Creating An Online Backup Using Amazon.com’s S3

A recent Facebook post from a friend who lost a year’s worth of photos due to a faulty hard-drive inspired me to write this article on using Amazon’s S3 online storage to back up your files.

I have been using S3 (stands for Simple Storage System) for about a year now, and use it mostly as a sort of back up for my back up. The computer I use at the moment is a ASUS X52 Series and, like most people, store most of my files on the on-board hard-drive, but I also have connected a Western Digital 1TB external hard-drive (at least when I am at my desk), which I use for backing up my data and also storing music, TV shows and movies that I have downloaded.

Backing up in this way is a great idea, but it is not fool-proof. And with more and more information moving into the digital arena it’s a good idea to have not one but two backups.

The second back up I use in online. I use online storage mainly to save really important information (the photos my friend lost are a great example of this) as there are times when having a physical back up at home just doesn’t cut it. A great example of this is if you get broken into and ALL your computer equipment gets stolen. It’s no good having a backup of all your info if the thief has that too!

If you store your most treasured info online then you will always have that information if needed later. Enter S3. This also gives you the added benefit of having access to your info anytime and anywhere you are.

Amazon’s S3 has been around for a while but not too many people know of it. When most people think Amazon.com they think books and other retail items for sale online. But Amazon has a whole other, more digital, side to them. And an example of this is S3.

The benefits of using S3 over other online storage companies is that you are using a reputable company that has been around a long time and has the infrastructure and security features you need. The other main advantage is that it is dirt cheap! Literally cents per month. As an example, my last monthly bill form them was for 24 cents.

Amazon charges you for uploading/downloading information and also for the storage, but like I mentioned above it is very cheap. This does mean however, that the more you transfer in a given month the more you get charged.

While this may seem like a disadvantage, it is another reason why S3 is good for backing up info: once you have uploaded all your files to S3 (and paid the initial cost of doing so, which again is super cheap!), storing it there becomes exceptionally inexpensive as far as online storage goes (and as far as most anything else goes!)

So, on to the how.

Step 1 – Signing Up With Amazon
The first thing you need to do is set up an account with Amazon.com.

If you have bought anything off Amazon before you can use the same login you have for that with S3, although you will be prompted to create a Amazon Web Services account first.

On the first page of the sign-up process you just need to enter you email address and select “I am a new user”.

This page requires you to choose a user name (either you real name or a user name), check your email address is correct and create a password.

Then enter your details on this page.

You will then be presented with a complete cost structure (you can see just how cheap S3 is here). At the bottom of the page is where you fill in your credit card details (see next screen shot).

Enter your credit card details on this page. Don’t worry about security, all S3 pages use a secure socket layer and encrypt your details before sending.

On the next page you will then be asked to put in a postal address. You can either the use the one you filled in before or enter a new one.

And success!

After you have signed up you will need to check your email for one of two emails Amazon will send you. Actually, both of them have the link you are after – the one to find out your Access Identifiers.

Follow the link in the email (you will be prompted to login again), and then find the following two keys: Access key and Security key (by the way, please keep these absolutely private, as anyone with these keys can access your files).

Once you have the keys you are ready for the next step: Installing software to make accessing S3 easier.

Step 2 – Accessing S3
S3 is cheap and secure but it isn’t the easiest thing to access if you just want to use it to store files. But don’t worry, as you aren’t the only one who has had this dilemma, and so software developers have created a few different ways of accessing your S3 account.

I will be showing you two ways to access your S3 account in this article as they are the two ways I have used previously and both are completely free!

The first, which I believe is the better of the two is a Firefox add-on. S3Fox Organiser is a great add-on that you need to download and activate in your Firefox browser – you do use Firefox, don’t you?

If you don’t use Firefox, don’t fret just yet as I have a solution for you below. But for those of you who do use Firefox and have discovered the wonders of add-ons, this one is for you.

I managed to find a great YouTube video of how you go about downloading and using S3Fox Organiser (see below) so I will not go into too many details other than to cover off a few things the video skips over or doesn’t mention.

I recommend watching the video before you continue reading.

Remember those keys I asked you to copy? Well, you will need them now.

Once you open the S3Fox window in Firefox (Tools – S3 Organizer) a pop-up window will remind you to click on Manage Accounts and add your S3 account.

To do this, simply click on Manage Accounts and type in your account name (can be anything) and your two keys. Hit “save” and your account should appear on the right pane.

Just a note you will likely not see anything in this pane as you will not of added any buckets (Amazon S3′s name for folders) yet. To add your first bucket, click on the Create Bucket button (second one in on the top right hand side) and call it what you want.

One thing to remember when you are setting up new buckets within S3 is to create name that is completely unique. Bucket names are shares by everyone who uses S3 so you need to create names that are tied to you.

I do this by naming my buckets after my online name, so the buckets would be saankiip-[folder name]. This way I am pretty sure no one else will have the same name.

That’s it really. Just follow the video’s directions and you should be fine.

There are more advanced features available to you using S3Fox Organizer but these will have to wait for another tutorial (this post is already over 1200 words long).

Alternative To Using Firefox
For those of you not using Firefox (shame on you! – kidding) Cloudberry comes to your rescue.

Cloudberry is super easy to set up, but first you need to download it. Follow this link or make sure you choose the right program from their website – it’s the freeware one.

Once it is downloaded and installed it’s a simple matter of registering the product and then setting up your S3 account.

When you first open Cloudberry you will see a pop-up window asking for you to register the product. I recommend you do this and it is a simple matter of filling in a user name and email address.

Once you have filled in the information click the link under and to the right titled “get registeration key”. This will be emailed to you immediately (if you don’t see it straight away, check in your SPAM folder as that’s where mine went), and then it is a simple matter of copying it into the box and clicking OK.

Once registered you will be faced with two panes. The one on your left will be your computer’s files, and the one on the right will be your Amazon S3′s files.

To set this up correctly, in the right pane click on the drop-down box at the top that says “My Computer” (to the right of “Source”) and click on “New Amazon S3 Account”.

This will bring up a pop-up box asking you for your Account Name (can be anything you want), Access key and Security key (remeber those from when you registered with S3?). Make sure you click on the box underneath marked “Use SSL” as this will make your transfers secure. Click OK.

That’s it!

If all goes well, you should have a screen that looks like the above – although you may not have any files in your S3 account (righthand pane).

To create your first bucket (Amazon S3’s name for folders) click on the blue box in the right pane, and name it whatever you want, remembering that when you are setting up new buckets within S3 you need to create a name that is completely unique. Bucket names are shared by everyone who uses S3 so you need to create names that are tied to just you.

I do this by naming my buckets after my online name, so the buckets would be saankiip-[folder name]. This way I am pretty sure no one else will have the same name.

I hope you enjoyed (and made it through) this massive post. And that you will put it to good use. Cheers!