It's pretty important to back you stuff up but recently a situation has caused me to look more into getting my data saved not only on hard drives but also on external sources (ones that can't be taken away from me and wiped clean). I have always backed up my pictures and documents on Google drive, Box or Dropbox. This was because I primarily used my phone as my go-to-device and the apps automatically did that for me. I have since been forced to transition mainly to my computers, which originally were a Windows machines but problems with that led me to switch over to Linux. I really like Linux but one problem is compatibility for pretty much every program in existence (they they are quickly becoming supported by most developers now though). Problem: I needed a local client so I could drag and drop my documents into the cloud storage in the background instead of going to a webpage and doing it through a browser. Not many cloud storage companies offer these programs for Linux. Dropbox was the only one I knew of until today. I found one called "MEGA" that offered 50GB free and it doesn't limit your bandwidth much (my crappy internet speed could never upload 10GB in 24 hours). Pretty good deal, 50GB for free. I just wish they had a two step verification log-in. While they don't have this they do have a client side encryption (meaning that nobody can see the data while it is on their servers...something that Google and Dropbox does not do. And just so you know, those two companies do have people who watch videos you upload to their cloud service, they do this to combat child pornography and videos uploaded that might show some other serious crimes....though this is not the reason I want the encryption and security). In case you don't know: Two-step verification (or two-factor verification) is where you have a secondary password, usually consisting of 6 numbers or more, that changes every 20-30 seconds or so. You get these numbers from a small device (that can fit on a key chain) or an app on a phone. These devices have to be programmed with a timing protocol and the encryption from the website you will be logging into. So even if someone were to know your password, they would need to have access to your phone as well. Google, Facebook and Twitter have these options available. It's a nice tool to have if you spend a lot of time on public computers or public wifi. So, now that I've said all that: what cloud service, if any, do you use to back up your important pictures/documents/files?
You can select more than one answer in the poll. I use 5 total because I have a whole lot of data and the free accounts on many of these websites don't even begin to cover my needs.
hey Wrye.... thanks for posting the tip on Mega! how's Mega working out for you? i read a review written when Mega 1st came out in 2013, that said it was quite slow due to demand, is it fast enough for you? anyone else using it? thanks... norm : ))~
It fast enough. Seems about on par with most of the other cloud services. Though I will say on Linux the program itself can be a bit of a resource hog while uploading/downloading. Quite possible this is a problem with Linux only.
Don't use a Cloud, don't trust them, I use 2 x remote portable hard drives at all times, when they are full I purchase 2 more. Using 2 simultaneously means if one product fails I have the other one in reserve fully backed-up. Costs money, and time in backing up twice each time, but much safer and reliable......and I am in total control of my data storage
Why? Not all cloud storage is created equal. Mega uses client-side encryption. Even if stolen, the likelihood of your data being read is unlikely, though not impossible. Other cloud storage businesses offer similar encryption methods. If you think your data is any safer on a personal external hard drive you are very wrong. Yeah, you have personal possession of the hard drives but that doesn't make them any less prone to viruses....and if they are physically stolen then you are probably SOL, unless you encrypt that hard drive yourself. When you have your own hard drives you also have to worry about them being dropped, kids playing with it, spilling something on them, viruses deleting the contents, saving viruses on them, losing them, having them stolen or a house fire/flood. There are risks involved no matter what route you take. I have a little over 7TB of data, mostly movies, music and pictures, I don't bother to back that stuff up on cloud services, mainly because of how long it would take to upload and then download again on a cloud service (and it's not like I paid a whole lot of money for all those movies . The right answer is to use both on-site (hard drives) and off-site (cloud) solutions. The chances of you having your data stolen from a cloud service are about as likely as you losing/damaging your external hard drive....and I'd argue that you would be more likely to screw up your hard drive.
