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I set up a free cloud storage account today and all of my documents, pics, etc, are now in this cloud account.
Now what I am confused about - should I also keep these accounts on my hard drive? My concern is how do I keep the files on my hard drive synced with the ones in the cloud account?
Let's say I need to edit a word document (which I actually need to do today). Should I open the version of the one in my cloud account and edit it? or should I edit the one on my hard drive? Or, will they somehow sync up if I edit either one of them? (I am using SugarSync).
Also, would it be wise to create a back up of these files somewhere else as well, such as a memory stick?
Who did you give all your data to? I would never give my only copy of my important document to a server somewhere. Something like Dropbox would work because it simply syncs a folder of your choosing with their storage. You work on the local copies and it syncs the changes to their servers. You'll still need to backup your data by some other means. I don't consider synchronized "cloud storage" to be a very good backup.
As EscapeCalifornia said, you should retain a backup copy of IMPORTANT documents locally. Should the provider get hacked or their servers crash, you don't want your "only" copy going up in flames.
SugarSync takes the most recent document and updates it on the server (or computer). You should be editing these on your computer and it will sync back to the cloud. If you edit them on a computer other than yours, the newest copy should be sync back to your computer.
Even if you have a few DVDs or encrypted USB drives even, stored somewhere safe, an outdated copy of a document is better than none at all. I use TrueCrypt for encryption, it's free.
As EscapeCalifornia said, you should retain a backup copy of IMPORTANT documents locally. Should the provider get hacked or their servers crash, you don't want your "only" copy going up in flames.
Or they decide that you've run afoul of some rule, canceled your account, won't talk to you, and won't let you retrieve your data.
I set up a free cloud storage account today and all of my documents, pics, etc, are now in this cloud account.
Now what I am confused about - should I also keep these accounts on my hard drive? My concern is how do I keep the files on my hard drive synced with the ones in the cloud account?
Let's say I need to edit a word document (which I actually need to do today). Should I open the version of the one in my cloud account and edit it? or should I edit the one on my hard drive? Or, will they somehow sync up if I edit either one of them? (I am using SugarSync).
Also, would it be wise to create a back up of these files somewhere else as well, such as a memory stick?
any input appreciated!!!
I simple do not trust cloud storage. If it's important enough to save then load it onto a flash drive or some other hard medium that you own and can safely store.
IMO there will be millions of people singing a sad song the first time a cloud center goes to hell and all the data gets lost. It will happen it's just a question of when.
I don't think it's a bad idea to USE cloud storage, I just don't think it's the end-all, be-all for backup solutions. I've got an external drive for that.
But...if my house burned down and I lost literally everything I physically owned, my files would live on in some incarnation from the cloud, plus I do like the convenience of being able to retrieve things I might want from any computer.
I have a question about this too. My husband and I have massive disagreements about media piracy. He likes to try and get things for free and I would rather pay for my media (be it music, movies, what have you.) Plus I am immensely paranoid about file sharing and malware. We had a massive security breach caused by his downloading habit just before he deployed, and I had to go and do battle with the intrusion, lock it out and clean it up...it was a pain! Part of the infection we had back then (this was years ago) was attached somehow to a movie file he'd downloaded. The seed of all the nastiness, as it were.
What I'm curious about...if you've got a file that somehow is bearing some hidden germ of virus or trojan ickiness, and you burn said media file onto a DVD or upload it to a cloud service, will the malware be cleansed from it by any copying procedure? Do cloud services have a reliable ability to screen, scan, or clean possibly infected files people upload? Are all files uploaded to their servers at risk of transmission of malware? I know the virus we had was able to copy itself every couple of seconds to every attached writeable drive, including thumb drives and external hard drives, but NOT including devices requiring a special program (Zune/Ipod) to sync.
Mind you, this is more of an intellectual exercise at this point, I'm more confident in the level of security we have these days, but I've always wondered...
I simple do not trust cloud storage. If it's important enough to save then load it onto a flash drive or some other hard medium that you own and can safely store.
IMO there will be millions of people singing a sad song the first time a cloud center goes to hell and all the data gets lost. It will happen it's just a question of when.
I'm ok with cloud for important, but non-critical items.
I'm not putting social security or personal financial transactions on the cloud.
But school papers, copies of correspondence, eBooks, etc etc, I say why not. Easy, cheap, often free.
[quote=superseiyan;27077523]I'm ok with cloud for important, but non-critical items.
I'm not putting social security or personal financial transactions on the cloud.
But school papers, copies of correspondence, eBooks, etc etc, I say why not. Easy, cheap, often free.[/quote]
Well, not free, but multi-terabyte local external hard drives are dirt cheap, and by staying behind (at home) multiple firewall routers, you are relatively safe.
I'm ok with cloud for important, but non-critical items.
I'm not putting social security or personal financial transactions on the cloud.
But school papers, copies of correspondence, eBooks, etc etc, I say why not. Easy, cheap, often free.[/quote]
Well, not free, but multi-terabyte local external hard drives are dirt cheap, and by staying behind (at home) multiple firewall routers, you are relatively safe.
Unless a fire, flood, or other disaster takes out all the local copies you have at one location. Cloud storage is good for an off site backup, but one should not have their only backup in the cloud. Any good backup plan will consist of local and offsite backups.
I also wouldn't trust cloud storage with any sensitive data either.
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