Why would you have only one kind of backup? Just because I use Carbonite doesn't mean that I don't keep critical files backed up in other ways.

How is opening email accounts yourself and loading back ups on to it yourself; 'relying on someone else'?
You might as well say' using your laptop drives is 'relying on' the drive manufacturer. You need them to do your preparation for you; because you are too irresponsible to look after yourself.'
qjs


>If your going to rely on someone else for data backups then why >not rely on someone else such as FEMA for food/water, why >prepare?

Your relying on that e-mail service to be available and not leak your information.
It seems any discussion on backups always leads to "use service x" and no matter how many times I say, restores will no work someone else suggests "use service y"

What I meant was uploading (and downloading if necessary) that much data is impractical over a consumer internet connection.

This is a good topic. I take the approach that EVERYTHING that's currently in my house right now might NOT survive a house fire. That includes things in my fire resistant gun safe. So, here's what I do. It is not advice for anyone. I'm just sharing.

I scan documents into my computer and backup the scans locally and remotely. The local back up is an external hard drive. (Most people already have one.) The external backup is an Internet backup service that houses encrypted databases. The environment for the databases is way more secure than any database I can build. All my computer backups are updated nightly. The costs for the computer backups is not much, especially if you already have an external hard drive. I also keep the original documents in a fireproof safe at home.

It's all about layered security! If there is another layer of security that will fit into my system, then I certainly have an open mind to consider it.

You need to test your data restore. Can you put a blank drive in your pc, install an os and get your data back out of that online database in a timely fashion. You need your data to be flexible and restoreable. I've been burned before by online services, msn/hotmail for example many years ago when it was still useful lost a bunch of my mail. The "you need to use online service xyz" crowd tends to derail a thread as fast as the buy a mac crowd and don't want to listen to anyone who has tried and found they don't work.
My backup drive is an exact copy of my drive in my netbook with the exception of .ios's and my virtual machine images all of which are legal downloads and are not critical. Then I have a pair of backup drives in the safe that I alternate, so three drives would need to fail before I suffer data loss. Plus my restore time is fast. I've partitioned the drive in my netbook so /home is on its own partition and then the backup drives are setup the same way. So I can install the OS on a blank drive in less that 30 minutes and then either just mount /home from one of the backups and use it or copy it back over or at worst case boot from a live distro and mount my data partition and access my files. So that capability is better and faster than most online services and the few that will actually allow you to access files like that the performance is too slow to do a restore in any useful time. Don't even get me started on the idea of using e-mail as a backup, how are you going to attach and e-mail 29,000 pictures and keep track of that many e-mails to ensure you don't miss one if you try to save your attachments as a restore procedure, and yes there are web sites that promote the e-mail as a backup method, its just not scalable.
For all the most important things, the actual documents and not pictures, movies, mp3's I burn cd's or dvd's and put those in my binder as well as offsite. I have a folder on my drive for each person individually then one for the combined important files.
So now I not only have at least 5 copies of the most important files they are actually restorable. One of those dc/dvd copies if 250 miles away. And one more on my wife's computer too.
Then my old laptop is capable of mounting any of those backup drives and reading the files.
All of this requires no internet connection so in a Hurricane Katrina situation where people had to evac their city and needed to give medical records to new doctors and schools or a new resume I have mine available, I don't have to try to find a super fast internet connection to try and sort through and restore from.
Again I say try it, buy yourself a blank drive and have a DR test. I see people test their preps either through a hiking/camping trip or shutting off all the utilities, but how many have tried a test of your computer preps.
Imagine you had to leave your home and were in a hotel, try to retrieve from those inline backups through that hotels 1Mbit connection shared by 300 guests. Those online backup services are successful because 99% of their customers have never tried to restore. Don't take it personally a large percent of businesses don't either, a large statistic of small business go out of business after something even as minor as one of their main office pc's having a hard drive crash. I work in IT and IT security and DR so I see it all the time. Those services are fine if all you care about is backing up and not restoring. But you can't rely on that infrastructure to be available in any type of disaster, if it weren't for the failings of doing a full restore I'd consider them but its pointless to pay for a backup service that you can't restore from.

I need to do this. What binder are you using? It looks just right for the job!

<mentally testing>

The copy of my daughters immunization records are on a thumb drive at work (v.safe building) but that's the only copy I have.

<test fail!>

A few hints for fire protection:
The main material used in fire walls is gypsum, specifically gypsum-dry-wall. The reason is that gypsum binds to fairly large quantities of water. Water that has to be heated and boiled off before the material will exceed 212F.

You can use this to good effect by creating a poor man's fire resistant file safe. In essence you create a book out of pieces of drywall and place the documents you wish to protect flat between the pieces of drywall. The more layers, and the thicker the drywall, the better the protection. A key consideration is that your drywall book should be placed flat and on a surface that will not shift in a fire so it won't fall open in the fire.

Flat on a concrete slab that is poured on the ground is ideal. You get a triple benefit; the slab is as low as you can go and heat rises, slabs are unlikely to shift in a fire, concrete slabs tend to be cool and a good heat-sink.

Gypsum comes in another form that people forget, plaster-of-Paris. You can make your own heat resistant container by arranging two steel boxes, one inside the other, and filling the space between with liquid plaster and letting it set up. The thicker the plaster the longer the protection lasts in a fire.

There are different grades of drywall too, some being more dense as well as thickness. The thicker and more dense have a higher fire rating.