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3:41 pm
Hi.
Thank you for your website and articles full of useful information. I’m trying to figure out whether there is some grand unification strategy around back-ups, cloud storage, and cloud synchronization. I have read several of your articles (#100 How to Use OneDrive and 177. What is the cloud?) and the 2021 Learn Google Photos (pages 88 and 89 – where you talk about the various cloud storage options). It looks like you use One Drive and Dropbox. And I assume you pay for Google storage as well. I presently use Carbonite(for back-up) for several of my household computers (home and work) and use DropBox (free version) for my travel laptop. In the back of my mind is the fact that at some point I will run out of free Google storage capacity and will have to pay for additional storage. . So my questions are: 1. Based on your experience or discussion with others, do you look at the cloud back-up services(Carbonite, Backblaze) to be redundant to what is offered by OneDrive or Google Drive? and 2. Is Google Drive similar in function to OneDrive/Drop Box? So that if I pay for additional Google Storage for photos, that I might as well start learning about and using Google Drive. Or should I be looking at Google storage as a completely separate transaction for Goggle Photo Storage? Thanks for any comments/advice.
9:33 am
July 2, 2010
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Scott,
Wow – that’s a big topic. Everyone is different, there is no right answer. All of my work is in the cloud one way or another. When I get a new computer (like I just did) all I have to do is sign in to my Microsoft account, my Google account, and my Dropbox account and I have everything back.
You might be interested in watching an upcoming event by friends of ours, Ron Brown and Hewie Poplock. They do a “Tech for Seniors” show over Zoom and Youtube every Monday. On Jan 17, they are having a debate about this exact topic: Ron and Hewie duke it out over Backup or No Backup! You can find the link for the show at this web page: Tech for Senior
To answer your specific questions
1. Personally, I do consider Carbonite, Backblaze to be redundant. However, I never used either of them, so I really don’t know.
2. Google Drive – is actually a bit different in that most items start as cloud-based files. Like Google Docs, Google Photos etc. – so “backing them up” means copying to your computer. If you don’t use any of the tools of Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, Forms, etc.) I think it is best to think of Google Storage as just for Google Photos.
I use all 3: Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. My “system” has developed over the years. Dropbox is our business “server” everything important.
More questions?
9:40 am
Thank you, as always, for your reply and practical feedback. And thanks for the link to Tech for Senior. I will be interested in what they have to say on this topic.
I think I just need to get used to the fact that I will need to pay two service providers for storage: Google Storage for Google Photos and some other service for true back-up. I think I will start playing around with OneDrive/Dropbox and compare to Carbonite plus purchasing large capacity memory sticks for another basic back-up option.
11:05 am
July 2, 2010
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Hey Scott,
Thanks for the follow up.
I may have minimized Google Drive’s ability to back up your computer. I just don’t use that feature – because I use Dropbox and OneDrive – but the Google Drive for Desktop does, indeed, have the ability to backup folders&subfolders from your computer to the cloud. You might want to take a look at Show Episode 220 Using Google Drive and the New Drive for Desktop
Here is the part of the video that is about backing up from computer.
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