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Dropbox vs iCloud

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pcslookout

Lifer
Looking at doing the 3 2 1 backup but really do not like cloud to be honest. Just storing photos though.

Which one is better?

I know iCloud works best for iOS and Mac because it is built in basically.

Though I am using Windows and iOS right now.

Which is faster?
 
I don't really trust any of them fully but I figure if Google goes down for any extended period we'll have bigger problems on our minds than pics/docs on the intarwebz!

In other words I just use Google drive. (for now)
 
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Could get a leased server through OVH and setup a rsync backup job to that.

Backblaze might be an option too but think they require some kind of proprietary client. Most cloud services do I think. So that makes it harder to automate.

I have a basic cold backup system in addition to my live backups, and one of the backup jobs is an offsite job, it picks up the most critical stuff that can fit on a 3TB drive. I bring the drive to work and rotate it out once in a while.
 
Cheapest option for OP is to stash an off site HDD somewhere; nothing mandates that it must be in the cloud.

The advantage of Backblaze is that it's $9/month for unlimited backup of one PC (meaning desktop Windows or macOS). Unfortunately that means no Linux or NAS backup without jumping through some hoops.

IIRC, if you are geeky enough to dump all of your data onto one PC, Backblaze's cloud backup will work without paying for extra seats. They don't encourage it, but they just look the other way if you aren't overdoing it. I have no idea how strongly they police this. They have a stable business model that leverages consumer HDD storage, so they aren't at risk of going out of business.

The no-name cloud storage providers that claim "lifetime" storage for a fixed price on some StackSocial deal are scams.

Dropbox was never price competitive. Neither is iCloud+, unless you pay for the 2TB tier and spread the value with family sharing. This could be desirable for the iPhone integration and few ancillary benefits.
 
How much storage do you need?

I have the paid Microsoft365 plan so 6x1TB storage + Office365 ($99/year), currently only me and my wife use it, but when my kids are going to need it, they can just hook on.
 
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I suppose one way to do it would be to write a script that does a differential backup to a tar file, then have a windows box with a file share to where the tar files go, and a script that syncs the tar files over to the C drive. Then have that machine be backed up by Backblaze.

Realistically you can probably get away with doing offsite backups like once a week or even once a month, depends how often you add/modify your data.
 
I prefer Dropbox. The integration into the computer is really great and their mobile app is nice too. If all you are backing up is photos, you could try Amazon photos too.
 
Count me in as another user of Microsoft365 Family Plan. You can get cards (I think the last one i got on Woot a few months back for $79 for 1 year, before that I got it on Amazon for $89) and I get 6 accounts with all the Office products and 1TB of storage per account. Easy to use and 6TB is great for the price w/ office.
 
Ali hassan said:
If you're not super into cloud storage but wanna stick to a 3-2-1 backup plan, grab an external hard drive or NAS and pair it with a cloud service. That way, you can keep your pics on your device and have a backup in the cloud. Dropbox and iCloud are solid choices, but since you're on Windows and iOS, Dropbox might be a better fit.
Click to expand...
Wow that's one hell of a lurk.

<golf-clap />
 
Just remember to also backup your password, keys etc to access the cloud in a location you'll be able to access if your house burns down. Every now and then I go over my disaster recovery scenario and I've caught a few times where I realized I wouldn't even be able to get to my backups as I wouldn't know the password. Same with 2FA, be careful with that since if you lose your phone in the disaster you're in the same boat.
 
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