Online backup advice please

I've been using Carbonite for a few years but I've just bought a laptop with a very small hard disk which makes it easier when travelling. Consequently the vast majority of my files are now stored on an external hard drive rather than internally.

But Carbonite won't let me back up an external hard drive unless I upgrade - I currently use the basic version. Then it will back up my laptop's hard drive AND my external hard drive, but there's virtually nothing on my laptop's hard drive so I'll be paying for something I'm not using.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what to use? What about Backblaze?

Thanks in advance

Nobody?

Would dropbox not do the trick if you've only got a few files

I use Backblaze. Seems to do the job - although I guess I won't really know until I lose all my data at home...

Get a home server (aka personal cloud box) ?

plugs into router, can access from anywhere via t'web. Maplins have them.

How much data are you backing up and what's your budget ?

Cadiz Seagull said:

I've been using Carbonite for a few years but I've just bought a laptop with a very small hard disk which makes it easier when travelling.

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the horse has bolted, but why on earth did you get a new laptop without sufficient space? unless moving from a desktop, the laptop drive capacities would be equal or larger than an old one shirley?

beorhthelm said:

the horse has bolted, but why on earth did you get a new laptop without sufficient space? unless moving from a desktop, the laptop drive capacities would be equal or larger than an old one shirley?

Click to expand...

Not necessarily.

Many new high end laptops today come with solid state drives instead of old fashioned HDDs and the significant difference in price between the two technologies means it's more common to have a smaller capacity SSD than you would see in an equivalent spec'd machine using a traditional HDD.

Earlier this year I upgraded from a 2009 MacBook to the latest MacBook Pro and despite there being five years between them, the newer machine actually comes with a lower storage capacity (256GB compared with the 320GB my old machine came with) because the cost of a 512GB+ solid state drive is that much higher.

There's also the fact that the technology world is encouraging us to move into the cloud wherever possible, meaning there is ultimately less need for high internal storage capacities in machines that are connected to the Internet.

Personally I find my SSD is plenty big enough but then I am not using my laptop to store photos, videos, music or any other media that quickly ends up eating into a lot of space. I've got external hard drives for that, along with the numerous cloud storage facilities.

In answer to the OP, if you simply want somewhere to do a straightforward upload of all your existing data to be recalled at a later date should the worst happen then Crashplan, iDrive and SOS are among the most popular. They each cost money for the premium versions however.

Alternatively if you just want to ensure your important files are tucked away in the cloud then between the likes of Dropbox, BOX, Google Drive, SkyDrive and Mega.co.nz you should have enough space to keep everything in order without having to pay for more storage. Each of these services offer limited storage for free.

Wanna get started, get a Dropbox account If you don't have one already

I also find it useful having access to all my cloud storage spaces in one place so I use Jolicloud on my computer and Cloudgoo on my phone and tablet

I use Google drive and it syncs up phone, laptop and tablet and its free so a no brainier

Do you use Office 365? OneDrive would seem the obvious choice if you do.