Online storage servers

lognor8

Beta member
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3
Location
UK
Hi everyone.

Could someone kindly read this and give me their opinion please?

I have 3 drives for my PC.
1 x 500gb internal, 1 x 500gb external and 1 x 1tb external.

I have lots of music videos, business applications and business courses.

I was thinking of buying a 2tb drive and consolidating the files and folders into it but then I read about online storage servers. This appeals to me because I have had hardrives fail in the past with the subsequent loss of my work and data files.

I know next to nothing about online storage so I have a few questions that I would appreciate someone answering for me please.

Lets say for example that I upload a set of guitar video lessons from my hardrive to the storage site. Would I have to download them back to my computer to view and play the files or can I play them direct from the storage server?

The video files amount to around 700gb in total. Online storage would be a good solution instead of buying another hardrive........yes?

And then what about software applications? Can I upload Keyword Elite (for example) to the storage server, and then use the software as if it was on my own PC?

I guess what I am saying is, can I ultimately use online storage instead physical hardrives ?

Any help would be most appreciated.
 
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I don't know 100% how every service out there works, but from what I understand it's just a backup that exists in the cloud. You would still have to restore the files to your hard drive. What you are talking about would be more like running a virtual machine from the cloud. I can tell you that running a VM from the cloud is expensive is not used for back up purposes, it's more likely to be used for software QA testing and similar activities.
 
Hi cboucher
Thank you for your quick reply.

Yeah, now that you have put it in writing, I can see that a virtual machine is what I am talking about.

I guess that a 'work around' would be that I should upload my files to the storage server and then download them to my hardrive when needed. Then when I have finished with the files....save to the server and then delete from my hd, knowing that they will be still be in the cloud for next time?

If this is right.....WOW!!
 
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You would probably want to try a service like carbonite. From what I understand it automatically backs up everything to their cloud servers. You don't have to specifically tell it to back up each file. It just runs in the background, backing your files up as needed.
 
Also, consider your bandwidth restrictions. If you use a service like AT&T which charges you for overages in usage, remember that every file you download must be uploaded to the cloud. For home based users, services like Carbonite are good, but you won't be streaming data live from them, rather it is a DR resource available for you. I would always recommend keeping secure data in-house, and maybe set up a NAS with RAID enabled (you can go to electronics stores like Fry's and buy a 2TB NAS with RAID5 off the shelf, plug and play). This will add redundancy to prevent data loss due to drive failure. Also look into a UPS for your NAS.
 
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