and unlimited storage space, but needs to be more feature rich to compete with the market leaders

 

MyPCbackup is a relatively new backup service that launched in 2010, over recent years we’ve seen many backup services launch, but few of them have managed to get our attention like MyPCBackup has.

Straight away, one of the first things you’ll notice is that the service offers some incredible value for money deals. The unlimited storage, with multi computer synchronisation are normally unlikely bedfellows as services either support unlimited storage but with restricted access from additional computers, or offer instantaneous backups across unlimited number of computers but with minimal storage space.

Prices start from $5.95 per annum, which is very competitive, it certainly beats the leading rivals like Carbonite and LiveDrive on price.

During our testing we found the upload speed quite slow, even on our fast internet connection, it took us a while to upload a mere 10MB library of pictures. On the plus side the interface was very easy to use and found it to be intuitive.

The reason for this could be down to the simplicity of the user interface, which ultimately comes down to the fact that MyPCBackup is very basic and doesn’t support many advanced features.

The upload/download file transfer queues cannot be prioritised, which is annoying, because many times you want to prioritise the recovery/backup of your most important files ahead drive fillers.

All in all, I think MyPCBackup has a long way to go to rival the likes to Mozy and SugarSync, but it’s strength lies in the generous storage plans and relatively cheap pricing. With a bit more work on some advanced features, and Mac support, MyPCBackup can be a real showstomper.

Bottom line is, If you just want a value for money online backup plan and aren’t too concerned with advanced features then MyPCBackup should be perfect for you.

Visit MyPCBackup Homepage

MyPCBackup Review is a post from: Top Online Backup Services Reviewed and Rated

As you can imagine, my job requires me to spend a great deal of time testing and reviewing backup software for this site. After a certain point all online backup software appear the same or very similar, at least.

When I began my review of SOS online backup I was expecting the same old typical online backup features, however after installing the software I was pleasantly surprised.

It’s been quite some time since I came across a backup service that took the time to really consider the needs and requirements of the end user, the first of which was when I tested out SugarSync.

Local external drive backups

There are some very useful features available to SOS online backup, which I’m amazed aren’t supported by other providers, one of the most useful advantages SOS online backup has is that it supports local external drive backups, now online backup is great for your critical files, but it’s not useful for large media files and the most cost effective method to backup large files is onto an external hard drive. Too often you have to fork out another $50 for a local backup software. But SOS have thought about that, and built in local backup functionality on their free online backup software that is provided with your online backup subscription.

Custom encryption keys

Now, at this point I realise I should warn you, SOS online backup is not designed for beginners or luddites, SOS online backup has some advanced features which may cause more problems than it solves if not used correctly. This is particularly the case with the UltraSafe feature, all online backup services support data encryption which involves encoding the files using a key. The files can only be decoded using that key. If you forget or lose the key, your data is as good as lost. Most of the providers realise that a sizeable proportion of users will lose or forget their keys, so they set and keep the encryption keys hidden from the end user.

Although this is a safe practice, it is by no means foolproof, so SOS online backup supports UltraSafe which allows its users to set their own encryption keys. You can choose to use it or opt out, but note that when you use UltraSafe, you need to set a tough encryption key that cannot be broken using brute force, and keep a hard copy in case you forget it. Because SOS Online Backup will not be able to recover your files without it.

Backup scheduling

SOS supports both automatic backup and scheduled backed, although automatic backup is the preferred choice, it should be noted that if you are working on a large document that you save every 15 minutes or so, it can slow down your internet connection as SOS will keep uploading every saved version of the file. So you can elect to do scheduled backups instead.

Web Access

Much like SugarSync and Carbonite, you can access your backups through the web, from an unattached computer, this is useful if you want to access certain files away from your home, such as through your work computer.

Conclusion

SOS Online Backup has worked well during our tests, and has well packed featured that should set an example for others to follow. On the flipside the array of features and configurables could alienate many novice computer users, and I suspect SOS Online Backup is designed more for advanced computer users.

Visit SOS Online Backup Homepage

SOS Online Backup Review is a post from: Top Online Backup Services Reviewed and Rated