I’ve got an online data backup service (Backblaze) so if my PC dies, my stuff isn’t lost. (I also have external USB hard disks for local backup, and burn DVDs of my most vital stuff.)
But how do I go about using “the cloud” for ordinary storage? To keep all my photos and music and other crap? What kinds of services are there, and what do they cost? Say I’ve got 2 Tb of junk. What will it cost me a month to use the cloud as an “external disk?” What services do you like? (Any negative reviews?) How does this all work?
(This is all new to me.)
(Do they police for content? Not all of my files are SFW, and it might just hypothetically be that some of my music is downloaded or ripped… Backblaze is encrypted, so I feel safe using them…)
“The Cloud” is a lousy place to store junk.
It’s expensive, slow, and requires an Internet connection.
Store your junk files on a local hard drive, which is hugely faster and massively cheaper per byte.
The only files you should store in The Cloud are those that you want access to anywhere - files you are working on at home and at work or on the road, or files that you want to share with other people.
I use DropBox, and 3GB is more than enough for all the files that I want access to on all my devices (dropbox syncs with my Desktop Mac, my MacBook, and my iPhone and iPad).
Cool and super! Thank you! I’ll carry on as I have been!
(How much does dropbox cost for fairly small amounts of storage?)
ETA; heck, as far as that goes, I have a web site, so I could just shovel small things into that file-system as a holding area. It’s password protected…
DropBox used to be free for the first 2GB, and you could earn additional storage by referring other people to use the service. I’m not sure if they still have that offer. Both Microsoft and Google have free cloud storage options, but DropBox seems to have the best track record, and be, in many ways, the most professional. They are really geared to business users, and have lots of neat features, like personalized folder sharing (you can drop a file in a folder, and then send a link to someone, and only they can access that file).
Google Drive is pretty easy to use and gives you 15GB of free storage. The sharing options are good. I use it for non-essential non-private stuff. Remember “the cloud” is just other people’s hard drives. There is no guarantee of safety or privacy.
Most “cloud” systems are set up to sync with a folder on your computer. It’s mainly a way to have an online backup, and to synchronize multiple computers. For example, I put personal documents in my Microsoft OneDrive folder. It gets synchronized with the cloud, which propagates to all my computers. I can also access the documents through the web. (This also means I’m not relying on the cloud service server to keep my data. I have multiple local copies.)
So it’s not the right tool if you’re running out of hard drive space, and want to offload some stuff. For that, get a couple of portable hard drives.
I’ve been using OneDrive. It works great with Windows 10. I signed up for Office 365 for the unlimited OneDrive account and I’ve been using it regularly.
Before that, I used Crashplan. I like that service, too, but figured I might as well get Office 365 since I wanted the upgrade for Office anyway.
I also use a local hard drive for back up, and GoodSync to move my files around locally.
??? Tell me more… I have Office 365! Is this a feature I didn’t know of?
control-z: Definitely something to remember: no privacy is implied.
scr4: I use external hard drives too…and you’re probably right that this is all I actually need. I don’t do much data sharing. (Again, I have a web site, and sometimes I will put files up for people to download; I’m sure it would be easy enough to put a password around one, so only a chosen few could download.)
Google Drive is running at about $10/TB/Month these days. I use it for photos and music – data that has “value” in that it is irreplaceable or I have paid money for it and would have to pay money again if I wanted it again.
I do keep local copies, but a reasonable expectation is that Google is significantly less likely to suffer a data loss than any local hard drive.
Also note that cloud storage has some legal issues attached. Recently there was a case (Kim Dotcom was involved if I recall correctly) where the government got a warrant for some persons data. The data was on cloud storage, actually a bunch of disks in a raid configuration. The warrant let the government take the disks and search them. If your data happened to be on those disks, it became unavailable and the government got to thumb through it.
Oh yeah. It’s 1Tb of storage now, rather than unlimited, but that’s probably more than enough for normal use. I’ve only got 75gb of stuff uploaded (giant music collection + everything in my Documents folder, including a bunch of saved games because game devs will insist on using Documents for a dumping ground of game files.)
All the versions of Office 365 have this so you’ve got it, too.
If you have Win10, OneDrive is a folder you can see in Windows Explorer. There’s also an icon in the systray of a little cloud that will let you open the folder or open the online folder in your browser. It will also let you designate which folders to sync with your local machine.
You will need to create a Microsoft Account, if you’re not already using one to log into your machine. Oh - of course, if you have Office 365, you’ve probably already got one. You’ll want to use that account since it’s the one that’s got the big OneDrive space.
So once your OneDrive folder is set up to your liking, you have a couple options.
Move the location of your personal folders (Documents, Music, etc) to folders located inside the OneDrive folder. They will automatically sync with the online Cloud folder. This works, but it’s permanent. If you move the folders you can’t separate them again (to the best of my knowledge).
Leave you personal folders where they are by default, outside the OneDrive folder, and then manually copy files into the OneDrive folder. OneDrive will then sync them with the Cloud folder as usualy.
This is what I do. I keep my original personal folders in their original location. I created duplicate folders with new names in my local OneDrive, then I use Goodsync to sync my personal folders with the folders in the local OneDrive folder and also with my portable USB drive I use for local backup. Once Goodsync has copied the files into the local OneDrive, OneDrive syncs itself with the cloud version.
It’s over complicated but it makes me happy. Having everything in OneDrive means I can work on files or listen to my music from any of the mobile computers or phones that I have.
I don’t care about the privacy issue. I’m The Nihilist in this xkcd comic, unless there’s a burrito involved.
Well, I’ll be hogtied and slathered with cold cream. (As often as possible…) Thank’ee kindly; I do, in fact, have the icon in the systray and an account. Yay!
Grin! Yeah, me too. (Including the burrito. Doggone it, two hours since dinner, and now I’m hungry again!)