Karina G Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 I know this isn't a tech website but, then, I"m not a techie. I need an affordable, easy-to-use storage site for non-technical people, something that will accommodate my documents and, more importantly, a lifetime of photographs (best guess a few thousand). I want a secure, permanent site (did I mention reasonably priced?), `cause I don't want to have to move everything ever again, once I chose a home for all of it. I don't know where to start and wanted to know what other people were using, and why. I'd appreciate any info you could pass on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out1 Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 I use Google Drive; 15 MB free. The Google Drive folder on my computer automatically syncs with the "Cloud" and then if I need something when I am travelling I can access the "Cloud" from my Iphone. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Day Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 4 hours ago, Karina G said: I know this isn't a tech website but, then, I"m not a techie. I need an affordable, easy-to-use storage site for non-technical people, something that will accommodate my documents and, more importantly, a lifetime of photographs (best guess a few thousand). I want a secure, permanent site (did I mention reasonably priced?), `cause I don't want to have to move everything ever again, once I chose a home for all of it. I don't know where to start and wanted to know what other people were using, and why. I'd appreciate any info you could pass on! How much storage do you need? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go Solar Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 4 hours ago, Out1 said: Google Drive; 15 MB free That's 15 GB, in case anyone's counting...! 😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go Solar Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 Another option to consider: Get a small portable hard drive. Western Digital, Seagate, etc make 1 and 2 (and more) TB (yes, Terabytes) for under $100 US. Plug and Play USB connection to your PC. Much faster and easier transfer than uploading to (or downloading from) the cloud, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, so advantages are: small, fast, easy, cheap, huge capacity, secure, durable.....check it out. Plus you can connect them directly to your TV to play photos, music, videos / movies, whatever you have stored on it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mostlylost Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 I have a 1 terabite USB thumb drive. Paid $18US seems plenty big for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
virgo lady Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 Had no idea there were even 1 TB thumb drives out yet....so checked.... Found this link on Amazon, most reviews show an issue with that size at that price, and it is USB 2.0, not USB 3.0 either.....so as it fills up, could be very slow.... U get what U pay for....for photos you want to keep, spend more $$ and get a good quality lasting solution you'll be happy with. https://www.amazon.com/Flash-Memory-Rotatable-Laptop-Computer/dp/B07NY9WR28/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=1tb+flash+drive&qid=1587922763&s=electronics&sr=1-3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mostlylost Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 8 minutes ago, virgo lady said: Had no idea there were even 1 TB thumb drives out yet....so checked.... Found this link on Amazon, most reviews show an issue with that size at that price, and it is USB 2.0, not USB 3.0 either.....so as it fills up, could be very slow.... U get what U pay for....for photos you want to keep, spend more $$ and get a good quality lasting solution you'll be happy with. https://www.amazon.com/Flash-Memory-Rotatable-Laptop-Computer/dp/B07NY9WR28/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=1tb+flash+drive&qid=1587922763&s=electronics&sr=1-3 Never assume. Mine is 3.0. Even cheaper now than when I bought last year. I could get a 2tb for what I paid. Believe it or not Amazon is not always the lowest price for many things it's just easier for some folks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
virgo lady Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 Great to hear it - can you post the link? Sounds much better than the one I found..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TelsZ4 Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 If you have a Mac or an iPad or an iPhone iCloud storage 50gig is $1:46 Canadian a month. Once you back you have backed up you’re device it will automatically back itself up. It is very easy to use, in fact set it and forget it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mostlylost Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 36 minutes ago, virgo lady said: Great to hear it - can you post the link? Sounds much better than the one I found..... Will do when internet comes back up. It's on my laptop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oasiscloud Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 If you need the latest Microsoft Office programs then with Office 365 (I think they just renamed it Microsoft 365) you get 1 terabyte of true cloud storage with OneDrive. You can access it from multiple devices (laptop, desktop, iPhone, etc.) It costs $100 a year or $10 a month, but you pay almost that much just for that much cloud storage with Dropbox or Google drive. So if you need the Office 365 programs anyway it is a good deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngusMactavish Posted April 26, 2020 Report Share Posted April 26, 2020 Google Drive: 100 GB $1.99 / month Includes 100 GB storage Access to Google experts Option to add your family Extra member benefits 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mostlylost Posted April 27, 2020 Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 6 hours ago, virgo lady said: Great to hear it - can you post the link? Sounds much better than the one I found..... Here is 2TB USB 3.0 waterproof for $14.99US https://www.ebay.com/itm/2TB-USB-3-0-Flash-Drives-Memory-Metal-Flash-Drives-Pen-Drive-U-Disk-PC-Laptop/352721651381?hash=item521fd946b5:m:mjeSuFt-o23kn9-CkHNqHxQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattoleriver Posted April 27, 2020 Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 2 hours ago, Mostlylost said: Here is 2TB USB 3.0 waterproof for $14.99US https://www.ebay.com/itm/2TB-USB-3-0-Flash-Drives-Memory-Metal-Flash-Drives-Pen-Drive-U-Disk-PC-Laptop/352721651381?hash=item521fd946b5:m:mjeSuFt-o23kn9-CkHNqHxQ $14.99 sounds too good to be true and it very likely is too good to be true. There is a well known scam where 32GB (or less) units are labeled 2TB and even show that when tested however in real use they come up far short. Some Ebay sellers even admit this in their product descriptions. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mostlylost Posted April 27, 2020 Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 11 hours ago, mattoleriver said: $14.99 sounds too good to be true and it very likely is too good to be true. There is a well known scam where 32GB (or less) units are labeled 2TB and even show that when tested however in real use they come up far short. Some Ebay sellers even admit this in their product descriptions. I know nothing about such scams. I bought last year a 1TB of this model from a USA seller. It showed slightly less than 1TB available. At this point I have used 145GB and still have plenty of space. All products come with guarantee from Ebay I am not endorsing any seller or any website. I am just answering a request from someone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Day Posted April 27, 2020 Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 DO NOT buy the drives that are being recommended here for 15 bucks. Not unless you're willing to lose your backups. Think about it rationally - when all of the major known manufacturers are charging $75 to a $100 US for a 512 GB USB 3.0 flash drive, why would one think you can get 2 TB for 15 bucks. Just Google USB flash drive scams and you'll see what I mean. Flash Drive Scams Look at something like this instead: Western Digital 2TB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Day Posted April 27, 2020 Report Share Posted April 27, 2020 21 hours ago, virgo lady said: Great to hear it - can you post the link? Sounds much better than the one I found..... Please don't buy one of these drives that are being recommended for $15. If your data is important to you, spend the extra and buy from a reputable manufacturer, like Patriot, PNY, Kingston etc..... I've known people who have bought these cheap flash drives, and either they don't work out of the box or they fail shortly after purchase, or even worse, they are infected with malware. Please see my post above and click on the "Scams" link. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karina G Posted April 29, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2020 Thanks for the suggestions everyone. However, my question was about cloud storage; I'm aware of the alternatives but my objective was to have a secure cache in a different location from my own equipment, as insurance against fire, flood, theft, etc. I don't really know how much storage I'd ultimately require, but (this is scary) I'm guessing I might have as many as 10,000 images to back-up, though I will try to weed as I go. I'll follow up on Google Drive (the only answer addressing my original query) but was hoping for several options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curmudgeon Posted April 29, 2020 Report Share Posted April 29, 2020 If your main concern is photo storage, then Google Photos will give you unlimited storage in the cloud for free, as well as amazing search and organizational tools. I used Google Drive for my documents, and Google Photos for my images. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Day Posted April 29, 2020 Report Share Posted April 29, 2020 9 hours ago, Karina G said: Thanks for the suggestions everyone. However, my question was about cloud storage; I'm aware of the alternatives but my objective was to have a secure cache in a different location from my own equipment, as insurance against fire, flood, theft, etc. I don't really know how much storage I'd ultimately require, but (this is scary) I'm guessing I might have as many as 10,000 images to back-up, though I will try to weed as I go. I'll follow up on Google Drive (the only answer addressing my original query) but was hoping for several options. To find out your storage requirements, right-click on the folders you want to backup and go to "Properties". It will show the size of the folder. This applies to Windows computers. Here's some information for you. It appears that IDrive is the consensus best pick, and, they're offering a really fantastic discount for the first year of service. https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-cloud-storage https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-cloud-storage-and-file-sharing-services Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha1 Posted April 29, 2020 Report Share Posted April 29, 2020 The MAJOR benefit of cloud storage from a reputable company is that your data is offsite i.e. can't be stolen, backed up by the company, available everywhere you are independent on your machine. Seems like inexpensive insurance for irreplaceable data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curmudgeon Posted April 29, 2020 Report Share Posted April 29, 2020 36 minutes ago, Alpha1 said: The MAJOR benefit of cloud storage from a reputable company is that your data is offsite i.e. can't be stolen, backed up by the company, available everywhere you are independent on your machine. Seems like inexpensive insurance for irreplaceable data. Exactly. In our house we have six different devices, including iOS, Android, ChromeOS and Windows, all of which have access to all of our photos and documents from anywhere, plus I can connect to them from any computer anywhere by logging in to my Google account. All for free.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vetteforron Posted April 29, 2020 Report Share Posted April 29, 2020 I pay .99 cents for I think 50 gigs on Apple cloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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