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Digital File Storage Options? NAS? Cloud? What are you doing?

Julian

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WD just informed me that my NAS MyBook Live is not secure and has a vulnerability and to unplug it from my network (what a great obsolescence plan!).

So I either buy a new NAS or move to the cloud.

My primary uses are photo, video, and general backup file storage. I know, for example, that Prime offers free photo storage (not video), but I'm not sure about going that route. I know we have tons of experience here....

So what are ya'll doing for backup storage of pics,videos etc?
 

Dean P

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I use iCloud by MS. I store everything up there; been doing it for years. I believe they give you free storage with Outlook with the option to purchase more.
 

suke

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I have a QNAP NAS with 2 1TB solid state drives and they mirror to each other for redundancy. I back up everything to that. I don't have anything stored locally. I could have a laptop completely brick itself and I wouldn't lose a thing. Setup a new laptop, sync the QNAP to the new laptop and I'll have everything.
 

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I use MS OneDrive on my personal side of things as well as in the corporate environment. No issues, very accessible, syncing works great. Have additional storage on Azure for 100's Terrabytes of Backups as well. OneDrive apps on my phone work great and it is all tied in with my Outlook so I can save files there.

Personal Cloud Storage – Microsoft OneDrive

Also if you have a subscription to Microsoft Office, I believe it is included in that for a certain amount of storage, depending on the plan.
 
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Julian

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HangOutdoors

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Yes it works fine. I have Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers, MacBook Pro's, iPad, iPhone, Android, etc. works across all of them just fine.
 

mkbcaptain

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I have a Raspberry Pi running ownCloud and have an openvpn server running and use that to get to my data.
 

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I have a WD 1TB external hard drive. I would never connect my backup to the internet, but mirror it locally every so often and disconnect. Learned the hard way years back when my music, videos, pictures, etc. were encrypted and I lost most of it.
 

Ericd

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I started using Dropbox about 10 years ago and haven’t changed to others like iCloud or OneDrive. They offer a family plan and have a password backup app. Works for me!
 

2kwik4u

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I've had everything in the cloud for the last 10yrs or so. I stopped attempting to do local backups due to cost/complexity/time constraints. Network access is so prevalent now, it's hard to argue with using the cloud IMO. You arguably don't have quite the control as if it's local and on your equipment, but for me, it's a fair trade.
  • Photos are backed up to Google Photos
  • Music is backed up/downloaded from Spotify (no backup previously)
  • Video services are spread around
    • YouTube (used to be Google Play Movies/TV) now has some of our purchased content
    • Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, but those aren't really file storage
      • We do download quite a bit for "off network viewing" mostly to the boys devices for trips in the car.
  • Documents are spread across OneDrive and DropBox
    • I have (3) Onedrive accounts (Office, School, Personal)
    • Each is used for something specific
    • Using the cloud makes for easy and quick sharing, storage, and permission controls. Critical use cases for office and school.
  • System configs for phones are backed up to Google.
    • System configs for tablets/PC's are images that live on dropbox
    • (They're woefully out of date, and I should just delete them)
  • Most apps have a login now, and that will hold that apps setup/preferences/etc.
Recently got a new phone. Took ~15min to sync apps/config/files from the old phone to the new one. Had my laptop crash at work a few months ago. SSD died. I lost no data, and it took about half a day to recover my apps and get everything set back up. All of my personal data lives in the cloud. All of my office data lives on the server....With a caveat on office data; see below.....Overall, I've been super pleased with keeping all the data somewhere else. The only real hiccups are when I'm in an area without cell or wifi service. Typically that isn't often, I know I'm headed there, and can prep my local data ahead of time. Then I resync when I'm back to service (usually only a few days of notes, and a few documents to corral).

I use FreeFileSync to manage local vs cloud copies of everything. It will let you mirror/2-way sync/copy/etc, as well as filter file types. SO, say I'm headed to a jobsite and need CAD models, PDF drawings, and things like that. I'll grab a local copy of 2-3 main project folders as part of my trip prep, then resync them when I get back. All changes live in the same folder structure I'm used to, then it's a few clicks to get it all back on the server when I return, and then I delete the local copy once verified it's moved. Sounds complicated, but takes under 10min each trip. Super easy.

We had a ransomware attack back in October. Shut down the office for about a week, then was a 2mo process to get systems back to 100%. I now keep a cloud copy of my "personal" files for the office. Thing like performance reviews, expense reports, critical emails for personnel logs, approval emails for time off, things like that. Almost lost those in the attack, and decided to make them redundant. I still keep the "alpha copy" on the server, but backup to the cloud once a month. Set an Outlook reminder, and it takes like 2 minutes.

**EDIT** .....I should mention that OneDrive and Dropbox both do their own "syncing" to the cloud. So I have a local copy by default, and those services take care of syncing to the cloud when I have service. That makes it SUPER simple to move to a different device. Just download/install the app, and log in. Your preferences on what sync's and what doesn't comes along with your login, and after a few minutes you're files are there and ready to use.

Also, in discussions with the wife, literally just this morning, we're considering buying a year of service to Google Drive. She's out of space for pictures. SO, we might be adding that to the list of "digital stuff to manage" in the near future.
 
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biffdotorg

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Yes it works fine. I have Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers, MacBook Pro's, iPad, iPhone, Android, etc. works across all of them just fine.
You have Windows 11 already? Awesome, developer status pays again! Many of us internal to Microsoft have yet to move to Windows 11 yet. Usually we do that before or right at announcement.

To the OP's question though, Julian, check with a firmware update from WD for your mybook. I have a WD Mycloud NAS on my home network, and they just offered a firmware/software update. It should integrate a little better, but so far I like it.

I edit a fair amount of video, and it's important to be able to dump video from iphone, ipad and windows to a central point on my LAN. The files are usually 1-4Gb, so I don't care to go up to the cloud. Even though I have as much storage in Azure as I could ever want.

Good luck!
 

HangOutdoors

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@biffdotorg Yes I am on the Insider Track so we are running it in test environments and I have it on one of my laptops. It is a bit squirly and requires Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 which is going to prevent a lot of people who can't enable it on their motherboard from upgrading unless they buy a new computer. There are some work arounds so I hear. Way to prop up new computer sales across the industry.

My problem with Synology, WD, and other non Hardened non Datacenter Level NAS boxes, etc. Is that they are not to hard to hack, both local access and exposed. Our cyber team does a pretty good job of cracking a lot of them during Penetration Testing clients, etc. I have several but got away from them, the cloud fit better and is much more secure. Some people are against the cloud, which is cool too. Need to do what makes you feel comfortable. Also my house could burn down or get broken into and I don't have to worry about my electronic media and assets. Technically, I could run over my primary laptop with the truck and have a new once synced and back to status quo quite easily. You could have hardware failure and unless you have a backup of the NAS stored somewhere else, it could be game over. Just some food for thought.

@biffdotorg Yes, I agree, running 4Gb files up and down to the cloud is no fun. Of course in One Drive they are synced down and I also use Azure Blob Storage with rapid access to mitigate it. But some days I am beyond frustrated when I have to bring up and down 100gb+ worth of files for something.
 

Julian

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You have Windows 11 already? Awesome, developer status pays again! Many of us internal to Microsoft have yet to move to Windows 11 yet. Usually we do that before or right at announcement.

To the OP's question though, Julian, check with a firmware update from WD for your mybook. I have a WD Mycloud NAS on my home network, and they just offered a firmware/software update. It should integrate a little better, but so far I like it.

I edit a fair amount of video, and it's important to be able to dump video from iphone, ipad and windows to a central point on my LAN. The files are usually 1-4Gb, so I don't care to go up to the cloud. Even though I have as much storage in Azure as I could ever want.

Good luck!
They aren't fixing the MyBook product, but are offering a 40% discount on some of their MyCloud NAS offerings (many of which get terrible reviews). I think I'm leaning towards just keeping the MyBook online for local video/image manipulation purposes (keep copies in the cloud). If some ahole hacks the mybook-I'm backed up and they can watch my videos all they want! LOL If they brick it, I can move to a new NAS at that point, or go Cloud only.
 

biffdotorg

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@biffdotorg You could have hardware failure and unless you have a backup of the NAS stored somewhere else, it could be game over. Just some food for thought.

@biffdotorg Yes, I agree, running 4Gb files up and down to the cloud is no fun. Of course in One Drive they are synced down and I also use Azure Blob Storage with rapid access to mitigate it. But some days I am beyond frustrated when I have to bring up and down 100gb+ worth of files for something.
100% agree!

4TB WD NAS, mirrored to 4TB WD Mybook, Synched to Azure File storage in the cloud. Remote access (Off LAN) locked down by port, IP address, and MFA. Overkill for the home user, but not when someone loses something special. (as photo albums rot in rubbermaid storage bins in my pole building)
 

biffdotorg

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They aren't fixing the MyBook product, but are offering a 40% discount on some of their MyCloud NAS offerings (many of which get terrible reviews). I think I'm leaning towards just keeping the MyBook online for local video/image manipulation purposes (keep copies in the cloud). If some ahole hacks the mybook-I'm backed up and they can watch my videos all they want! LOL If they brick it, I can move to a new NAS at that point, or go Cloud only.
agreed, I have nothing life changing on my NAS. If they want to start pulling multi-TB files, have at it. Raw footage is so exciting to sit through.
 

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I have a synology NAS, had it for about 6 years or so. It's a wonderful device (16TB of raid 5) but in today's world, it's all cloud. I would pick whatever service you like and look at the prices. Personally I like the Microsoft 365 subscription for the family (each gets 1TB of storage). If the 1tb isn't enough, you can add more.
 

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I have a synology NAS, had it for about 6 years or so. It's a wonderful device (16TB of raid 5) but in today's world, it's all cloud. I would pick whatever service you like and look at the prices. Personally I like the Microsoft 365 subscription for the family (each gets 1TB of storage). If the 1tb isn't enough, you can add more.
Agreed, that is the way to go. That is what I use for us personally. I have business E3 or E5 accounts for work, but same principal. Great price point too and always have the latest MS software.
 

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Synology NAS user here. I used to store everything on dropbox, but got real tired of paying for it, and slow access whenever I needed large files. The ability to run programs from the synology (like PLEX) is pretty sweet. probably a bunch more I can do with it that I haven't even tapped into.
 
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