Computers & Tablets

[howyado]

hi to all..i have a question and have received several different answers from the geek squad agents at BB and the people i talk to on the phone at the 800#. I got this online data backup to basically use as an offsite storage for my photos, music, docs, etc. i don't want to eat up all my storage on my computer by storing all my photos there, besides i don't need them all on my computer. SO if i back them all up to my GS data backup center, and then delete them from my hard drive, will they still be there (on the backup) the next time the computer does it's daily data backup? some people say no, everytime you back up your data, it just backs up the changes, additions or deletions, so if you deleted all your pics then the next time you did a backup, data backup would see they are no longer on your hard drive so it would delete them from the back up as well. other people say "yes of course they would still be there" please i need a difinitive answer!! thx in advance! Also, when i do the backup manually it says it's going to take like 97 hours or something. what?! this isn't the very FIRST back up, it's just one i've decided to do in between scheduled backups! is it copying everything all over again? i get different answers from GS agents and phone people....thx!

[Matthew-GS Retired: Community Advocate]

Hello howyado!

I remember the first time I installed the Geek Squad® Online Backup Tool for a customer because I was concerned with how long the first backup took.  With their permission I used the Advanced features to configure just a backup of “My Documents” or “Documents” and “Desktop” folders.  This sped up the backup quite a bit because not everyone needs the entire hard drive backed up – especially the Windows directory.  According to the Geek Squad® website FAQ it can take around eight hours per gigabyte of data on a high-speed connection.

Here is the definitive answer (as I know it right now) on data integrity.  Data stays until one of two things happens: you log into your account and manually delete files from the Geek Squad® server or your account is made inactive by you (which requires email confirmation) or for reasons of non-payment.  Therefore, this remote storage is like an external hard drive that has to be connected to your computer before any changes are made. During automated backups a file that has been deleted locally would remain on the backup until you log into the site and delete the file(s). And now, I should go do that backup I have been putting off... oh look, Geek Squad® Online Backup Tool lets me purchase additional storage!