Comments on: Reader question: Fireproof storage, part two

By: A year ago on Unclutterer | Unclutterer

A year ago on Unclutterer | Unclutterer — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:16:14 +0000

[...] Fireproof storage, part two Categories [...]

By: Breakfast at Charly’s | links for 2007-10-21

Breakfast at Charly’s | links for 2007-10-21 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 01:49:33 +0000

[...] Unclutterer: Fireproof storage, part two Reader question: Fireproof storage, part two (tags: home.storage.documents home.office) [...]

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:32:35 +0000

Question: Why use an external hard drive instead of just downloading onto a CD or DVD?

By: M.

M. — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:30:10 +0000

Advice on these safe boxes my father gave me once: They have a lock and key, so it is tempting to think, ah, I’ll lock my valuable papers in here. However, they are small enough to be stolen easily and are no place to keep anything you are trying to keep from being stolen. A thief, seeing such a locked box, will take it away with him, planning to smash it later. Of course, if he could see inside, he would see that it has no jewels or cash, and would ignore it. So my father left the key right in the lock, hoping the thief would just look in and move on, bored by the birth certificates.

By: Dustin

Dustin — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 16:41:24 +0000

Our company’s experience with Western Digital My Books has been very poor. With the 250 GB USB 2.0 model, we have had a 42% failure rate over one year of use. Our tests have shown that the “button” on the front of the drive will short and cause the drive to operate in a continuous reboot fashion. This eventually damages the logic board on the drive resulting in loss of data.

I cannot vouch for the 500 GB model, as we have not used these extensively.

By: keenboy

keenboy — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:54:53 +0000

I'm a huge fan of Mozy. I've been using them for about a year now and they've done a superb job. Carbonite is probably not bad either, but their interface irritates me. It looks very unprofessional.

By: Erin at Unclutterer

Erin at Unclutterer — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:47:45 +0000

@Mirko –

Thank you for the link to the Jungle Disk/Amazon S3 article! I hadn’t come across it, and it is very detailed.

By: Cyrano

Cyrano — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:30:09 +0000

Excellent article, Erin! I didn’t expect you to cover the online storage stuff, so I’m very impressed =) Good job

By: Zorro Unit

Zorro Unit — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:19:06 +0000

Just FYI, I’ve heard great things about the companies Carbonite and Mozy for backing up your data remotely. Mozy is even HIPPA compliant with the pro version.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:38:19 +0000

If you have good broadband at two locations you could also use some sort of backup swap to keep both locations safe. I have a duplicate file server ( spare parts with big drives ) at my mothers home. I use rsync to keep them up-to-date.

With the price of disks continuing to fall, this is a good option for those that want to invest a small amount of time and energy into getting setup.

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:26:50 +0000

Thank you very much for answering my question about storing digital devices inside of a fireproof box. Unfortunately, the majority of my family and friends are in the same region I am, so I would probably opt for the online digital storage. Great article!

By: Mirko

Mirko — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 12:42:13 +0000

Very good pointers indeed! I opted for Amazon when it comes to all my secure backups because of the high security and the better guarantee that your data will not be wiped out by a natural disaster – they store the same information in several data centers to avoid that scenario.

For anyone interested in giving Amazon S3 storage a try with Jungle Disk on a Mac I suggest this step-by-step guide:
http://www.net-security.org/article.php?id=1049