[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

Cloud is only accessible by wifi? What? Everytime you log in to Google mail, iCloud, or whatever cloud from your phone, you think you are using wifi?
You can get to the cloud using LTE, 4G, or 5G cell service.
I wouldn’t use a flash drive either for files, I would get a usb disk that doesn’t need any external power. But that’s the last thing I would do.
If somebody can come in and steal your computer, where are your important files? Probably not encrypted, probably not password protected.
And people wonder how their valuable info gets in the wrong hands.
HDDs are cheap, TBs for Pennies. The days of compressing files to save space have been over for decades. My photos are tens of MBs in size for each photo. I keep them in this size so if I want to modify them, I have all the data. If I have to send a photo in an email, then I convert it to a jpeg.

No, it's only accessible if you have INTERNET. The cloud is an internet-based storage system. If the cell tower is down and your internet service is interrupted (such as in the recent case of Hurricane Milton), then you have no access to the cloud at all.

So if you keep things on a physical drive with access to a charger (such as a cigarette lighter charger in your car, or a portable charger), then you have access to everything you stored on your physical drive.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by FredMitchell

Dropbox is a fine alternative or supplement to Google Drive. You set up a top level folder of everything that you might want to move, data, documents, etc. Then set that drive to be duplicated on the internet. You can work locally. Files will be synchronized with the internet copy the next time you are connected. It also does not matter if you decide that you want to switch platforms, Windows, Mac, even Linux, not that you care about that option.

Much easier than using USB or external drives.

Again, you MUST have internet access to use ANY cloud server. If you can't connect to the internet for whatever reason (like a hurricane when both cell service and internet service are down for awhile) then you CANNOT connect to the cloud, no matter which company is providing it.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Again, you MUST have internet access to use ANY cloud server. If you can't connect to the internet for whatever reason (like a hurricane when both cell service and internet service are down for awhile) then you CANNOT connect to the cloud, no matter which company is providing it.

You must have internet in order to update files or to access files that are not already on your local drive. I use DropBox and every file in the cloud is already on my laptop’s drive.

If my primary device is my phone or iPad and the internet is not available then I’m simply out of luck. No USB drive or external drive will help get files to those devices.

So for me, a cloud drive is:
- Automatic - files I add or modify are automatically available on all my devices
- Universal - I have my cloud drives connected to a laptop running windows, an iPhone, an iPad, a Kindle Fire, and through a web browser on any device
- Available anywhere - I don’t have to carry a thumb drive and I couldn’t plug it into my phone anyway
- Relatively inexpensive - Some space on Google Drive is free, I pay for DropBox, I have some space on iCloud, and OneDrive comes with my Office 360 subscription
- Safe - I won’t lose it, drop it, fry it, and my cat won’t damage the port it needs
- Secure - I’m guessing here but I suspect I can block a stolen device from accessing the cloud drive

[Cneigoot]

Jacob's computers in Wildwood. Just look the number up. Jake was awesome helping me. Knows what he's doing.

[Stu from NYC]

MMD does a good job at a reasonable cost

[retiredguy123]

Assume you have 2 computers, computer 1 and computer 2. With the OneDrive software, you can sync new files created on computer 1 to the cloud, and, at the same time, automatically download the file to computer 2. So, you have the file in the cloud and on both computers at the same time. So, you don't need access to the internet when you want to access the file. It will be located in the cloud and also on 2 local computers. And, you can specify which files will be downloaded, and which files will only reside in the cloud by using the correct file folder names. This can all be set up to operate automatically.

[Crookedbreeze]

Originally Posted by airstreamingypsy

You want Jon Townsend, he did that for me perfectly. 352-250-1686

Yes, Jon is the best around !

[Salty Dog]

Ditto on One Drive. I keep all my data on One Drive. It's basically a carbon copy of what's on my desktop. Don't need Internet to access files because they are all on my local computer as well as in the cloud. I can access my cloud from any device, anywhere.

[Freehiker]

Rule of Three!

I have a 400TB NAS for local storage. Offsite physical backup. Cloud backup.