In our September meeting, we had a great explanation from Thomas MacEntee of what cloud storage is and how to use it. Many people are still a bit afraid of storing their research and photos in the cloud. What are your options?
No External Storage
If you just have your information on your laptop of a desktop computer, there is a very good chance you will have a catastrophic failure and lose your data. Mechanical storage devices fail. Hard drives by design are mechanical devices with spinning disks, a drive motor, and moving arms. Mechanical devices all have a high possibility of failing.
How long will a hard drive last? There is a lot of hype about hard drives and how long will they last before they fail. I can tell you in my own experience, I have purchased new drives, which failed right out of the box. I have also had some of my hard drives spinning 24/7 for the last 7 years without a hiccup. So should you worry? YES.
If you do not have any external back up of your computer data, you are taking a big risk.
Storage Options –
DVD – Many older computers have a DVD/CD writer. DVD has a low failure rate and can be a very affordable storage device.
Thumb Drives – if you have a USB port on your computer, a thumb drive can be a great option to back up your data.
External Hard Drive – This is another way to store large amounts of data and have the peace of mind that you have your data in more than just one failure point.
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If you have any thoughts or questions, please leave a comment here and we can start a community discussion.
