

Ask HN: Best alternative to Mozy? - rexreed

What's the best option for background, continuous Internet backup other than building something yourself? Estimate around 150 GB of needed backup.
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bdclimber14
I was typing Dropbox, but realized their limit is 100 GB. Seriously though,
for backup, nothign can compare to Dropbox. Continuously synced, no user input
required, little resource consumption, and continuous versioning.

I've heard they've planned to offer more than 100 GB, but all in all, I think
its far superior to Mozy or other alternatives, which I've used.

The peace of mind, knowing that my laptop can catch on fire, or be stolen, and
I won't even loose a minute of work is very rewarding. With Mozy, I was always
stressed, checking if my backup ran because I closed my laptop lid, or left it
in the bag.

Besides, loosing even a day's worth of work is incredibly depressing.

~~~
rexreed
How does Dropbox secure their data? Most of the online backup co's use 448-bit
Blowfish SSL encryption with a password to encrypt the private key

~~~
bdclimber14
Honestly, I don't know the answer to this. Their online access uses standard
SSL, but the data uploading is unknown to me. Security comes second to
convenience and reliability for me. Anything sensitive information, I'll
encrypt locally myself, which in turn encrypts on Dropbox.

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taylorbuley
Just posted about Arq on another recent Mozy-related thread
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2167171>). Arq is an OS X program that
backs up folders to Amazon S3.

Those new Mozy prices seem pretty close (if not cheaper) to what S3 will
charge you, even for reduced redundancy storage.

The other thread quoted Mozy pricing at $432/year for 385 gigs. Amazon runs
about 10 cents a gig for reduced redundancy, and another 10 cents a gig for
transfer.

For around 150 GB of backup, you're looking at about $15 a month for S3
storage and another $15 to get the data from your machine to Amazon's.

~~~
cperciva
_Those new Mozy prices seem pretty close (if not cheaper) to what S3 will
charge you, even for reduced redundancy storage._

Only if you completely fill your quota at Mozy. Most people don't have data
neatly quantized into units of 50 GB ($6/month) and 125 GB ($10/month), so
they'll end up paying the full price for less storage. In contrast, Amazon
only charges for _actual_ usage.

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sabj
You might find this thread I started a few months ago to be valuable, it
discussed a variety of different online backup tools at length:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1946416>

+

Other options, taken from there or elsewhere:

Carbonite (<http://www.carbonite.com> )

Crashplan (<http://www.crashplan.com> )

Backblaze (<http://www.backblaze.com> )

DropBox, Arq, others as mentioned already...

Hybir: <https://www.hybir.com/>

Amazon S3 (in conjunction with some services like
<http://code.google.com/p/duplicati/> or <http://amanda.org/> or
<https://www.jungledisk.com/>)

I didn't find a solution that matched my needs exactly when I found myself in
your shoes, but at least there are a fair number of choices there!

------
rexreed
Someone suggested in another thread
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2166935>) to try BackBlaze
(<http://www.backblaze.com/>) - unlimited for $5 per computer -- the old Mozy
model. Anyone have any experience?

~~~
rexreed
Here's a good review of backup options (note that it's a bit out of date given
Mozy's price change):
[http://www.macworld.com/article/142606/2009/09/online_backup...](http://www.macworld.com/article/142606/2009/09/online_backup.html)

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joanou
AltDrive (<http://altdrive.com>) is unlimited, has a free two month trial, and
is $4.45/mo or $44.50/yr. The client is lightweight and full featured. Data is
encrypted using AES-256 CTR mode with your key before leaving your computer.
It supports Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux, has data deduplication, throttle
control, and file versioning. It is easy to setup and use and has online video
tutorials and a knowledgebase.

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fdb
I use Backblaze for about 6 months now. The Mac and Windows client is light-
weight, which is a huge plus. Unlimited space, and you can recover your files
as a zip archive or they can send you a hard drive with your data.

I've tried restoring files without any problems.

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wmboy
Diino is a good option. US$49 per year for unlimited back up.

Also, Diino are quite big and offer white label back up services to large
companies like ISP's. This is good to note as it shows they'll be around for
some time.

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adeelarshad82
Carbonite - <http://goo.gl/TTmDD>

~~~
rexreed
Have you switched to it from Mozy? If so, what are the differences /
advantages?

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PonyGumbo
I switched from Mozy Pro to Jungle Disk about six months ago, and I like it.

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Khao
Haven't tested it personnally but SpiderOak seems suitable to your needs.

