Best online backup program?

[GinaParris]

Hey all you online superstars! I have a performance client who is a Chiropractor in New York. He wants to know what kind of backup program (Mozie, Carbonite, etc.) works for an office like his, where it would need to be updating regularly instead of just once a day. I'm not totally certain why this is his most important feature as his alternative right now is NOTHING. Eeek.
Help me come back with some good recommendations. I just use Moziehome as per the recommendations here, and truthfully, I have no idea what all it's doing. It just says its working. Thanks!
@GinaParris

[Lynn Terry]

I use Mozy (http://www.clicknewz.com/mozy.htm), and you can set the frequency at different intervals (by the hour, once a day, etc).

[angienewton]

I use Mozy too but have never had to use it. I will have to probably use it this week when I get a new computer so hope the process goes well. Not much help, sorry!

[MaryGallagher]

Hi, Gina,

Mozy is great, easy to set up on multiple machines, and will backup "Everything" or just what files you choose. It updates on its own, and is easy to restore one file or more, which I've had to do a couple times. Running WinXP, I had a couple funny things happen over the years when it updated, and tech support was very helpful and it resolved quickly. The backups are seamless on my win7 Laptop. Really smooth, inexpensive, available for all operating systems, even mobile now, highly recommend.

Best,
Mary

[nataliea]

Thanks for asking that question Gina! I've been meaning to do this for the longest and still haven't. Added it to my list of thing to do this week.

[GinaParris]

Oh you guys are awesome! I'll tell him tomorrow. Thank you so much. May it continue to work perfectly for us all!

[Cliff Michaels]

I just can't do it.....! It's the one thing that I can't wrap my head around... online backup. I know, I know, it's probably as secure and safe as anything you can do on your own....

Why can't I find it in myself to 'trust' my files to this 'foreign' entity? I have these visions of the online backup company just disappearing one day with all my files along with it...

Since I haven't ever deeply looked into it, I suppose their are some safety, precautionary measures that one could take, or that are provided by these companies, to keep your data safe in the event of __________. I just like to see my backup drives sitting right there in front of me.

Am I just being somewhat paranoid? Probably. I'll do some research for myself, instead of wondering. :confused:

Regards

Cliff

[MaryGallagher]

hey Cliff, after a couple of hard drive failures and switching out computers, the off-site backup became a necessity. I recently heard Tony Laidig share that he lost his Passport drive and wasn't sure if he could recover the files on it. I thought I was being paranoid adding many files from my passport to Mozy, until I heard that! I can't get right with having all my data on a "cloud" without also having it right in these little machines next to me too... chuckle. maybe someday... soon...

Best,
Mary

[Cliff Michaels]

hey Cliff, after a couple of hard drive failures and switching out computers, the off-site backup became a necessity. I recently heard Tony Laidig share that he lost his Passport drive and wasn't sure if he could recover the files on it. I thought I was being paranoid adding many files from my passport to Mozy, until I heard that! I can't get right with having all my data on a "cloud" without also having it right in these little machines next to me too... chuckle. maybe someday... soon...

Best,
Mary

Mary, what happened to Tony was a shame.... but I'm more creative.... I have 3 back-up drives... ;)

Now, if anything happens that prevents me from accessing all of the three, I will accept the will of the Gods,
and never touch a computer again...

But you sound like you've topped me...... you're on the cloud AND have those "little machines" too..... hhhmmmm Yes, I think you've knocked me off the hill....

c ya

Cliff

[cindybidar]

Gina, don't forget that with a Dr office, HIPAA regulations are going to be an issue. I'd check with Mozy and Carbonite first to find out if they're .... not sure "certified" is the right word - maybe "qualified?" .... to handle backups of this kind, since there are extra security/privacy issues that have to be considered.

[ChristineCobb]

In my old investment advisory firm, we had to have a backup plan that passed SEC scrutiny. We had a server with RAID5 which just meant that we had 5 mirrored hard drives. We actually had the main drive fail twice in 14 years and it was easy to remove the bad drive and hook up one of the mirrored drives. Over the years, the cost of this setup has continued to decline.

Then we rented space on a server at a data center (similar to what Mozy and others use) and backed up to that server every night. These backups were incremental so that if a file was deleted or overwritten, we could retrieve the file from a previous day.

So effectively we had an on-site backup in case of hardware failure and a dedicated off-site backup to restore deleted or corrupted files or in the case of theft or fire in the building (or even a hurricane).

[rhelling]

correct me if im wrong...but arent my website fies backed up on my web host? ...and since im using dropbox computing so i have access to files anywhere...arent they (dropbox) backing up my information?

so....why would i need 'another' backup in place?

[rhelling]

Hey Gina...
Just looked at your homepage. FYI the links don't seem to be working...

[DebraLloyd]

I believe MozyPro do have HIPPA compliant security measures but would check with them to be sure before recommending from that perspective. Re their service it can't be beat in my experience. I signed up with MozyPro in 2008 and have had them ever since. I pay a fair chunk to auto back up everything on my system programs and all, about 15GB all together but it's worth every dime. The whole sorry tale is in this post http://nextgenbiztools.com/1445/small-business-organization-is-your-online-business-sexy-organized/ but upshot is I now keep an external hard-drive with images and videos etc on it, my site autobacks up to Amazon S3 AND MozyPro.

Ok as we're swapping crash/backup horror stories here. I had built out a site for my Dad a few years ago (about 2005 so pre my discovering wordpress) and the hosting company was making some minor updates for me. THEY did NOT back up the site AND they corrupted all earlier backups so I lost the entire site and had to start over. My lesson was I don't trust any hosting company not to make the same stupid mistakes anyone else might.

In my offline business I used to keep A|B|C backups of QuickBooks just so I would have multiple backups as (also many years ago) I had a client who had a data failure and their 2nd back up got corrupted when they tried to restore.

The security measures in place are more than enough to protect your files in the cloud but it never hurts to have a local back up as well. I will admit I am not nearly as good at updating those as I have restored from Mozy and even used it to migrate to a new laptop too - worked like a charm.

Cheers,
Debra

[cindybidar]

rhelling - yes, your website files are backed up on your host, but that's really more of a convenience for them than it is for you. Just last summer I helped a client recover 45+ websites that were lost when her server suffered a catastrophic failure - both drives gone, no backups available. It might be rare, but if it's you, that won't matter much. :)

As far as DropBox goes - it's better than nothing, but with Carbonite (what I use) I can back up everything - not just the files I store there. So it backs up all my email, my iTunes, my pictures, etc.