One drive - cloud storage | FerrariChat

One drive - cloud storage

Discussion in 'Technology' started by daytona355, Feb 15, 2015.

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  1. daytona355

    daytona355 F1 World Champ
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    Mar 25, 2009
    12,655
    London
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    Sid Korshak
    I have a PC with windows 8, running office and all the usual. I have around 150GB of files including letters, exel sheets, pictures, video etc that I would like to back up consistently.

    I've recently bought several of these drives you can plug in, that claim to run backups efficiently but it seems you need a degree to know WTF they are doing. I. Have no idea if any of them actually hold data, and whether I could ever retrieve any of it, they are so complicated.

    Seems I have two options. Buy a big enough memory stick, and simply 'copy' the directory and it's sub directories every day/week, whereby the system will ask of I want to overwrite everything etc

    Alternatively, my mate says I can cut and paste each sub directory into 'one-drive' and from then on in its all in the cloud and accessible on everything I have such as phones, iPads etc, which sounds great. If I enter one drive, it says I have 1.02 TB of storage available ?

    Is the cloud safe? Is Microsoft to be trusted holding that data, as they would have the only copy if I do it the way it's suggested to me

    Come on experts, help me out, if I don't do something soon my OCD is going to give me a heart attack, I just don't trust that I currently have my data secure.
     
  2. Wade

    Wade Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Mar 31, 2006
    32,793
    East Central, FL
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    Wade O.
    One thing to remember, the "back-up", where ever it may reside, is only half of the solution. Knowing how to restore the files is just as important.

    With that... once you've decided on what works best for you, go ahead and test its restoration capabilities. Simple test, for starters, just delete one file off of your PC or smartphone, then commence...

    Regarding One Drive, I like it, a lot. I love the way it integrates into so many platforms but, at the same time, the "cloud" is not my preferred solution for protecting critical files. External hard drives (e.g. Network Attached Storage, or NAS) work best for me.
     
  3. 4th_gear

    4th_gear F1 Rookie

    Jan 18, 2013
    4,425
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    Michael
    I use what's called a "Time Machine" from my MacBook Pro. Had it since 2008 so it's likely passé. It's a WiFi router/storage device located on my local area network which does incremental and full backups on designated storage media...pretty basic backup and retrieval. If I need to look for something I "Enter" the "Time Machine" and it shows me when I performed previous backups and how each volume or folder was organized, what they contained on a given backup occasion. I select a backup by date, navigate the displayed folders and click to restore.

    The caveat is that I have to know where to look for what I want to restore. So if the item I am interested in was moved around or copied at various points in the long ago past, I will have a bit of a time figuring out where to find the copy I want.

    So, just storing everything away is probably one of the worst ways of managing data. I never have enough storage and eventually I end up having problems finding the data. I wish that instead of an operating system, what we have as a user interface to an object-oriented relational database that understands storage device content as well as file content and its data trail. MacOS has some of these features already but it isn't complete or an integrated experience.

    I have never used Cloud storage due to security concerns and I find it silly sending huge amounts of data back and forth across the Internet when all I want is to look at something private. Personal data is not like money - you do not bank it. It's is not something I instinctive want to share with strangers. No data is private once it leaves your computing device. If I were really concerned about loss of data from fire and other hazards at home, I would set up automated duplication of my archival data using rotating identical removal volumes keeping the most recent one offsite in a safety deposit box. A cheap portable 3 TB drive is as small as an iPhone 4.
     
  4. tjacoby

    tjacoby F1 Rookie

    Nov 1, 2003
    2,857
    Vancouver Canada
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    tj
    downloading 1TB of files from One Drive will be a rather extended operation, maybe day(s)?

    Is it safe, depends on who you're protecting the files from.
    From casual hackers - definitely safe with a decent and unique password.
    from corporate competitors & foreign govts - probably more safe than your own physical laptop security
    from the Feds - not at all.

    Is it reliable? I'd argue it's more reliable than your own protection practices with more protection from fire, floods, theft. Nobody's perfect though. Once a month you can dump an external drive into your safety deposit box if you're concerned. Three unique and separate copies of any critical data would be my starting point.

    We're on Office365 for Exchange, and while we've lost access a few hours a year, we haven't had anything lost in 2-3 years.
     
  5. daytona355

    daytona355 F1 World Champ
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    Mar 25, 2009
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    Sid Korshak
    So if I buy a decent portable hard drive, ignore the actual backup programme it comes with (as they seem to never do what I want, only what they want), and just 'copy' directories from one to the other, say daily or weekly, this will work? The PC has a built in recovery partition, so I don't need to 'backup' the actual PC and programmes, it's just actual docs pics and videos
     
  6. 4th_gear

    4th_gear F1 Rookie

    Jan 18, 2013
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    Michael
    The "freebies" that come with the stuff you are actually paying for is usually pretty useless. But don't get the wrong impression of proper backup software from the freebies. Sometimes the freebies are crippled versions or samplers of real software which actually work well, so you may want to take the cue and investigate what the real software may offer.

    Copying entire volumes or physical drives instead of doing proper backups is not an efficient way to back up your data. I worked for the top tier in the computer industry in my youth and the normal backup process at the time should still be valid. You do periodic full backups with or without encryption (say every 1 to 3 months) and then do frequent incremental backups say, every week or every 3-4 days depending on how active your are on your computer. Proper backup software can be set up to run automatically overnight on a preset schedule so it takes place when you aren't using the computer.

    You need to do your homework to set up a proper system. Otherwise, you end up wasting resources and time with frustrating primitive methods, losing data or doing a helluva lot of running around and grief if and when you need to locate lost data.

    Since you have a Windows machine, I suggest you start by doing an "image backup" of your system drive because unlike a Mac, if your system files are corrupted or infected with a virus, you cannot just replace the system files - you have to wipe the drive, reinstall and rebuild the entire system. An image backup allows you to overwrite the entire physical drive without the tedious Windows installation process.
     
  7. k wright

    k wright Formula 3
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    Feb 4, 2004
    2,240
    North East TN
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    Kent Wright
    I use One Drive for absolutely everything that I save. It is perfectly integrated into the Windows OS as long as you have an outlook.com email address.

    When I sign on to outlook.com I can get to everything quickly and easily share it, edit it, project it, etc.

    I don't use flash drives or email files back and forth between computers.

    It would be easy to get a big back up drive and click and drag a copy of my entire One Drive to it (this would include the file folders and their organization) but I'm thinking that Microsoft is better at security than I am.
     

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