Whatever you do, make sure the backup solution stores versions and not just the latest copies.
DropBox is a great example for why this is important. At 3 am, you’re putting the final touches on your paper, when you stupidly type Ctrl-A instead of Ctrl-S and hit enter. You close the file and are prompted to save changes, so you do. Computer nerds know what you just did - you selected the entire document and replaced it with a single blank line and then you saved over the copy on your hard drive. And this worthless version of the file is already being synced to DropBox as we speak, replacing your backup.
DropBox also deletes files and folders when you delete them, so it won’t prevent accidental deletion.
If you use a backup system with versioning, you could always go back to most recent version you saved, even after you save over it or delete it. (There’s some ability to turn this feature on within some programs, like MS Word, but I think you’re best off with a backup solution that does it as well.)
Also, I do consider online backup essential (even if it’s only to supplement a hard drive backup). Two common reasons for data loss are theft and disaster and both of these are likely to take out the backup drive along with the computer.
Except Dropbox does automatically store old versions of a file, even if you delete it. That’s saved my ass recently, when I was working on my Very First Serious Programming project, and I hadn’t yet arsed myself to set up proper version control…
I have a pretty massive Dropbox account too, probably 50GB or so. I was an early adopter, and they had (perhaps they still do) a promotion where if your referred someone to Dropbox, you got a couple of gigs of extra storage.
As I do a lot of collaborative research, my colleagues across the country would often be like, “I’m going to email the manuscript to you, and you can make your edits.” I’d respond, “Actually, I’ve got a better way. You see, there’s this thing called Dropbox…” I had to have over twenty colleagues list me as their referrer.
They also had an online scavenger hunt where if you answered a number of questions you would earn extra storage.
I save everything for my professional work on Dropbox. I have it on my HD, it’s mirrored on every computer I have, and of course, it’s accessible online. I started the migration fairly slowly, but now everything is there.
I don’t pay for Dropbox - but I would if I had to, without question. It’s that great.
I just scanned the features page for drop box but didn’t see this - does it have a built-in word processing app like google docs does? I’d consider switching from google docs but whatever I switch to needs to have the equivalent MS Office Suite apps (word, excel, ppt) in the cloud as well.
Another benefit of the cloud app is that the student can work collaboratively with another person. I tutor a few dozen students from time to time and I was amazed to find out that none of them knew about google docs and how we could both be online and in the same document at the same time making edits and chatting about them. No need to wait until the next tutoring session to review my proofreading marks.
Oh and this:
just isn’t going to happen. Whatever app you’re working in needs have an auto-save feature that instantly (or at least every minute or two) saves whatever you type.
Did they? Ah, I see there was a possible leak of email addresses.
Honestly though, you should be careful about putting any sensitive information on cloud services. But you wouldn’t be harmed if some hacker managed to access all the papers you wrote for your Basketweaving 100 class, or any other school assignments. Just don’t keep a list of plain-text passwords or credit card numbers in your Dropbox. Personally, I do have some sensitive information on Dropbox, but it’s all encrypted.
