Anyone using a cloud system for 'everything'? Every email, document, pics, even the clean ones! etc?

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

No fucking way.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I don't understand what it is or how to save things to it. So no.

My "My Documents" is a Dropbox folder so I have the same docs on every device. I use gmail. I want to backup all of my photos to the cloud, but haven't found a way I like yet so I just use an external drive.

My phone and iPad (and data) are all backed up to the cloud, and not synced with a computer.


But to specifically answer your question, not a single source for everything. What are you thinking about using?

Yes.

Everyone should have a 2-4 bay home NAS system. All photos and documents should be copied to that every so often. You are then protected except in the case of catastrophic damage or theft. There are a ton of options out there but just make sure it has a minimum of two bays, otherwise you aren't really protecting yourself since a hard drive failing on that one means your data is gone anyways. You can supplement it with a usb hard drive which are becoming pretty cheap for a lot of storage. You can also supplement it with a cloud storage solution like google drive or dropbox which I use both of.

Basically, anything electronic you care about should be in three separate places or if you are using cloud storage, one local and one in the cloud.

So, if you are worried about security in the cloud, and you probably shouldn't be, then have this setup.
1) Important files on your primary computer.
2) Important files backed up to a 2+ bay NAS.
3) Important files backed up every so often to a large portable flash storage system which you then store in a different part of your house than the NAS.

If you think you can trust the evil cloud.
1) Important files on either a 2+ bay NAS or large portable flash storage.
2) Important files put on google drive or dropbox.

Never trust a single source for anything you care about keeping. Eventually, all things fail. It's just a matter of when.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

If I was in the market for a 4 bay NAS, I'd go with this one.
http://www.cnet.com/products/synology-diskstation-ds412-plus/
You do need to buy 4 hard drives for it so the solution isn't cheap.

For a cheaper version, with 2 bays, I'd go with this one.
http://www.cnet.com/products/synology-diskstation-ds214se/

Just make sure you never use RAID0, because that doesn't give you much of a failsafe. RAID basically copies your data to two hard drives, so in the case of one hard drive failing, you have a second one with all the data.

There are a lot of good options out there though.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I don't back up anything. Live life on the edge.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

No Gloves & No Backups = Real Men

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Another computer crash....time to go cloud.

The naked pics of myself, nikki minaj and bridget the midget might just be free game for the hackers!

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Yes.

Pics, music, stuff.

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I don't understand it either. I just have a couple different external hard drives.
My iTunes library is on both of them, and I've still got the 700+ original cds I've ripped to itunes,
so I'm safe on all my music. I should probably put all the family photos and vids on an additional HD.

I don't really worry about it too much. I'm not that concerned about being hacked,
but I do think it's probably safer to just keep important stuff in a lockbox or some shit rather than some nebulous "cloud".

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

Let's see those naked pics!!!

Here is an analogy to the cloud. Let's say you have a baby picture you really want to keep. You make a copy and send it to a friend for safe keeping. That friend then makes a copy of it and sends it to two other friends. Those friends make a copy and send it to two other friends. There is now your original copy, and the one you sent to a friend, and then a few other copies floating around. This means that unless there is some sort of worldwide catastrophe that you will be able to retrieve a copy of the photo.

Now, instead of friends, imagine if it was instead a company that had a photo storage vault in Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, and Oregon, and when you send them the photo they make a copy and put one in each vault. You have to trust them that they aren't going to be doing anything with your photo but you also are guaranteed that even 50 years from now you have access to that photo. One of those vaults can fail and the others still have your stuff. You can lose your original and just get it from those.

That is pretty much the exact concept of the cloud but obviously with digital files at least when talking about storage. So basically, you want to use the cloud because it is better and safer for you just like you want to use a bank instead of storing money under your mattress.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!