Hmmm ..., "1 to 2 terabytes", let's call it 1.5 terabyes and do some math. You'd need about 50 of those 32Gb memory cards. The cheap and slow ones run about $20 each here in the US. So we're already at $1000 for the memory cards.

I guess it would work if you were OK with doing it sequentially in small chunks, one memory card at a time. Assuming a 4 day turnaround to mail the card and then have it mailed back, we're talking about 200 days to complete the task.

I think I would just buy one big hard drive myself, load it up with the complete 1-2 terabyte backup, and then ship it. You can buy a 1.5 terabyte oem drive for much less than $100 these days. Then maybe $7 to mail it and another $2 to buy good quality packing materials to assure it gets to its destination in tip-top shape. Add another $1 for insurance so the post office would replace the hard drive if they lost or broke it.

That is certainly is the quickest way to send 1.5 Tb of data.

A pair of these would make the job easier.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/NIKINGSTORE-SATA...2552&sr=8-5

The microSD Duct tape comment was really to compare something that sounded pretty silly compared to transferring 1-2TB of data using a pair of commercial ISP Internet connections/VPN tunnel etc despite the advantages of secure Network to Network communications

I've been using Carbonite for a number of years. It works very well, it's low-impact on my PC, support is very good. I've used it in a full-on recovery-from-disaster scenario and it was flawless. Security is as good as your password. No affiliation.

Mozy costs the same, haven't tried it but people say good things about it.

If most of the data is static, this actually works fine. The data gets backed up for the first time over a period of hours to over a week, depending upon your upload speed, and then changes are synced regularly. I'm backing up just over a TB this way. Before I got the extremely-fast Internet connection I have now, I did this over ADSL and it just took a bit longer to get started.

I have ran into the same issue. Backups can be done, its the restoration that is the problem. If you are forced out of your home and stuck with a limited internet connection then you may never get a timely restore.

2 Tb?! All of my important docs fit on a 2 Gb flashcard.

Photographs? A friend of mine has never deleted a single image from his camera's SD cards. When it's full he's just buying a new one and storing the old one in the portable safe. So 50 of 32Gb cards is not that unrealistic in a long run for him.

Personally, I think that the photographic memorabilia's importance is overrated. I'm keeping about a gigabyte of really good family images, which I might want to print out some day, on another 8Gb flash card. The rest goes randomly to the free cloud storage (i.e. google drive, dropbox, spideroak), and to the social networks albums, blogs, wiki's, e.t.c.

You need kids I'm just over 100G in pictures and my oldest is 6.

Must be your first kid. Quantity goes down with subsequnt kids.

Just like a diary. For the first kid you document every burp, fart, and activity. The second kid? Well, his diary is more like, "Bob was born, and then went to college. The end."

By the time #3 rolls around - "Say, did I hear a baby crying the other day? Nice job, honey"

+1 on the cloud storage. Encrypt your sensitive documents and put them on USB key as well for instant access. Chances are you won't need your mp3 collection or pictures from 2004 on short notice during an emergency.

By the time you add up the cost of NAS, Drives, setup time, checking on it time, upgrading it time, etc. then the cloud is cheaper (assuming your time is worth something). Also having access anywhere, anytime from any device is worth a lot! When you're in the hospital after you've been mugged, have lost your wallet and 75-item keychain and are asked for your insurance info you can answer "Sure, can I use your computer or smartphone?"