Cloud backup software - is it worth the hype?

[drumrocker365]

Hey guys,

So, I've been an advanced computer user for quite some time. With over 1TB of data across 2 external drives and an internal SSD, I thought it was time to try out BackBlaze, a cloud backup software similar to Carbonite. And, well, it's nothing fancy. It seems nice and all, but I'm just not sure how really important it is. I don't "accidentally" delete files, so I would only need it in the event of dropping a hard drive (HIGHLY unlikely), a natural disaster (such as a house fire or tornado), or a hard drive failure. The SSD is around 4 years old, and so is one external HDD. One external HDD is only a few weeks old. I'm wondering what you guys think - is it worth the $50 a year for total protection? Or is it all hype. Is hard drive failure really a serious concern? I've heard that all hard drives fail eventually - but at what point should I be worried? Do they last 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?

Hopefully someone can share their knowledge.

Thanks,
Christian

 

[Calculagator]

I don't know if it's worth the $50 a year, but you should be VERY concerned about hard drive failure unless you don't care about your data. Hard drives can fail at any point in their life with no warning. You don't have to abuse them for them to fail. External drives have especially high rates of failure. Some can last what seems like forever, but there is no way to know in advance. If you bought hundreds of drives, you could have an estimate of how many would fail each year, but you would have no idea which ones it would be.

Cloud backups have the advantage of convenience and (maybe) reduncancy. You can get to your backup files anywhere with internet access. You can run a program to automatically keep your backup current. If all of your stuff is destroyed, you can still get to your backups.

You can also backup to optical disks and store them somewhere safe or keep buying drives store at least two copies of everything important.

 

[drumrocker365]

I don't know if it's worth the $50 a year, but you should be VERY concerned about hard drive failure unless you don't care about your data. Hard drives can fail at any point in their life with no warning. You don't have to abuse them for them to fail. External drives have especially high rates of failure. Some can last what seems like forever, but there is no way to know in advance. If you bought hundreds of drives, you could have an estimate of how many would fail each year, but you would have no idea which ones it would be.

Cloud backups have the advantage of convenience and (maybe) reduncancy. You can get to your backup files anywhere with internet access. You can run a program to automatically keep your backup current. If all of your stuff is destroyed, you can still get to your backups.

You can also backup to optical disks and store them somewhere safe or keep buying drives store at least two copies of everything important.

Great - thank you for your knowledge! According to studies that BackBlaze does, I have the brand (Seagate) of hard drives that has the highest failure rate (lovely), but I haven't ever had an issue, and they've always been rock solid reliable for me. That being said, I don't want to "wait until it's too late" to get a backup! I definitely think I'll be purchasing BackBlaze. Thanks again.

Other knowledge/opinions are still welcomed.