Possibly, but is cost the only factor? What if you don't want to wait a year to get the data? Or don't want to saturate the 'net connection you're using with ju

Possibly, but is cost the only factor? What if you don't want to wait a year to get the data? Or don't want to saturate the 'net connection you're using with just this download? And what about error recovery, since no 'net link is going to be 100% stable for an entire year... Not saying Snowball is the best idea by any means. But I can see how it might be worth considering.