I use Carbonite, about $50/year. It works quietly in the background with no issues.

Caveat is I have not lost a hard drive since I started using it (by which you can infer what caused me to START using it...), so I have never had to test it to make sure I could get everything back without issues. It also does not backup system files (windows/installed programs), only documents/data/photos/etc.

Worth a look, not least because you can implement it with a credit card and about 20 minutes of your time. Later you can find a perfect solution.

RMW

File privacy is my major issue with large scale cloud based backup. They'll be able to build a safer, more robust data center than I'd ever be able to do at home - but those files are being moved over the wire and then stored by a third party. Places where large amounts of communication or data are transacted in a uniform way are prime targets for hackers. (or governments).  Strong encryption is good, but codebreaking has made significant advances in recent years and will continue to be a major area of focus.

It's more pertinent to state secrets than individuals, but today many encrypted transmissions that can't be broken are simply being stored in anticipation of the day when they inevitably WILL be able to be decrypted.  Ok, now I've got my Friday the 13th post out of the way

I've heard good things about Carbonite. In my case, I just bought a Samsung S3 phone and it comes with a free cloud storage option for two years if I remember correctly. I plan on trying it out and then near the end of those two years, I'll consider if I want to continue with it.

Press conference, sept 12th:

http://Http://www.macrumors.com

I use the cloud for storage of 13 TB.

If I didn't I would have lost priceless(for me information) information already when my home network crashed.

If you buy online or use a bank online or use paypal, there is no reason not to use cloud storage where the uploads and downloads are encrypted. Out of all my files only very few do I deem so personal that I do not upload them, but 99.9% of my files I really don't care if someone steals.

Hackers want to create havoc and people that want info want social security numbers and visa numbers, etc  and who puts that on the cloud? That is all online through the banking services and the credit bureau, that should be the main concern not someone stealing your photos, software backups or other computer files.

I have had  cloud storage basically since it was available for consumers, never an issue yet. I love it.

The recent high-profile hacking of a Mat Honan's accounts shows that cloud based services are also vulnerable to hacking. When hackers gain access to your cloud storage, they can read or just destroy whatever may be in there. If your cloud storage provider has no means of decrypting files you have stored there, that would at least prevent the unauthorized reading of anything.

-k

yes because it's saved to the cloud and not your device unless you've specifically backed it up

A friend of mine is just back from Euro Disney & she took videos on her iPhone.  When she got home the pictures & videos automatically saved to her iPad & i would presume cloud.
Her son wanted to watch the videos on her phone & must have deleted them from the phone.  She checked her iPad & they are gone from that as well.
Is there any way to retrieve them ?

Thanks.

I got real smart in the early eighties ... extended the editor I was using and used a multi cycle encryption technique I invented with pass keys ... what I hadn't realised in my narrow focused paranoia was that it was valuable as a technology ... I just gave it to everyone feeling quite clever with myself (thinking I'm giving them the code, but they can't use it to decrypt my work without my keys).

DOH!

WHich is why I have a REALLY good password on that account which is not used anywhere else.

I'll ask SugarSync if they have any strategies in place for this scenario...

CNET's liveblog of today's Apple announcements.

http://live.cnet.com/Event/CNETs_Apple_event_live_blog_Wednesday_September_12

4" Retina display, adds 5th row of icons per screen
20% lighter than iPhone 4
18% thinner than iPhone 4 (7.6mm)
A6 processor, roughly 2x faster for CPU and graphics
4G cellular (including LTE)
8 megapixel camera sensor (iSight) 
Modest battery life improvements
Built-in panorama camera mode
Three microphones, better speaker
New docking connector, called Lightning, there will be an adapter to go from old plug type
iOS 6

Pre-order 9/14, delivery 9/21.
16GB - $199, 32GB - $299, 64GB - $399

They will.

Just saw this so hopefully you've resolved the issue by now. But just in case...

When you take photos on the iPhone they are entered to both your "camera roll" and into the iCloud photo stream. Once in photo stream they sync with all your other *registered* devices. So it sounds like that's what happened to get them onto the iPad. It sounds like when he deleted them on the phone, it was from the photo stream, which would also delete them on the iPad. However the photos are still probably on the camera roll.

If not, one has to wonder why he would delete them from both locations....