BT Yahoo! Digital Vault

[Old Salt]

Am I doing something wrong?

I took BT Yahoo! up on their free Digital Vault. Yesterday, I thought I would 'upload' some of my more valuable photos. It went on for ages, with only the 'loading' message indicating it was working. Stopped the task and retried. Same result.

So I then tried to upload just one file. After fifteen minutes I cancelled the task.

I have always made two backups of all my important data. One is kept nearby and one is kept off site.

Norton 360 seems tobe a better deal and last night I left it 'backing up;' this morning I found it had backed up and then shut down my PC, as requested. I have looked at the backup and tested that the files are good by downloading a few; all seems well.

However, it would be nice to have two backup systems...............just in case of....(you never know) ?

For the present I will use Norton 360 and my normal backup to an external drive, which I store in a firesafe under the stairs.

Would be very interested to hear the views of other AB members, regarding the backup of valuable data files.

Thanks for any suggestions or comments,
Old Salt

[ChuckFickens]

The digital vault is an online backup, which means you have you upload the files to it over the internet, how secure this is is questionable as you are relying on other people to keep your data safe, although BT/yahoo should be a secure service I'd bet they don't offer any guarantees with regards the security and retention of your data.

the lack of guarantee would be my primary worry with regards to backups, but the second problem is caused by the way that ADSL internet connections work, basically you have a far faster download speed than upload, the upshot of this is it will take a lot longer to upload a file to the online vault than it would if you were to download the same file onto your computer, so if you have a significant amount of data to backup you would be looking at several hours to upload it!

You are correct in saying two backups are better than one, but I'd do this by either getting another external hard drive and keeping one stored in a secure location or by archiving stuff onto decent DVDs and keeping them stored properly.

[Old Salt]

I must be sitting on my brains today, ChuckFickens

What was I thinking of. You are absolutely right about the lack of guarantee or any sort of responsibility should the backup not function as required.

It is always written into every company's Terms and Conditions of service to cover any collateral loss. Just like ATMs, the bank does not 'have to' make good any loss due to error or fraud; so far they mostly do, but some are not so ready to dip-into-their-pockets.

Thank you very, very much. I will go back to my tried and tested method of backup. But, I will get two new small, high capacity, and rugged external drives,

And to think, I almost didn't bother to post this question. No telling when, or even if, I would have eventually recognised the danger to which I was being exposed.

An extremely grateful and safer
Old Salt