I'm interested in backing up my photos to a cloud based solution (about 100Gb). Currently thinking about using DropBox. Since I have the free version already and trust it. The cost is US$100 annually for 100Gb on Dropbox. Strictly speaking, DropBox is a data sharing service, rather than a backup solution, but it seems to offer what I need. Although, one downside is that I guess I'd need to move all my photos from my Mac's default "Pictures" folder and store them under my shared dropbox folder. Any thoughts / experiences?
This can store up to 190,000 photos. Seems cool to me and is much more practical then paying $100 every year. Only downside is you have to have it with you. It's relatively small though. http://www.lacie.com/company/news/news.htm?id=10787
I use a couple, Dropbox i'm very impressed by and i pay for 100 gig a year. I backup a lot of my important files/music/movies/photos. I've had bad experiences in the past, my hard drive on my PC broke (cost about $700 to recover the data), i then got an external drive, 2 years later that broke ! (Cost about $500 to recover it !). Now its cloud/cloud/cloud for me ! I use the 100 gig from Mega as well, bit nervous of that as i can imagine the authorities might shut it down one day (They're always after 'Kim Dotcom' but its quite useful to back some non important things up). What i love about Dropbox is that i can download a .cbr file (Comic/graphic novel) and it'll then import into my comic book reader which is great. Other services might be cheaper/free but when my datas so important i want to go with a larger company rather than some small unknown one.
I use a Chinese company, they offer 36 TERABYTES for free sign up. unlimited storage. You actually start off with less, maybe 10TB... But if you download there iOS / android app & PC client... They give you the rest upon completing them tasks. I practically have free storage unlimited for ever
It seems that each of the cloud services is for a niche market. Some cater to some kinds of data, others to other. And so you kind of need a combination to back up your memories. For computer data and back up there is Time Capsule which I use but of course you need something off site. Things like Carbonite are there for this purpose but I haven't tried it yet because folks say it slows some computer processes down. I agree with psj that when it comes to data I would rather pay for a trustworthy company than get more than I need for free. I use Dropbox for some things -- mostly documents and other files -- because it integrates really really well with other apps and programs. I recently downloaded the app Box because it gives 50 GB for free -- but I am finding that not much integrates with it yet so I am left to make all the transfers myself through the app and that is a pain. Back ups / copies / etc need to be done easily or you just won't do it. That's why something like iCloud for mobile devices is so great - set it and forget it. For photos I use Flicker because of the new 1 TB storage and no alteration to the file structure of my computer. I made a private page so no one can just happen upon it and its there mainly in case I need it.
Personally I don't really like cloud storage I see it as a waste of battery/data and my time if I'm honest not to mention privacy. But it's now pretty common in Asian countries for there to be a lot of services that give terabytes of storage for free here's one quick example I think there are dozens though. http://www.weiyun.com/act/10t-en.html Of course to use most of these you would probably need to know the language or at least an idea of the translation in the app as their obviously not in english.
I wish Apple would increase the free 5gb space for iCloud. 5gb is just too small these days. I just registered to Copy, Dropbox, and Box. I haven't tried them all yet but before I commit to one, I want to know which would best suit my needs.
Yes, I use yunpan 360.... They are made by security company qihoo 360. So it is safe, because the actual company behind it is all about security. I also use Dropbox for more important files. You guys may struggle to sign up as it is all in Chinese use google translate when visiting the site.. Qihoo 360 Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qihoo yunpan.360: http://yunpan.360.cn/ * use g0ogle chrome + translate to sign-up...*
If you folks are on the fence with the Chinese site... i highly suggest you use Adrive... they give you the ability to upload files around 2gb in size.. great for uploading larger files. They give you a 50gb free sign-up too. I think yunpan however give you a 5gb file size limit
OMG.. i just played the yunpan daily "lottery" and won additional space -- 2gb... wonder what i'll win tomorrow
Don't like cloud storage? Waste of battery/data? As I said before normal backups can fail and then you lose everything. Nothing wrong with cloud backups, much safer. Time and time again here you hear about people not backing up their data which is stupid considering the free storage you get out there As for privacy I don't care if anyone checks my files. I have nothing to hide. I wouldn't upload many files directly from my phone. I backup 100s of files from my computer/external drive as I feel safe knowing it's backed up in the cloud
I see your 100GB requirement but I'll drop it here anyway. For mobile, if it's all just pictures and video clips you want to backup, you can use Google+. Get the app, set it to auto and it will save every picture and video to your plus account in private. What's beautiful about this is you get unlimited storage for pictures no wider than 2048px (or auto down-res when backing up) and unlimited video uploads for anything no longer than 15 mins and no bigger than 1080p. You can upload as many full res pics and clips as your G drive will allow (for my free account, perhaps around 7k iPhone 5 pics).
Thanks for the comments. My friend just advised that Flickr offers 1TB of FREE storage for photos. That's pretty amazing. I'm going to check it out.
As safe as any chinese company I suppose, I personally don't think it's worth the hassle of doing but as I've said I personally think cloud storage is worthless and just a con to charge people to get at their own stuff. Here is a reddit link to a thread on it http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1vpnpk/10_tb_of_free_cloud_storage/ And here is an engadget one saying the service is coming to the US sometime http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/19/tencent-10tb-free-cloud-storage/ I'd say reading the comments from people who have actually used it would be your best bet.
Again i dont know why you have this weird conspiracy theory about it. As i said before i've learnt the hard way (Hard drive failed, then an external drive failed) so to have stuff backed up in the cloud AS well as on a new external hard drive (which may fail) makes me feel 'safer'. Do i upload passwords/bank details to the cloud ? Nope. But when you get 500 gig/1 TB free storage from some of these companies its a superb way to protect your data in case your hard drive goes. Worthless ? A con ? Just sounds so OTT. You do have to pay for things in this world, its not all free or 99c ! Paying a company $50 a year to store your data is the same as paying money to store your old furniture etc in a secure container at some depot. And when theres so many companies now offering better deals than each other trying to get the most customers its a great time to 'shop' around. I was with Dropbox, paid $100 a year, now after seeing all these great free 500 gig type services i can stop paying $100 and go with two others for free
Not a conspiracy I just think the clouds a terrible solution for a problem that doesn't even exist, you are paying another company to put your files on their hard drive on top of that you have to pay for the bandwidth of doing it, it's too slow too expensive it's a battery killer and can't be relied upon in the long term. I've 50gb on Dropbox I got for free I did try to use it for a while to see what the fuss was about but I was very unimpressed it can't even compare to a normal drive simply attached to my router.
