[CLOUD] Stashing Stuff Online?

I use iCloud for personal stuff. I often need to work on files at home and at work. For that we have a paid dropbox. I agree with the comments on security however it's very convenient. I am careful what files I put up there.

Like several of the other commenters, I am not trusting of "cloud" storage. The things that I consider important (music that I have mixed for other people, certain personal files and system data) is saved incrementally with Casper to several 1 TB hard drives daily. That provides me with a mirror image backup that is never over 1 day old. Works fine for me and I consider it about as good as it gets for no charge. This happens while I sleep!!!

I use cloud services for files I need to access with multiple devices, such as current school work and things I am reading on multiple devices. I do not use it for backup or specifically for storage. I believe that this is a reasonable use for the space. My backups are on external hard drives (that are not permanently attached to the computer!) and once in a while on optical media.

We mainly use Google Drive as a convenient way to share important encrypted files between several devices. To a somewhat lesser degree, (for sharing unimportant photos and misc. documents), we also use Microsoft's OneDrive, Apple's iCloud and Dropbox. By spreading files between services, it's been easy to stay within the limits of the various free offerings, (in part, because all our large back-ups are kept on local storage, rather than on any cloud servers.)

I have tried OneDrive, Google Drive, Spideroak, and a few others. Google Drive seemed to give the most bang for my buck until recently.

I found an app called Degoo on the Play Store, which offers 100 GB free to start. Watching 30 second videos will earn you another gigabyte and downloading/running sponsored apps will fetch from a few hundred gigabytes to around 1.5 terabytes per app. You can upgrade if you want to skip all that and pay a monthly fee (not sure how much yet). Like I said I just found Degoo this week so we'll see how good free really is in this case.

Degoo also encrypts your files on your device before uploading, a boon for the privacy conscious.

I have nothing in the "cloud" and never will. I rotate my backups monthly between two hard drives. I don't trust anyone outside of my front door.

For those needing that much data assurance, a pair of hard drives used for backup in alternating fashion, with one always off-site, would be a solution. Gets around the "trust" issue but does require physical time and effort. I suspect that for most users a local back-up plus cloud backup would be simpler although I think I would recommend encryption for sensitive information on-line.

I trust the cloud for storage of my data. I also make local backups.
Google Photos has free unlimited storage for my pictures and videos.
I wonder if those who don't trust the cloud keep their money under the mattress?

Well Jim I keep my money under my underwear in the dresser drawer. I also keep all my back ups on my several drives on a shelf. Guess I am from the old school,trust very few with my personal stuff. Thank you just saying.

Who or what is to say that 6 months from now that some super-hackers will hack into the these so-called encrypted cloud storage sites and steal or have access to your info? There is a cyber war going on between some super powers with super smart humans in groups or individuals burning the midnight oil to break into the cloud-ware storage bins. And you know what? Sooner or later they will do it.

I do not use or trust why would I need it or want it
I have my own

Hoping Google is looking after my photos. I teach Dropbox to elderly. Easy way to shift photos around.

Hoping Google is looking after my photos. I teach Dropbox to elderly. Easy way to shift photos around.

I'm sure the reliability of cloud storage is increasing and the security is evolving more or less in parallel with the black hats' arsenals. Still, I have two main reasons for not using cloud storage.
First, I don't (yet) have internet access everywhere I go (and it's even a bit unreliable at home).
And I don't want to help Google or whoever get their hands on all the information they could extract from my files, especially not my calendar.

While I can agree with the premise that all on-line storage can be hacked. So can your personal computer. While I too backup my files locally the problem is that a copy of the backup should be kept off site which I don't do and I suspect most people don't, especially those who state that they keep their drives on a "shelf". My solution, make a local backup then encrypt all sensitive files and back them up to the cloud storage that you prefer.

I use two cloud storage sites which has been very reliable for me. I also use two hard-drives connected by usb and an old seagate 1tb which is my main storage devise. It is about ten years old and I put everything off of an old windows 95, and my retired XP, best computer I ever owned.The segate is very easy to use and I use it every day.
JLT

Where does iDrive come into the mix? I believe it was sold on this site a couple years ago at a good price, and still bills me. I like having access when I'm in different places around the country and world. Only put stuff there I have backed up on an external drive.

No matter where you stash your data, it should not be the only place it exists. For data to be reasonably safe, it needs to exist in at least three different places. Usually, this means on the computer, on an onsite backup drive, and on an offsite backup drive. Good, paid, cloud storage can be used for offsite backups but it's usually easier and safer to use a paid cloud backup service, such as Backblaze.

I personally won't store anything on the a cloud, That's an issue I have with MS, Vorizon, and many other service's including some software that make's you rent the software and only use it online instead of being able to purchase it and keep it and all your data to your self. That's why I keep some old XP;win98;win7;computers alive and off line, and run my own home server and backup. I bought the progams for my use, and my data; not to be let out for it to be hijacked. My latest build is win10/win7 dual boot and when it's completed and set up, it's going off line. I'll use a cheep store bought unit for my online BS.

I don't trust the Cloud either! In fact, after reading this article I deleted all my photos from Dropbox. I have a 1 TB external hard drive for backups. Thank you, Bob, for your excellent, informative articles.