Anyone try SpiderOak for cloud backups?

[rockymtnhigh]

While I am a long-time Dropbox user, and it is great for storing my documents, I was checking out backup options to supplement it. I came across SpiderOak. And for $50 (educational discount) I can get 100GB of cloud storage per year. I am testing out the free 2GB version right now, backing up about 500MB of files. The backup itself seems a bit slow, but it does not seem to be a CPU hog (my MBP is showing 6.2% usage at the moment).

I am curious if anyone has had experience with this company, or with their product? I know it has share capabilities, and can sync machines (like Dropbox), but I am thinking about this more for non-documents system type backups. I would keep Dropbox for my work files, but use this to backup other stuff.

 

[Ilya]

I am thinking of signing up for an on-line backup too. I am tired of buying external hard drives. I haven't heard of SpiderOak, but here are some other popular backup services to consider: Carbonite, CrashPlan, SugarSync.

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[rockymtnhigh]

I found spider oak in a review in Mac life, and while the initial upload for a full backup will take some time, it does not seem to be a memory hog. And the 50% educational discount seems very generous. $50 for 100gb of storage. Although I might do the initial backups at work where we have huge bandwidth. But still debating and looking at other options too.

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[LER]

I'm using CrashPlan family (10 computers, unlimited storage), $300/3 years IIRC.

Happy as a clam with it.

 

[Ilya]

100GB is not much for a backup...
I would definitely look into unlimited options.

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[rockymtnhigh]

100GB is not much for a backup...
I would definitely look into unlimited options.

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FOr what I want, it is perfect. I have 65GB on Dropbox, and I don't need to replicate that. Plus, I can go to 200GB for $100 if I want. Not looking to clone the computer, just flesh out my backup. And to supplement external drives.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

FOr what I want, it is perfect. I have 65GB on Dropbox, and I don't need to replicate that. Plus, I can go to 200GB for $100 if I want. Not looking to clone the computer, just flesh out my backup. And to supplement external drives.

I have Dropbox Pro 50GB for $9.99 a month. I could increase it to Pro 100GB for just $19.99 a month. They also have Dropbox Team which is 1000GB total for 5 people for $795.00 a year($125.00 per person per year over the 5 people limit).

 

[Ilya]

For file sharing, file transfer from one computer to another DropBox is perfect! Even the free version does a great job.

But for computer backup I would need to be able to backup the entire hard drive, not just select files. And what is also very important, I need to be able to keep multiple generations of the backup! It's not enough to have the latest backup copy only. So for me, 100-200 GB is definitely not enough. My laptop hard drive alone is much bigger than that!

1TB might be enough, but $795 a year that's way too much!!!

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[digiblur]

Using Crashplan too. But I use the free method and backup to family member's computers that are located many miles away from me. They backup to me as well. Works very well and yes we have tested restoring things.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I spent the $50 on SpiderOak, and it is basically an insurance policy to catch and backup stuff that is NOT in my Dropbox. I have a system backup as well on HDD and in a fire-safe. For $50, this is an easy way to protect some stuff.

 

[tstolze]

I have used Carbonite for several years now and my renewal is coming up in January. It works great, I really wish it was cheaper to add more computers. Currently I have my computer that updates my weather website act as a document server for all systems in our home. The "document" folder is the only folder on the system that is online via Carbonite. It gets me around paying more for each system. I will have to check on the alternatives mentioned. I like the idea of utilizing family/friends for backups, but I am concerned with bandwidth caps that are being implemented by many providers.