Although the
official word came down today on Dell's new online backup program, the company has been talking about the service since the 2007 CES. The plan, dubbed DataSafe, is set to be coupled with every new Dell and will afford users 3GB or 10GB of remote storage (depending on their system), as well as offer additional storage in 3GB, 10GB, 20GB, or 30GB amounts for a fee. What's really interesting, however, is that Dell has its sights set on more than just backup, detailing an ancillary migration service that will allow your previous documents, drivers and apps to be transferred to a new system and pre-installed during the manufacturing process. No telling what kind of compatibility headaches that could lead to, but with the current climate of hard drive failure it's nice to know that Dell's heart is in the right place.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MrG @ Jun 26th 2007 10:34PM
Props to Dell for this, as well as all of the great new products released today. I got 10GB of DataSafe on the Inspiron 1420 (black) that I ordered this evening and can't wait for my new toy to get delivered.
Chuckles McGee @ Jun 27th 2007 12:29AM
Gotta agree. Whenever I reformat a drive on a Dell, there's almost always some sort of proprietary hardware that isn't fully functioning. You have to root through all the discs Dell sent you months ago, or head to the website, which requires you to crawl around to the back of your desktop and try to make out the service tag in the dark. Then, you'll find the drivers you need, but have to click through about 4 pages of agreements in order to actually download the self-extracting compressed files which inexplicably lack the "run setup.exe after decompressing" feature, meaning you'll have to dig through My Computer->C->Dell->unpredictably named setup folder to find and run it. Of course, installing just one driver will make your system nag you to reboot, but you'll just have to ignore it until you get the other drivers installed.
So yeah, step in the right direction.
Cronick @ Jun 26th 2007 11:00PM
All I have to say is Mozy.com
John Doe @ Jun 26th 2007 11:03PM
I was about the say the same. Mozy is pretty good.
ssegalsd @ Jun 27th 2007 1:41AM
How you going to backup your Ubuntu Dell? BackupRight Pro for Linux ftw!
John Doe @ Jun 27th 2007 3:16AM
You don't because no one gives a shit about Linux other then people who want to make a statement. Which is fine with me but lets not whine about it.
LiQuiD_FuSioN @ Jun 27th 2007 12:05AM
OoOoOh, look at the shiny pie chart!
*mouth waters*
Mmmmm.. pie!
Technikal @ Jun 27th 2007 12:07AM
The backup-based migration could be cool. They could pre-load everything you've backed up when building the machine at the factory. Then, when you get the new box, you'd only have to download the data that's changed since your new machine was built. I could see some privacy concerns, but if it has some cool potential. I know it wouldn't move programs, but it would be nice to order a new machine and have all of my files, pictures, music, etc already on it when it arrived.
yoshi @ Jun 27th 2007 12:44AM
All of my files, pictures, music, and everything else data wise are and have always been immediately available on every new machine I buy. And zero privacy concerns. Because I keep them on external drives. There are many more benefits to doing so as well. Need to send your machine in for repair? No privacy concerns there either. Using a loaner machine while yours is getting repaired? Your files are always available. The big one hits and you need to make a fast getaway? Grab your external drive and go. No need to lug your 50lb system as well.
m4dm4n @ Jun 27th 2007 3:43AM
I agree with the above comment to a degree. However, this would be very suitable to most users who don't have particular privacy concerns. I personally wouldn't have a problem with using the service, but my major issue would be that I have a 300gb hard drive almost full of movies, music and installed programs. I'd hate to be waiting around for that thign to back up remotely!
External hard drives have their merits but for everyday use I'd rather settle for an internal drive. They're quite a bit cheaper, faster and all you have to do to get the same effect is create a few partitions. If you run out of space just slap another in there and if you ever need to reformat you don't need to worry about losing your precious files because the only thing on my Windows partition is Windows itself.
Aaron @ Jun 27th 2007 2:49AM
This is all good in theory, but most ISPs totally screw you when it comes to upload speeds. I can't imagine uploading 10 GBs worth of crap at 128 kbps (or whatever is most common). And don't even get me started on shit-tastic satellite connections.
Dae @ Jun 27th 2007 8:37AM
I have an .Mac for Macs, i guess i can get this for my future new Dell. Cool. the storage does come in handy.
TIMMAH! @ Jun 27th 2007 1:50PM
I'm surprised that Google hasn't offered this for free yet. They would give you unlimited backup space provided they can rifle through your stuff and figure out how to sell you something...