IDrive VS DropBox VS ?

[sessi4ml]

I have DropBox on my PC and Cell phone. On Cell, I take photos and upload them to different shared accounts.
I do not see a backup function.
IDrive has a backup function.
What do you use?
Thanks

[baja_yu]

Google Drive and Dropbox.

[Niya]

Services like DropBox and GoogleDrive are terrible to use as backup services since they're geared towards exposing your private data to a public audience. The sync feature gets in the way and presents a risk. If you delete your stuff by accident or otherwise, its gonna get deleted on your DropBox/GoogleDrive. This is unacceptable to me.

I use IDrive which is made for backing up data.

[gajtguy]

Our 'team' uses Dropbox basically for shared files (catalogs, prices & other marketing material). I wish it had a better structure within the free account to allow 'read only/contributor/etc', etc. Right now everyone has the ability to add files and mess everything up. So we appointed two people as the designated 'add/edit/delete' sheriffs. It has already happened once where someone accidentally deleted the entire shared folder, which affected the entire team. Luckily, once I found out who did it, through the Dropbox history area, we just did a 'restore' from the recycle bin to get it back to the way it was.

While dropbox may not have a built in backup function, I just slide a copy of the entire thing to a "backup" folder on my desktop machine on a semi-regular basis. Hard drive space is easy to come by. Our entire shared folder is only 1.75gb.

Good topic though. I would like to hear more about the other services out there..

[dilettante]

The original post seems to be asking how to back up data uploaded to a data sharing service. Or is it really asking how to use some hosted off-site service to back up entire PCs, phones, etc?

[dilettante]

Chinese companies offer up to 10TB of free cloud storage, laugh at Dropbox, Google Drive

[Niya]

There has to be a catch. Wouldn't be surprised if that's just bait. Imagine the kind of stuff you could get if you started sifting through all the stuff people upload to cloud storage. 10TB is mighty attractive.

[dilettante]

There has to be a catch.

Well of course, but remember the costs are not the obstacle for them.

Raw hardware is cheap there because they use child labor, dump toxic wastes where they will, etc.

Energy costs are low because they don't care about the downsides of nuclear, coal, etc. or even trying to deal with the wastes produced, let alone worker or surrounding community safety.

Communication bandwidth is cheap since there is no domestic telecom cartel keeping costs high to prop up 2000% profit levels.


We on the outside benefit from all of those evils too of course, but domestically they but don't have to feed the military forces supporting trade and 17 layers of middle men with hands in your pocket that you go through to buy a disk drive made there.