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After getting your computer secure and free of viruses I always recommend having a disaster recovery plan in place for your computers (personal and work). Today, I won’t go into detail about disaster recovery and what kind of plan you should have, but I will recommend at least having a good backup service that backs up your computer or at the very least your important files, images, videos, and music. You never know when a disaster could strike.
There are two ways to go about backing up your system. Both have their pro and cons. Choosing the right one is up to what you and your needs are. I won’t go into the pros and cons of either today, but as you might think it can get expensive.
One way to back up your system is with offline backup software and external hard drives. I actually prefer this way but it can be expensive.
The second way to back up your system and files is through the cloud using services such as Mozy or Dropbox. Services like these make it easy to backup, store files offsite, sync with other computers, and access files anywhere. The main draw back for this service is, if you have a lot of things to back up, it can get expensive. This is the case for me. I have almost 3TB of images, edited video files, documents and freelance related stuff backed up on external drives. Plus a bunch stuff on old internal drives setting in boxes in storage. So if I where to use an online service I would have to choose wisely and select the best service for the price.
Online Backup Services, Storage and File Syncing Software
Today, I decided to spend some time going through my past research and create a collection of online backup and syncing services. There isn’t really an order to these services and there really isn’t a “best” or “worst” service. They all do basically the same thing. They just do it differently and offer different features and storage options. This collection is a list of services that I am interested in and would recommend to my clients and family to look into.
Picking the right online backup service can be confusing. The cheapest price doesn’t always mean its the best deal. Look at the service and check out there plans and features. Look online for reviews for the services you are most interested in and go from there.
Are you using an online backup service or syncing service? If so, share it with us and let us know what you think of the services you are using or have used in the past.
Dropbox
Free2GB | PRO50 $9.99 | PRO100 $19.99 | 1TB+ Call for Quote
Dropbox is a free service that will sync all your photos, documents, and videos between your computers, smartphones, and the Dropbox website. Plus you can share your files with friends. With dropbox, you don’t have to worry about loosing those important photos from vacation or those import files if your computer is dies. All you have to do is install the software on your computers and smartphones and make sure to put all the files you want synced with drop in one place. Once its there, just make updates to those folders on one computer and they will be updated on every system you have linked with Dropbox. Image Source: Dropbox
CrashPlan Online Backup Services
CrashPlan – Free No Online Storage | CrashPlan+ $1.50 10GB | CrashPlan+ $3.99 Unlimited | CrashPlan+ $6.00 Family Unlimited 
CrashPlan is a computer backup software that allows you to backup to multiple locations, including online services and it will automatically backup to those multiple locations for free. Crash Plan will work on different operating systems and is setup so that you can backup your computers, family computers, and friends computers if you need to. Image Source: CrashPlan
With CrashPlan+ you not only get the benefits of CrashPlan but you get to benefit from the secure cloud backup to CrashPlan Central for all of the files you want to back up. You will also get additional features that include continuous remote backup.
Carbinate
Home & Home Office $59 Unlimited | Home Plus $99 Unlimited | Home Premiere $149 | Business Plans Available
Carbonite offers block-level incremental backup that will speed up the backup process. All files can be access through the web-based interface if you are away from the computer. The software can restore any files you may have lost or all of them if you had a complete system failure. Image Source: DraggonBlogger. Check out this link to see a tutorial on how to setup Carbonite on your computer.
MozyHome
MozyHome Free 2GB | MozyHome $5.99 50GB | MozyHome $9.99 125GB | Pro Plans Available
Mozy is a 100% automatic backup service. Once everything is configured, you will do a complete backup of the files you want backed up. Once backed up, Mozy will complete scheduled and automatic block-level backups. This way only new and update files are almost backed ups you work on them.
Jungle Disk Simply Backup and Desktop Edition
Simply Backup $2 per month + Storage Fees | Desktop Edition $ per month + Storage Fees
Jungle Disk offers two different types of back up services (and a business plan). Both services back up files. Check out both services and see what works best for you. The desktop edition uses the cloud to securely backup and sync your files across all of your computers. Simply Backup will securely backup important files over the internet. It will protect them from loss, theft, viruses, accidental deletion, and other issues. Plus you have choice of using Rackspace Cloud Service or Amazon S3 Cloud Service. This is a great solution for those that need a little more than a free backup storage service may offer. Image Source: Jungle Disk
Comodo Backup
Comodo Backup Free 5GB | Comodo Backup $9.99 250GB
Comodo Backup is a free backup software. Also Comodo Backup users get 5GB of cloud storage. If you need more, you can sign up for a 1 year plan at $9.99 a month. If you do not want to have online storage, then you can backup to an external drive. Currently I am using this software to backup to a 2TB external drive and works great. Image Source: Comodo Backup
Windows Live – SkyDrive
25GB Storage – Photo, Videos, Music, and Documents
Windows Live offers free storage via the Skydrive. All it takes is a Windows Live account and its yours. I currently manually upload a lot of my images (not all just ones I share on social sharing sites as backups) and some of the documents that I may need to access when I am away from my computer. Skydrive is also a great way to backup all of your important files on your computer and sync them to your mobile devices. All you need to do is find software that will automatically backup and upload them to the Skydrive. Image Source: Windows Live – Skydrvie
BackBlaze
Unlimited $3.96 Per Month ($95 for 2 years)
BackBlaze only updates files and not your operating system and application files. As you create or make changes to the files, BackBlaze backs them up. By default, BackBlaze is always on. Image Source: BackBlaze
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)
2GB Free | Pay Per GB, Requests, and Transfer Data Out
Amazon S3 offers web storage to store and backup your most important files and access them from anywhere. With Amazon S3 you only pay for what you use and access. As time passes, Amazon might update their services and prices to match other similar services. So if you are interested in the S3 service, keep an eye on it and track its progress. To backup and sync your computers to Amazon S3, you will need a software package that will create this service for you. Services such as Jungle Disk will create backups and upload them to Amazon S3. Image Source: Amazon S3
IDrive
Free 5GB | Personal $4.95 150GB | Family 14.95 500GB | Business 9.95 50GB
IDrive offers both incremental and automatic backups whenever files or folders are updated and comes with a way to access your files from your smartphone. Plus IDrive never deletes anything unless you tell it to. Image Source: IDrive
SOS Online Backup
$79.99 per year 50GB | $100 per year 100GB | $149.99 per year 150GB
SOS Online Backup is one of the more expensive online backup services. They do offer monthly plans but that is for the 100GB or more storage packages. This service has been PC Magazine’s Favorite backup service for over 3 years. Image Source: SOS Backup
SugarSync
5GB Free | 30GB $4.99 | 60GB $9.99 | 100GB $149.99 | 250GB $24.99
SugarSync is full of features, you can backup, share, and access files anywhere. It will also automatically sync your files to the cloud so your computers and the cloud always have the same files. Image Source: SugarSync
OpenDrive
Free 5GB | Home $5.00 100GB | Office $15.00 500GB | Pro $25.00 1TB
OpenDrive can manually backup files and folders and it can automatically backup your computer. Image Source: OpenDrive
About James
Hi James,
This is an amazing article and gives so many options. I currently use Dropbox, and will also try some of the others as well. I didn’t realize there were so many options. Back up is one thing I hate to do, but it is so necessary. Thanks so much. Sally