Pixeltaker

I have Drop Box and Carbonite. I have found that both of those are for back up, not storage. Once non-accessed (or hard-drive deleted) files are 30 days old, they are deleted from those sites.

I have two external hard drives for my Mac. One is used for Time Machine, Apple's program that backs up my whole system, programs included. The other, I manually back up my files periodically.

I want to find a Cloud STORAGE site, as opposed to a backup site. I know I am protected locally, but I would like to have my files outside of my local back ups.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I believe Microsoft One Drive can be used for storage, I've never had anything deleted, but I do use multiple HD's for backup/storage. Bob.

Pixeltaker

Since I have a Mac, I'm not sure MS One Drive would be compatible. I'll check it out. Thanks for the advice.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

You should be able to get to OneDrive from your browser.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

FYI - With Carbonite, files that you <i>remove</i> from your hard are held for 30 days by Carbonite before they are removed from your Carbonite backup. (To give you a chance to change your mind.) Files that you do not access via Carbonite are not deleted as long as they remain on your computer.

Pixeltaker

This is what I'm trying to get away from. I want permanent storage in the Cloud, no matter if I delete the files on my hard drive, or do not access them in the Cloud

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Why not get a domain and hosting with unlimited storage and you can transfer back and forth with FTP when you like? It would take a massive amount of time to get the initial transfer done. (My initial Carbonite backup took a week, and that was unattended.)

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

The leaders in cloud storage are Amazon (ACS), Google, Microsoft Azure and Apple ICloud. All of these services are likely to be around for a long time and typically store your data at multiple sites for DR purposes. Costs have dropped dramatically over the last few years and now average 2-3 cents per GB per month. Depending on the provider, there may also be a transaction charge for reading/writing data. Your network speed to your ISP (upload and download) will determine the speed at which you an access your data in the cloud.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I forgot to mention that you can also password protect the directories on the server.

Pixeltaker

I will check into those. Thank you.

Big Bill Loc: Phoenix, AZ

"Cloud" storage is merely using a company's online drive space. The advantages are that the data is somewhere other than in your home, and the backups can be done hands off.
The disadvantages are that the data is stored on a company's hard drive space; restoring after a catastrophic failure still requires you to install your OS (with all updates) and your applications (with all their updates)(and that's if you can find the CDs/DVDs they came on), and restoration of data can be time-consuming, to say the least.
Local storage isn't a bad idea if it's done right. On-sight storage needs to be done such that the drives are protected from fire; usually, this means a fire-rated safe. It also requires a hands-on method: retrieve the drive(s), connect them, do the backup, replace the drive(s) in the safe.
Also, I use an imaging utility instead of a data backup. If I lose a drive, even the C: drive, restoration is a matter of clicking a few icons, and I have the whole shebang restored, OS and applications included, just as the system was when the last image was done. Easy.
Redundancy is also good; a separate drive for only data is easy to do, using Microsoft's SyncToy.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Since you have time machine...why not just have another external that you can back that up to.That is what I do. I don't like the cloud with Global warming. You never can tell what will happen in the cloud.

Pixeltaker

As in my original post, I have two external drives. I want an off-site cloud STORAGE.

An addition to my original post, I realize I have unlimited storage on my Flickr account. I may back everything up there, and mark them as private.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

How many people who now worry about off-site storage provided off-site storage for their slides/negatives??

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Haha. My cabinet that I kept my slides and negatives in never had a chance of crashing.