I think you're being unfair on online backup systems, and JungleDisk in particular.
I use JungleDisk to backup my photo collection (about 4GB), and will be using it for music soon (about 22GB). It's very fast and reliable, and because it's using Amazon's service the cost is extremely low. They make money by charging for the client after 30 days. Currently this costs $20 (£10!) for a never-ending licence and free upgrades - not a lot really.
Although it takes a while to upload initially because of the slow ADSL upload speed, all you're doing from that point on is synchronizing any changes. 100MB of new data each day could be uploaded overnight in 1 or 2 hours (and does anyone add 100MB each day?!) Sure, it's slower than a USB drive, but the whole point is it's not going to fail, and it's not going to burn in a house fire or get nicked.
I wouldn't recommend online storage for all your backups, since the cost can get prohibitive if like most of us you're going to be talking about terabytes of data soon. But for things that you just can't bear to lose (e.g. photos), it's a great addition to your backup strategy, and JungleDisk really seems to have got the right idea: low cost, painless to setup and works on most setups.
I don't get paid by JungleDisk! I'm just really impressed with how well it's worked for me.
I think you're being unfair on online backup systems, and JungleDisk in particular.
I use JungleDisk to backup my photo collection (about 4GB), and will be using it for music soon (about 22GB). It's very fast and reliable, and because it's using Amazon's service the cost is extremely low. They make money by charging for the client after 30 days. Currently this costs $20 (£10!) for a never-ending licence and free upgrades - not a lot really.
Although it takes a while to upload initially because of the slow ADSL upload speed, all you're doing from that point on is synchronizing any changes. 100MB of new data each day could be uploaded overnight in 1 or 2 hours (and does anyone add 100MB each day?!) Sure, it's slower than a USB drive, but the whole point is it's not going to fail, and it's not going to burn in a house fire or get nicked.
I wouldn't recommend online storage for all your backups, since the cost can get prohibitive if like most of us you're going to be talking about terabytes of data soon. But for things that you just can't bear to lose (e.g. photos), it's a great addition to your backup strategy, and JungleDisk really seems to have got the right idea: low cost, painless to setup and works on most setups.
I don't get paid by JungleDisk! I'm just really impressed with how well it's worked for me.