Hi All, I'd appreciate a little advice from the tech minded members.

 

For many years I've habitually backed up all my digital data to external hard drives, with a provision for a degree of redundancy (spare hard drive).

 

I recently began making use of the 50Gb of free Box cloud storage, included with a Sony mobile phone. I've now filled this and am slowly coming round to the idea of storing everything in the cloud (and using an external hard drive as the redundant back-up).

 

Within the household we have a variety of devices (Windows 7 based PC & laptops, Android mobile phones and x2 tablets - iPad/ Android). I am currently able to acces my Box account on all devices, which is ideal.

 

In terms of required cloud storage it looks like 1 Tb should suffice (photos / videos / music etc).

 

As far as I understand it my available options are:

• Box @ $10 / month for 100Gb (not enough space!!)
• Google Drive @ $9.99 / month (1 Tb)
• Microsoft Office 365 @ £7.99 / month or £79.99/ year

The Office options also allows for 1 Tb each, for up to 5 users, along with all the usual office suite, available on x5 devices. I currently have Office starter on 1 laptop and a legitimate copy of office 2007 on another.

 

As much as it pains me to give money to Microsoft, potentially for ever, I leaning towards the Office option, as in addition to the more than adequate cloud storage (5 x 1 Tb) I also get the Office suite on x5 devices.

 

Am I understanding the options correctly?

 

Any help and/or advice much appreciated.

 

 

 

 

Have you thought about a NAS.

For £300-400 you could buy a decent set up with 2 x 3Tb hard drives which is easily upgradeable if you run out of space.

They back up automatically & can be used a your own personal cloud. They can be accessed from anywhere & from any device.

A one off payment is much better than endless monthly fees

I have a Synology DS213+ and find it excellent. I also use it as the storage for an IP cctv camera I have, so saves on money should you ever go down that route.

I have the WD My Cloud NAS, as above backs up automatically and all my photos can be viewed on my I phone/I pad anywhere.

2TB of storage for £100, 3TB available for £120....

http://www.johnlewis.com/wd-my-cloud-personal-cloud-storage-network-attached-storage-drive-2tb/p831222?kpid=232674413&s_kenid=426ebec3-f480-4409-c3a3-00002b1fe018&s_kwcid=402x32165&tmad=c&tmcampid=73&kpid=232674413

With the NAS option, you have to take into consideration where it is backing up to.

Typically, the WD NAS is the backup for your PC.  So, your 'my documents' that are on your PC will be backed up to the NAS, and not to the cloud

 

Or, you may have a NAS which backs up to a local USB.

 

Either option is OK, unless you have a burglary or your house goes on fire!

 

My recommendation would be to get a NAS for local shared storage, and then replicate your more important data (photos etc) to the cloud.

Have you thought about a NAS.

For £300-400 you could buy a decent set up with 2 x 3Tb hard drives which is easily upgradeable if you run out of space.

They back up automatically & can be used a your own personal cloud. They can be accessed from anywhere & from any device.

A one off payment is much better than endless monthly fees

I have a Synology DS213+ and find it excellent. I also use it as the storage for an IP cctv camera I have, so saves on money should you ever go down that route.

 

Thats exactly what I have but cannot work out how to access it away from the home network because I'm unsure what 'log gin' details to enter on the apps themselves. :(

Thats exactly what I have but cannot work out how to access it away from the home network because I'm unsure what 'log gin' details to enter on the apps themselves. :(

It's dead easy (when you know how!). I'm not a tech-head but set it up fairly easily.

 

You need to set up Quickconnect on your DiskStation

 

Log into your DS, go into Control panel & click on the QuickConnect icon. 

 

You then need to enable QuickConnect by ticking the box.

 

From memory that is about it (I think).

 

You will be given a QuickConnect number. Enter that in the App on your mobile, along with your normal username  & password & you're in

 

QuickConnect saves faffing about with Port Forwarding and other technobabble. I think you can change the number to something more memorable but I haven't bothered. TBH once you set up the apps they remember the login details for you.

 

Hope you get set up, if you need anymore info let me know, I'm not an expert but have got mine set up pretty well, so should be able to point you in the right direction.

 

To the OP, sorry for high-jacking the thread, just trying to help a fellow Briskodian

Many thanks for the advice guys - I plan to investigate NAS options (WD my cloud / EX2 etc).

 

I'll post back when I get something up and running.

Cashed in all my Clubcard vouchers and am now awaiting delivery of a WD NAS.

I have a fairly old Belkin router (<5 years) and wonder if this will prove to be a bottleneck?

 

The router has worked faultlessly for many years and is rock solid in every day use - various phones, laptops all connect without issue.

 

Is it worth looking at upgrading the router?

A bit late to this, but these articles might be useful

 

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/383542/best-cloud-music-storage-in-2013  (for music)

 

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/389929/dropbox-vs-onedrive-vs-google-drive-whats-the-best-cloud-storage-service-of-2014

 

I personally have accounts with Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Also iCloud. All free at the moment, but I'm thinking of paying for the Apple service.

I have a fairly old Belkin router (<5 years) and wonder if this will prove to be a bottleneck?

 

The router has worked faultlessly for many years and is rock solid in every day use - various phones, laptops all connect without issue.

 

Is it worth looking at upgrading the router?

 

If you are connected from the router to the NAS by cable, then no. The slowest part of the network is likely, IMO, to be the wireless connection between the client and the router.

Sorry late to the game.

 

iCloud has been hacked rather spectacularly just recently, made the headlines today as did Jennifer Lawrence's naked bits.

 

My advice depends on the nature of the information you are seeking to backup.

 

Local is fast and secure but vulnerable to damage and is less flexible

Cloud is slow with suspect security, reliability is patchy but it is very flexible.

 

Local storage can be made very secure against hacking ect but is vulnerable to anything that happens locally like a house fire / burglary. Also hard to make flexible and accessible from outside the building.

 

Cloud offers lots of storage and flexibility of access. It should offer reliability through massive distributed data-centres but they don't. Most of the big platforms have had major outages. None offer genuine security no matter what they say. Most are US companies and will pony up your stuff to US Gov agencies without much thought and without telling you. There are more technical risks too due to cloud service being relatively immature even if the tech is really pretty old.

 

Think about what you're actually going to store and how you need to get access to it then make your choice.

 

NAS is a fine solution but remember if anything happens to the NAS you won't have a backup.

Edited 1 September, 201411 yr by Aspman

Unless the service has guaranteed backup on the cloud server, I would trust a local NAS solution more.

The WD has a USB socket as well to you can get a USB drive and clone the NAS and keep off site.

Cashed in all my Clubcard vouchers and am now awaiting delivery of a WD NAS.

Link? :-)

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29011850

Unless the service has guaranteed backup on the cloud server, I would trust a local NAS solution more.

The WD has a USB socket as well to you can get a USB drive and clone the NAS and keep off site.

 

I watched a Youtube video review of the WD device this afternoon and noted you can set it to clone the entire contents of the drive to an external backup (connected via USB 3).

 

Hopefully this set-up will give me a degree of redundancy, without resorting to either the cloud, or a subscription service.

Mine has 2 ports and 2 options.

Use the USB port to extend or raid storage

Or

Use the USB to completely backup the NAS.

I completely back it up and leave the other drive elsewhere.

Mine has 2 ports and 2 options.

Use the USB port to extend or raid storage

Or

Use the USB to completely backup the NAS.

I completely back it up and leave the other drive elsewhere.

Mine has 2 ports and 2 options.

Use the USB port to extend or raid storage

Or

Use the USB to completely backup the NAS.

I completely back it up and leave the other drive elsewhere.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.