Backing up your data online is great, but what do you do when the unthinkable happens and your hard drive or computer has died and you need to get that data restored? I have talked about doing a test restore in the past and that can help you when the time comes to getting your data back but if your whole hard drive or computer has failed and you need to restore more than just a handful of file you might want to look at other forms of restore such as a DVD or hard drive restore.
Every company has different restore options, and while restoring over the web and through a Windows Explorer option is great for small restores for those large restores of all your files you will want to look at some of the other restore options that the services offer. There is usually an additional cost, but when you are talking about the loss of all your files the cost to restore them via a DVD or hard drive is small compared to the cost of recreating the data, if it is even possible to recreate the data.
Going through the list of the online backup services I was able to find the following companies that offer either a DVD or a hard drive restore option.
- Backblaze
- Memopal
- Mozy
It is possible I missed a company that offers either a DVD or hard disk restore. Many companies talk about how great they are at backing up your data but they do not talk much about how you get your data back. That is why you should make sure you ask them about alternative restore options. If they don’t offer some alternative to a web restore then I would seriously look at another company, otherwise you could be waiting a considerable amount of time to download all your data.
What do you think, should online backup companies offer alternative restore options such as DVD and hard drive restores?
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