Home Computer Audio Asylum

Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

My experience with cloud music library storage/backup

Sorry I haven't read the whole thread, but I thought I'd briefly share my experience over the last 1.5yr. with using cloud backup for my music files.

It took 45 days to upload my 750GB of flac files to Onlinestoragesolutions.com back in 2010. The storage was unlimited for $30/yr. Then I would periodically upload via ftp batches of newly acquired files. After a few months I started having problems accessing the account via ftp. I would complain and get some help eventually. At two points they transferred my files to a new server that they promised would work better. Eventually I came to a point when I could only occasionally access or upload. For a period of 3 months they kept saying it would be fixed but wasn't. Then finally they admitted they lost the files now over 825GB. They promised a refund but never sent one.

This was never my sole backup. I always kept a local one on an external hdd. One would be crazy ever to do otherwise. However, online backup has great advantages as some have outlined. I live in two places and keeping the library up to date both places is greatly aided. Also files can be accessed from other computers and mobile devices. It serves as remote backup as generally defined, though my first experience above shows the limits of this.

Now I use Crashplan which also offers unlimited storage for roughly $60/yr (depending on how long you sign up for). It uses proprietary software you download and set as you like to backup from your basic hdd to online or to an attached drive, or the attached drive to online--or even to backup to someone else's harddrive over the net and allow them to backup to you. It even allows backup from a network drive if you can get it set up. This is rare among cloud providers. It keeps up with highly customizable schemes and frequencies of backup to keep the backup up to date and to keep defined past versions. They are much better designed and organized and have been completely accessible and reliable so far after a few months. As before the initial uploading takes a very long time, but with a local backup that is not such an issue really. Restoring is by selection of one, many or all files online which are put in zip file(s)and downloaded. This is much faster than upload but still not like accessing a local drive for sure.

Doing this, especially as the services improve, seems a no-brainer to me given that these are not personal info files so security is not an issue. It is cost effective and convenient enough as a means of second backup.


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  VH Audio  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.