Edsel Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 Asking for suggestions - which service do you use to backup your PCs? I've been using Carbonite for 4 years and they are insisting on whopping increases and, worst of all, automatic renewals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margaret CPA in OH Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 I use Backblaze. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion EA Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 I use what my IT guy tells me to use, which is Carbonite. But, he has multiple licenses and might have my computer on one of his... I got this new computer plus new IT guy about six months ago, so haven't had any renewals yet. Except for Norton Security which had a trial bundled with my computer; IT guy came in and updated and charged me $20 and now my expiration date is a year from now. I found IT guy through another tax preparer with a larger office and multiple computers. IT guy works mostly for CPAs and us tax preparer types and other financial types. My colleague has used him for over 20 years, so I do what he says. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Possi Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 I use Carbonite, too. Their price is really high now. I pay it because I pay for service and peace of mind. But I don't have to like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion EA Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 Deciphering my IT guy's invoice when he set up my new computer, it looks like Carbonite may've been 71.99 for one year. If so, I consider that just fine for the peace of mind it brings me for my business. (If that wasn't the price, then that invoice might be sitting in my 2019 stack instead of my 2020 stack!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edsel Posted June 8, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 Lion, Carbonite for $71.99 for one year is a little over half of what they are expecting me to pay! Does anyone have a solution to companies who insist on "automatic renewal"? Almost never got McAfee out of my hair for that very reason. Appreciate the input from everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee B Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 I thought Carbonite was problematic when used with ATX because it wouldn't back up the hidden files that ATX uses ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max W Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 30 minutes ago, Edsel said: Lion, Carbonite for $71.99 for one year is a little over half of what they are expecting me to pay! Does anyone have a solution to companies who insist on "automatic renewal"? Almost never got McAfee out of my hair for that very reason. Appreciate the input from everyone. Call the credit card company you use and tell them you lost your debit, or credit card. They will send you a replacement card in about 5 days with a different number. Now the vendor only has your "lost" card on file and can't charge you. Anyone that is married and has a card for their spouse can use the spouses card and not lose the use of the account. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medlin Software, Dennis Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 Main: Every hour, local backup using Cobian Secondary: Daily, local, removable hard drive, and on a secure web server Tertiary: Weekly, local, removable hard drive, and on a secure web server Last resort: Amazon Glacier to hold the files. CloudBerry as the software to up/down the files. --- I use Cobian to manage the files for the backup, creating a single, encrypted file which the various backup processes use. I like to control the encryption myself. Cobian backups into a folder I setup. Then, by backup processes use the files in the special folder only, instead of having to look all over my drives, compress, and encrypt. Since I self encrypt, even if I were to somehow make the files public, they are useless to others. By using a web server I control, I have instant access to my backups. Amazon Glacier is a very cheap storage method. The trade off is it is not instant for recovery (neither are most of the paid online sources, as many use Glacier for storage!) --- The most important thing is to test your backups by trying a recovery. Unless you dig in and self manage what gets backed up,, you will likely find your backup does not have all you need. Online services such as the one mentioned in the OP, use default type settings, which are not likely to get all data you really want to backup. If you do not test your backup and keep notes showing what is actually backed up and can be recovered, you may as well save your time and money for manual recovery, and do not waste it making what will not likely be a usable backup. Even if you never lose data, a good backup and recovery will make it a snap to move to a new computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 Daily using Acronis, per schedule with increment, differential, and total, to local external storage drive. (PITA to install, seamless to run.) Daily using iDrive, online incremental. (Seamless to install, annoying to log into to adjust.) Both tested and files can be (and have been) successfully retrieved. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abby Normal Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 Acronis disk image once a day (at 3am) to 2nd internal drive. Hourly backups using CrashPlan to both external drive and cloud, but possibly looking to switch to EaseUS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abby Normal Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 WARNING FOR CARBONITE USERS: It does not backup the ProgramData folder that ATX uses for it's data and backups, because they deem it to be a system folder. When I used Carbonite, I would copy the entire ATX data folder to another location every day so Carbonite would back it up. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberts Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 Resilio Sync I run essentially everything through a single folder on my desktop and everything in that folder is backed up onto a laptop at home. Whenever I save a file, it sends a copy to my home via an encrypted connection. Every Friday I save a second copy onto a USB drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abby Normal Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 Having just the most recent version of a file is very risky. Many times, I've had to restore an older version of a file because the current one has errors or someone (usually me) really screwed up the file. When I close QB, I always create a backup locally and usually keep 10 backups. My backup software then backs up these files and keeps them even when I delete the 11th oldest backup. ATX keeps a backup of every time you close a return, which is why I like to open and close a newly rolled over return to create a backup before I start working. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cred65 Posted June 8, 2020 Report Share Posted June 8, 2020 Acronis True Image as recommended by IT guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Michael Posted June 10, 2020 Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 I have been using IDrive for the last two years. It's about $50 a year for 5 TB. It is set up for automatic renewal but sent several emails before renewing so you had the opportunity to opt out before the renewal. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILLMAS Posted June 10, 2020 Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 How much is carbonite now costing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion EA Posted June 10, 2020 Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 I paid $71.99 through my IT guy who has multiple licenses. YMMV 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abby Normal Posted June 10, 2020 Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 35 minutes ago, ILLMAS said: How much is carbonite now costing? The thing I liked least about Carbonite is that frequently changed files, like tax returns, QuickBooks, Excel, Word, etc. are only backed up once every 24 hours. That's a large window for our most precious data to be at risk, and it was totally unacceptable to me. The think I like best about CrashPlan is that it will back up open files and frequently changed files every hour (or 15 minutes or 2 hours per a preference you set). CrashPlan is $10/mo per computer, which can get expensive for a lot of computers. There are a ton of options out there: https://www.lifewire.com/online-backup-services-reviewed-2624712 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BulldogTom Posted June 10, 2020 Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 I have a question...and I hope you won't think I am some conspiracy nut when I ask it. Do any of you think about the fact that some corporation, with a profit motive, is holding your data, on their servers, in their cloud, and maybe they think of it as their data? We know how valuable our client information is to us, and to thieves, but also to other corporations. Are any of you afraid that your backup software is allowing your data to be mined and sold without your knowledge? How would you know if it was or wasn't happening. I know this sounds crazy, but I think about these things. Tom Modesto, CA 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion EA Posted June 10, 2020 Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 Until this year with this IT guy, I have not stored anything on the cloud -- for similar reasons to what you state. Because this guy was doing this for other tax professionals that I know and doing it for years, I had him use his preferred three-prong back-up procedure, with one prong being in the cloud. I figure no one would waste time trying to get my little bit of data off one computer out here in the boonies. But, people are probably always trying to hack into the big cloud storage companies. Yes, I worry about that. I haven't gone to the cloud with my tax prep software, not for data security reasons, but because I don't think I'd have easy access to prior year data if I changed software. With my new IT guy and his three methods, I might make the move next season, because I'll have other back-ups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medlin Software, Dennis Posted June 10, 2020 Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 20 minutes ago, BulldogTom said: I have a question...and I hope you won't think I am some conspiracy nut when I ask it. Do any of you think about the fact that some corporation, with a profit motive, is holding your data, on their servers, in their cloud, and maybe they think of it as their data? We know how valuable our client information is to us, and to thieves, but also to other corporations. Are any of you afraid that your backup software is allowing your data to be mined and sold without your knowledge? How would you know if it was or wasn't happening. I know this sounds crazy, but I think about these things. Tom Modesto, CA I do too. That is why I self encrypt before the data leaves my computer. Most backup services also encrypt, some even with a pass phrase only you know, but I want to know my backup cannot be decrypted by the backup service itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottmcfly Posted June 11, 2020 Report Share Posted June 11, 2020 I worry too Tom. I keep files close to home. Am I paranoid? Who is asking? 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberts Posted June 12, 2020 Report Share Posted June 12, 2020 From my FBI client - never trust encryption. Ever. My nephew works at Apple headquarters and when I asked him about it his reply was basically to never expect anything that is encrypted to actually be safe. He compared it to putting the "club" on your car steering wheel - the hope is that the crook will just go to an easier target. I trust encryption only because there really is no other alternative. I don't use cloud storage not because I think the data will be stolen but because I'm more concerned that in an emergency event, I may not be able to access that data for a few months which doesn't work for me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitaB Posted June 12, 2020 Report Share Posted June 12, 2020 On 6/10/2020 at 9:02 PM, scottmcfly said: I worry too Tom. I keep files close to home. Am I paranoid? Who is asking? Why do italics make this sooooo much better??? I'm crying. Also, Marty McFly is my favorite. Just saying. 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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