Topic: Cloud Storage/External Hard Drives

[killer-heels]

Can any of you techie bods suggest a good cloud storage or external hard drive storage device? Primarily one that is quite reliable and works on both Mac and Windows? Seen some online but they always seem to come with a catch i.e. operating systems or reliability.

Thanks in advance 

[oojason]

External hard drive wise; something like this mate:-

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/data-storage/data-storage/seagate-backup-plus-portable-hard-drive-1-tb-black-21802415-pdt.html - a Seagate 1TB USB3 Portable Drive with 2 year guarantee - not bad for £53.

You could probably find the same cheaper online - but for me, stuff like this is better from a physical shop - easier to take back if in the unlikely event of it going wrong etc. Plus, as much as I loathe PC World - they are everywhere and one shouldn't be too far away for you.


Cloud-wise, if you have a gmail email address use Google Drive - 15gb free on personal emails, 30gb free on business emails (or you can pay for extra too etc) - usually reliable and easy to use. Personally I don't put anything too personal or financial on mine - so if you want something a little more secure ask https://twitter.com/Snowden



ps - if you did want a portable drive for just Windows then this for £53 is decent - same specs as above - but with a 5yr guarantee and a free 32gb sand disk flash drive - http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/data-storage/data-storage/wd-my-passport-ultra-exclusive-portable-hard-drive-1-tb-32-gb-memory-stick-bundle-10148655-pdt.html  (in the comments section a few people have had problems on macs with it - but for Windows seems fine)

[killer-heels]

Thanks. Is there anyway you can turn a external storage device into a wireless cloud device?

Also are there any suitable drives that work well on both Mac and Windows?

[zabadoh]

Google Drive works on Android, iOS, Windows, OSX

So does Dropbox, a similar cloud-drive service.

When you set up your devices on the same account, the cloud drives will synchronize across your devices automatically.

On desktops, the files are actually synchronized on your hard drive.

In the case of the mobile devices, the documents will be downloaded on the fly.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Is there anyway you can turn a external storage device into a wireless cloud device?"

When you install a cloud service, it creates a virtual drive, that you can save, modify and delete files on.  It behaves just like a hard drive or a USB drive.

You can configure Dropbox and Google Drive to synchronize to a USB drive, if that's what you're asking. 

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/drive/qgrwOfr-GfQ

Dropbox you can just change the sync directory on the fly.

[kopite77]

Thanks. Is there anyway you can turn a external storage device into a wireless cloud device?

Also are there any suitable drives that work well on both Mac and Windows?

You can do it using a raspberry pi mate, http://www.techradar.com/how-to/computing/how-to-build-your-own-raspberry-pi-nas-1315968 I can use my NAS on my Windows pc's, my android phone, nvidia shield tv, Amazon Fire tv and iPad no problem, although my NAS is western digital not raspberry pi.

[killer-heels]

Thanks for the help. Everytime i ask about something the solution is normally Raspberry Pi. Probably will just buy it and spend months figuring how to use to it

[redbyrdz]

Thanks for the help. Everytime i ask about something the solution is normally Raspberry Pi. Probably will just buy it and spend months figuring how to use to it

How much space do you need?

If its in GB, something like dropbox will probably do you, if its in TB, what you're looking for is a NAS drive - an external hard drive with its own network access, so it sits in your network and you can access it from any computer in the network. The difference is that one is actually physically in your possession and the other is located somewhere else in the world.s

[Elmo!]

Thanks. Is there anyway you can turn a external storage device into a wireless cloud device?

Also are there any suitable drives that work well on both Mac and Windows?

Get a NAS, I've got a Buffalo which is alright, I can access my files anywhere, and has the redundancy of RAID 1 - so if one disk fails, I replace it and still have all my data. Synology's are supposed to be much better though.

A lot more expensive than an external HD though.

[harryc]

My Time capsule looks like it has given up the ghost and Apple are not investing in Airport anymore so just wondering is paying for a cloud service the way forward?

[.adam]

My Time capsule looks like it has given up the ghost and Apple are not investing in Airport anymore so just wondering is paying for a cloud service the way forward?

How much data are you backing up? What is it (document/photos/music/videos)? How frequently do you need to access the backup?

[harryc]

How much data are you backing up? What is it (document/photos/music/videos)? How frequently do you need to access the backup?

I have just over 50GB worth of photos’s, videos and documents.

Decided to bite the bullet and paid £2.99 a month for iCloud.

Will just manually back up the 20GB of music onto a pen flash.

[Gnurglan]

Get a NAS, I've got a Buffalo which is alright, I can access my files anywhere, and has the redundancy of RAID 1 - so if one disk fails, I replace it and still have all my data. Synology's are supposed to be much better though.

A lot more expensive than an external HD though.

Agree. Get a NAS. You can back up photos and media files, but with all that memory you can also choose to backup your entire computer. Plus you can access the content anywhere, just like with iCloud and similar.