[phamilyman]

I am in the market for a paid version now, having lost my HDD tonight :(

I had Carbonite for the ~20 GB work related stuff, as well as dropbox mostly for work and bit of photo sharing. The most important files were occasionally copied onto the backup harddisk and definitely nothing done on them in the last one year :(

Google drive interface just isnt as nice/easy as dropbox. but dropbox paid is TOO expensive. My current interest (once the data from the crashed HDD is recovered) lies in https://www.crashplan.com/consumer/store.vtl#tenGB-plan - clearly I want to have something that isnt just a piddly 2-3 GB, except i woudl want to have something like 25-50 GB just so that i can push all the processed photos there as well. As of now, I would be quite okay with 10GB at $3/month!! I quite like their option that you can purchase a 4 year subscription but cancel it when you feel like and they will refund the remaining months. Can you say super cool?!! Any other such services that are cheaper and also do old school offline backups too?

Any other ideas?

southwards of $50/yr budget is good and the more automated dropbox like, the better!(i;d like to have a trial first!)

[bj96]

Using google drive, free version, for over a year. It works seamlessly across my android devices and windows PC and laptops. It integrates nicely with gmail too. Hence, not looking beyond google drive. Will go for paid subscription once my free storage limit is exhausted .

-BJ

[nishantgandhi]

Google Drive (5 GB) + Dropbox (2 GB) (plus referral bonus) + Box (5 GB) + Ubuntu One (5 GB) + Skydrive (7 GB) = 24GB

All this is free and all have native Windows clients. Why do you want to pay? The best part is - you can have dedicated cloud storage for different needs.

And I'm sure I'm missing out atleast 1-2 more here.

[skartik2]

anybody tried copy.com?

15 gb free, works on all os!

[Gandhi]

I use Google drive for important documents and box.com for everything else. I have 50 GB free storage with Box through some promotion, don't remember what.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

I use Google drive for important documents and box.com for everything else. I have 50 GB free storage with Box through some promotion, don't remember what.

Ah okay. Except I found the interface of google drive rather unpolished compard to dropbox

Originally Posted by skartik2

anybody tried copy.com?

15 gb free, works on all os!

Seems fairly new - i'm only interested in stabler services with a proven track record since i want a paid one!

Originally Posted by bj96

Using google drive, free version, for over a year. It works seamlessly across my android devices and windows PC and laptops. It integrates nicely with gmail too. Hence, not looking beyond google drive. Will go for paid subscription once my free storage limit is exhausted .

-BJ

I have a login for google drive. I found the interface rather wanting in terms of polish like dropbox or fine grained control . Of course I got pissed with it in Dec 2012 and have limited mental bandwidth to explore it agian.

Originally Posted by nishantgandhi

Google Drive (5 GB) + Dropbox (2 GB) (plus referral bonus) + Box (5 GB) + Ubuntu One (5 GB) + Skydrive (7 GB) = 24GB

All this is free and all have native Windows clients. Why do you want to pay? The best part is - you can have dedicated cloud storage for different needs.

And I'm sure I'm missing out atleast 1-2 more here.

Bhai,

As i mentioned on twitter, i need the equivalent of a tour package while this is a DIY vacation beyond a certain point, one gets to that mental stage where you say big deal - let me spend for peace of mind. A coffee with my college friend yday costed me some $15 - compared to that, I think $5/month isnt a bad price (or $20/year for skydrive). I will try a few of them, and given your feedback - I will definitely add in another couple of free service providers for some my most important data.

That said, I am personally appreciative of your ingenuity and mental bandwidth for this creative solution - many folks cannot do that. I cannot, not anymore. I would much rather buy something that gives me complete peace of mind, than run something needing some sort of supervision or oversight

as of now, its crashplan, sugarsync, mozy - will install them from the hotel on the weekend. I want fine grained control like upload only from office/hotel - be able to select folders randomly and then send links to junta/family. if dropbox offered me a $5/mo plan for 50-60 GB, i'd buy it tonight. I love it!!

[nishantgandhi]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Bhai,

As i mentioned on twitter, i need the equivalent of a tour package while this is a DIY vacation beyond a certain point, one gets to that mental stage where you say big deal - let me spend for peace of mind. A coffee with my college friend yday costed me some $15 - compared to that, I think $5/month isnt a bad price (or $20/year for skydrive). I will try a few of them, and given your feedback - I will definitely add in another couple of free service providers for some my most important data.

I get that drift. Similar to why many people prefre iOS over Android - when you need something stable and which works everytime you don't mind paying. DIY can be thrilling in early life, but when other priorities take over (and once you have excess cash) then things change

But one point worth pondering is risk (non) diversification. Agreed, DropBox is superb and all, but what if they hike prices unjustifiably sometime in future? Or like many popular services out there (think Instagram, Astrid, Tumblr etc) they get bought over and the acquirer has a different plan? Ain't it wiser to look at other (non) paid options too? Just to have redundancy built in?

Originally Posted by phamilyman

That said, I am personally appreciative of your ingenuity and mental bandwidth for this creative solution - many folks cannot do that. I cannot, not anymore. I would much rather buy something that gives me complete peace of mind, than run something needing some sort of supervision or oversight

Thanks for the appreciation. But its not really any rocket science. I'm just an early adapter of technology and hence keep adding to the repertoire when things get launched. Just to clear a massive misconception here - NONE of the services I mentioned need ANY sort of supervision. Just because they are free doesn't mean you need to micro-manage them!

As long as they are set to launch upon system boot and you have added the relevant folders to be synced, it all happens automatically and in real time. And whether free or paid, you DO have to go through initial setup for every software right?

Many a times, I have to work across OS (Win 7 and Ubuntu) on my laptop and I do it seamlessly by storing the file in Dropbox/Ubuntu One. My only grouse is that Google Drive and SkyDrive do not yet have a native client for Ubuntu.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

as of now, its crashplan, sugarsync, mozy - will install them from the hotel on the weekend. I want fine grained control like upload only from office/hotel - be able to select folders randomly and then send links to junta/family. if dropbox offered me a $5/mo plan for 50-60 GB, i'd buy it tonight. I love it!!

I don't know, but I doubt that just because the service is paid it will offer fine grained control that you're looking for. For whatever cloud storage I've seen, a paid account is directly proportionate to higher storage. Rest all features are more or less same (link sharing, mobile apps, folder selection etc)

[GTO]

Google Drive's latest updates solve long standing issues with the software

1. I noticed that Google Drive would get stuck on .tmp files (e.g. my iTunes library). To resume syncing, you had to restart Google Drive. No longer, it works like a charm now.

2. If you reformat your computer and restore the Google Drive folder locally, the sync will compare your existing files with the ones on the cloud and update as required. This wasn't the case earlier. After a reformat, you had to download your ENTIRE Google Drive folder (and files within) again. Big problem for those with over 100 GB on Drive. Now sorted.

[NetfreakBombay]

I use S3 from Amazon.

Some advantages:

1. Completely customizable for technical as well as commercial aspects. E.g.:
A. I am okay with waiting for 18 hours for backups to be brought online. This reduces cost by 90%
B. You can encrypt even file names
C. Encryption is client level, even Amazon would not know the keys
D. You can control redundancy of data (multiple machines, multiple data centers, multiple continents etc). Lower redundancy means lower cost.
2. Pretty good Amazon infrastructure, it even has CDN hosts in Andheri, Mumbai
3. For a cost, you can Fedex your HDD for data storage / retrival


Some cons:
1. One time effort in making it "setup and forget" solution

[mayankjha1806]

Not sure if it makes sense. With the bandwidth availability and frequent connectivity needed (On PC and Mobile), the size of files taking longer to download i have started using WD My Cloud EX2 12 TB

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NNQG9U8

Have done mirroring so much lesser chances of loosing data, can be accessed from anywhere. This i am using for home application.

For small office it makes perfect sense to move to something on the cloud rather than local store with all the headaches of maintaining backups etc.

[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Not sure if it makes sense. With the bandwidth availability and frequent connectivity needed (On PC and Mobile), the size of files taking longer to download i have started using WD My Cloud EX2 12 TB

Need an advice. The my cloud mirror comes at a cheaper price than the ex2. Just want to understand what features I'd be missing compared to the ex2.

I now am shooting 4k videos and it is near impossible to upload to onedrive, dropbox etc. Eats up all my bandwidth and fails midway most of the time.

[hellmet]

Is there a Flickr-like service for music? I know Google Music offers unlimited music uploads, but that service is not in India yet. I have a huge collection of music that I've collected over years (~50GB) and want it backed up. Any suggestions? Dropbox is an excellent option but it's expensive at 9.99$ per month.

[execve]

Originally Posted by hellmet

Is there a Flickr-like service for music? I know Google Music offers unlimited music uploads, but that service is not in India yet. I have a huge collection of music that I've collected over years (~50GB) and want it backed up. Any suggestions? Dropbox is an excellent option but it's expensive at 9.99$ per month.

Google (drive storage) gives smaller packs of 100GB at $1.99 p.m. There might be other smaller players with slightly cheaper rates -- but atleast IMO it is better to stick with the mainstream for reliability and features.

https://www.google.com/settings/storage

[atulsian]

Hi Hellmet,

Do you only want to backup or stream music to your phone/laptop? What's your budget and how much space you want for storage?

[hellmet]

Originally Posted by execve

Google (drive storage) gives smaller packs of 100GB at $1.99 p.m. There might be other smaller players with slightly cheaper rates -- but atleast IMO it is better to stick with the mainstream for reliability and features.

https://www.google.com/settings/storage

Google drive does not have deduplication. Which means if you upload the same set of files it still copies them into Drive as filename (1).mp3. Very frustrating.

Originally Posted by atulsian

Hi Hellmet,

Do you only want to backup or stream music to your phone/laptop? What's your budget and how much space you want for storage?

Streaming would be great, but primarily want to back them up. Budget would be free or a maximum of 2-3$ a month. About 50GB should suffice for now.