Clouds And Patience

[MikeB]

Now what the hell does that mean? I'll explain. Yesterday I purchased a backup/recovery product - Acronis True Image 2014 to backup my laptop. I don't have an external HD so I went with the cloud option to backup and recover the data. After cleaning up a bit, the data on my HD is a little over 100Gb so the "free" 5Gb cloud storage included with the purchase is pretty useless for this purpose. I bought more and then more, up to 250Gb, paid annually for a year's subscription. When I started the backup the time calculation was 10+ days, after running all night it's at 8 days and actually increasing. I hate to use the scam word but this seems pretty close. Not only does it take a week and a half to backup, the recovery would take just as long. Do you patiently wait a couple weeks for the data to be restored? Oh, and if you have to reboot or close the application in the 10 days the operation fails. Perhaps a warning about slow internet connections would be in order before "encouraging" customers to buy storage increments? I'm reading reviews of external HDs now, has anyone purchased a decent one locally?

[Mike S]

Hey Mike .... I love my Acronis True Image 2014 but I back my 1 TB HD with another 1TB drive .... obviously I don't have the main drive full yet but it is much faster access time that with cloud .... I'm a little leery of storing any of my info on-line .... I know they claim it to be safe but I you just never know ..... what maybe safe today may not be tomorrow .... JMHO

:cheersty: 

[MikeB]

When I bought their product I expected some guidance in using it. The cloud is a big part of their "solution". It's also a very big part of their business. They owe it to their customers to at least provide a disclaimer that backup and restore times could be excessive depending on internet connection. Instead they do a sales pitch. There's no way to really test it unless you have adequate space which you first have to purchase. My connection is up to 5Mb/s. Even if it was 10x that it would still take more then a day, maybe more. But I should have done more research before clicking "buy".

I think Acronis is a good product, I researched it and it was rated as best or close to it. But this cloud thing left a very bad taste in my mouth, especially this, "There are no refunds for cloud subscriptions. If you want to cancel simply wait for the subscription to expire." I'm looking at 2TB USB drives on Amazon.

[sjp52]

When I bought their product I expected some guidance in using it. The cloud is a big part of their "solution". It's also a very big part of their business. They owe it to their customers to at least provide a disclaimer that backup and restore times could be excessive depending on internet connection. Instead they do a sales pitch. There's no way to really test it unless you have adequate space which you first have to purchase. My connection is up to 5Mb/s. Even if it was 10x that it would still take more then a day, maybe more. But I should have done more research before clicking "buy".

I think Acronis is a good product, I researched it and it was rated as best or close to it. But this cloud thing left a very bad taste in my mouth, especially this, "There are no refunds for cloud subscriptions. If you want to cancel simply wait for the subscription to expire." I'm looking at 2TB USB drives on Amazon.

First they sell you the program to back it up then they rent you storage space. They got you coming and going. How much was the storage rental

[MikeB]

$70 annually, suffice to say, I won't be renewing. I'll probably still use it, it's ok for smaller stuff like photos and docs but not very practical for a complete system backup. I would have been fine with the "free" 5Gb. The "no refunds on storage" confirms to me exactly what it is.

[OnMyWay]

Timely topic as I was just thinking about backups today.  It gets harder and harder for me, with the size of photos and videos and the number of them I am taking.  I want to have a very secure backup system in place soon and I was thinking about the cloud, but I think I have to get better internet speed first.

 

I'm using Google drive to sync some often used files between my desktop and laptop.  It works ok and would certainly be better if I had faster internet.  Has anyone tried Google drive for a backup?  I only have the 15 gb that is free.  1 tb is $9.99 a month so a year would be $120.

 

Has anyone considered a multi-drive RAID solution?  I couple of buddies in the US have them.  Fairly cheap now.  I think that may be where I am headed.

[Jake]

 

When I bought their product I expected some guidance in using it. The cloud is a big part of their "solution". It's also a very big part of their business. They owe it to their customers to at least provide a disclaimer that backup and restore times could be excessive depending on internet connection. Instead they do a sales pitch. There's no way to really test it unless you have adequate space which you first have to purchase. My connection is up to 5Mb/s. Even if it was 10x that it would still take more then a day, maybe more. But I should have done more research before clicking "buy".

I think Acronis is a good product, I researched it and it was rated as best or close to it. But this cloud thing left a very bad taste in my mouth, especially this, "There are no refunds for cloud subscriptions. If you want to cancel simply wait for the subscription to expire." I'm looking at 2TB USB drives on Amazon.

First they sell you the program to back it up then they rent you storage space. They got you coming and going. How much was the storage rental

 

Hey I hear ya Scott.......it's kind of like the printer market.  Manufacturers (HP, Canon, Lexmark, etc) will sell

their printer units dirt cheap but they get you at the end with their ink cartridges.  

 

I still don't have a warm and fuzzy feeling about storing my personal data in any sort of cloud environment.  

Globally, the current and deadly penetration of supposedly deep encryption systems is the HeartBleed bug.

And besides that, MikeB revealed some serious limitation of local or regional internet speed and bandwidth.

 

Thank you guys for suggesting a more portable external storage device.  I need to do some homework about

SSD (solid state device), USB drives and flash cards.  

 

Respectfully -- Jake

[MikeB]

Contacted Acronis Support via chat and they agreed to refund/credit the $69.98 cloud storage charges. Awesome, if true.

[Mike S]

Contacted Acronis Support via chat and they agreed to refund/credit the $69.98 cloud storage charges. Awesome, if true.

 

:AddEmoticons04230: :AddEmoticons04230: :AddEmoticons04230:  ....... :tiphat:

[i am bob]

Regardless if cloud storage is secure or not, in the land of "slow internet", I would never recommend it for a backup. Hardware all the way!

Sent by using a very long piece of string, a couple tin cans, 2 gaseous monkeys, Tapatalk and my Nexus 4