Online Backup Options:
For those looking to do off-site backup and synchronization, there are a plethora of choices. Here are four of the most popular options, with our analysis of each. DropboxDropbox doesn’t really market themselves as a backup solution, their main focus is syncing files across multiple machines. That said, they keep a copy backed up on their servers to do so, so using it as ad-hoc backup is not inconceivable. Pricing: There are three service tiers, with no limit on devices for any tier.
- basic – free, 2GB
- pro 50 – $9.99/month, 50GB
- pro 100 – $19.99/month, 100GB
Setup: Pretty painless overall; create an account, download the client, log in, choose a sync folder, let it do initial sync and you’re ready to go. Speed: Initial sync can be slow, subsequent updates are fast due to use of differential sync (old data is not retransmitted). Dropbox doesn’t say whether they use rate-limiting or not. Flexibility: Full-featured clients are available for Windows, MacOS X, Linux, iOS, Android and BlackBerry. Security: Connections to their servers are SSL encrypted. Data is stored on severs as a AES-256-encrypted blob, keys are stored as plaintext on their servers. Several known security breaches of Dropbox’s servers have occurred. Versioning: One month of changes are kept for all files. They don’t say whether this counts against your storage limit. Restore Options: Online sync is the only offered method. Verdict: Dropbox’s purpose in life is to facilitate sharing files between computers. It is not designed with security in mind, what encryption is there is more a nod to casual privacy concerns than real security. If you’re more worried about losing a file than you are about other people seeing it, Dropbox offers one of the simplest backup arrangements out there. MozyWhere Dropbox focuses on synchronization, Mozy focuses almost exclusively on offsite backup. Accounts are restricted to one machine on all but the premium tier, though access to another machine can be added for a monthly fee. Like Dropbox, Mozy focuses on simplicity and ease-of-use. Pricing: There are three basic storage tiers, with optional add-ons:
- 2GB, free, one computer
- 50GB, $5.99/month, one computer
- 125GB, $9.99/month, three computers
- A-la-carte options: more computers can be added for $2/month per device, more space can be added for $2/month per 20GB
Setup: The process is pretty basic; create an account, download the client, choose what files/folders to back up, let it do initial sync and go. Speed: Initial sync can be slow with large amounts of data; differential sync keeps things speedy thereafter unless you’re often creating and deleting large amounts of data. No bandwidth caps are imposed on upload or download; your pipe’s the limit. Flexibility: Full-feature clients are available for Windows and MacOS; access-only apps are available for iOS and Android. Security: Connections to their servers are SSL encrypted. Data is encrypted locally before transmission; users can opt to manage their own keys for improved security. Versioning: Thirty days of changes are kept for all files. They don’t say whether this counts against your storage limit. Restore Options: Options for restoring lost data include online sync, web download, or a DVD set can be mailed for an extra fee. Verdict: If you’re interested in backing up your files on one machine with a minimum of fuss, Mozy will deliver. If you want cross-device synchronization as well, look elsewhere. SpiderOakSpiderOak is designed for the security-conscious, tech-savvy user. Their policies are focused first and foremost on privacy and security, with a concomitant trade-off in simplicity. Pricing:
- basic – 2gb, free
- premium – $10 per 100gb per month, no upper limit
Setup: With their focus on privacy, security and flexibility, SpiderOak’s setup process is somewhat more involved than most. Backup, sync and sharing functions are configured separately. Backups are configured individually for each machine on a per-file or per-folder basis. Sync tasks can link multiple files or folders on multiple machines independently; you are not limited in the number of sync tasks you can have going at once. Sharing is also configurable on a per-file or per-folder basis, with separate access passwords for each share you create. Speed: Initial sync can be slow with large amounts of data; differential sync keeps subsequent updates speedy. No bandwidth caps are imposed on upload or download; your pipe’s the limit. Flexibility: Full-featured clients are available for Windows, Mac and Linux; access-only clients are available for iOS, Android and Nokia N900 Maemo. Command-line access is available for scripted operation on all PC clients. Security: All data is encrypted with AES-256 before transmission, with the key generated using 16,000+ rounds and 32 bytes of salt. Said AES keys are encrypted with RSA-2048 public-key cryptography, and stored on the servers as cyphertext. File names are encrypted as well as contents; SpiderOak employees only see sequentially numbered cyphertext blobs. Users must manage their own keys, SpiderOak never has access to them. They take special pride in pointing out that they cannot be coerced to give access to your data, as the storage mechanisms make this impossible. Versioning: Unlimited revisions are kept for each file, paired with aggressive de-duplication to cut down on storage overhead. Deleted files are kept in a garbage bin on their servers until you purge them manually. This extra data does count against your storage limit. Restore Options: Available options include online sync and web access. Both methods require you to know your password; SpiderOak cannot read or change your password under any circumstances. Verdict: This is not your grandmother’s backup solution, unless your grandmother happens to be a computer geek. The combination of very granular configuration and zero-trust policies make it perfect for the paranoid geek. CarboniteOne of the best-known options for online backup, Carbonite bills themselves as the no-brains-required backup solution. Unlike the others listed here there is no free-forever tier available, though a one-month trial is offered. Pricing:
- Home – unlimited space (internal drives only), basic features, $59/yr
- HomePlus – unlimited space (internal drives + OS files & 1 external), basic features + local mirror, $99/yr
- HomePremier – unlimited space (internal drives + OS files & 1 external), basic features + local mirror + courier recovery service, $149/yr
Setup: Not much to think about here: download the client, choose drives/folders to back up, let it go. Home tier does not allow you to back up from external drives. Home and HomePlus tiers require manually adding video files. All tiers require manually adding any file 4GB or larger. Speed: Carbonite employs rate caps, when and how depends on the tier purchased. Home users get up to 2Mb/sec upload for the first 35GB, 512Kb/sec between 35 and 200GB, 100Kb/sec thereafter. HomePlus and HomePremier users get 2Mb/sec for the first 200GB of data, 100Kb/sec thereafter. Restore downloads are capped at 10Mb/s regardless of tier. Flexibility: Home tier available for Windows and MacOS, HomePlus and HomePremier tiers are Windows-only. Security: Files are locally-encrypted with Blowfish-128 before transmission. Connection is SSL encrypted. Users can opt to manage their keys for improved security. Verdict: This is your grandmother’s backup solution. Setup is dead-simple, and you never have to worry about exceeding storage quotas. Alternatively, if you have gobs of data and need an offsite solution to complement your local backup—and you don’t much care if it takes a while to get going—this may be a good option for you. The courier recovery option offered with the premium tier is helpful if you need to get back up and running quickly, as they will ship you hard drives full of your data.
What about data carving? There are a few open source tools that are quite powerful when it comes to files that are thought to be corrupt. Most of these corrupt files can be reverse engineered easily and at literally no cost….. Thank you open source. I have recovered thousands of photos for clients using dd and a few open source tools to carve the data off of the drive.
Of course data recovery companies charge an arm and a leg because it can take several hours to days to recover.
I would obtain a fresh hard drive (new or used) and load an OS on it. Once you have a working OS, attached the original hard drive as a slave hard drive and recover your data by pulling the data from the drive. If the data is corrupt, there isn’t much to be done. If the original hard drive is dead (not spinning or has the click of death), there is hard drive recovery companies that you can send your hard drive to and they will recover your data, but ready to pay a pretty hefty price tag though.
So what do you guys recommend someone do if they don’t have an image to restore from? Or lets say their backup image doesn’t actually restore like you would think it should. We all know that malware can play havoc on system images and restore points in Windows. How would you guys recommend an end user recover data?