Why Sync my HDD with Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive?

[doug6388]

Is he cloud a scam? Is it true that if I have a 10 Mb file on my HDD and I upload it to Drive, Dropbox or Onedrive, they will sync that file ( make copy of my uploaded file ) and store it on their cloud server ( a hard drive in a secret server farm / warehouse ) and make a redundant copies in separate locations. So my file(s) are now stored on my PC in my folder, then re-stored in a Google Drive sync folder on MY own computer, then re-stored on the primary Drive server and backed up on a redundant server? Why sync/save it on Drive folder on my own computer? I'm Perplexed. Is the cloud better than an external HDD?

 

[k1114]

It's for backup or sharing. Hardware dies and you may not want to lose files. It's your choice if you want to use it or not. You'd be limited on internet speed since it's on some other server. I keep my backups on an external hdd because it's faster than my internet plus security reasons. But like photos and stuff on my phone I sync to get it easier to my desktop so it's also for more convenience.

But it's not in some secret location and there aren't that many copies either.

 

[smorizio]

with your data ask yourself can you lose it and the time to reinstall it?? say you go to once in a life time concert and have lots of photos and vids from it from your phone. you dont want to lose those photos so you copy them to your hard drive. so now there in two places. your phone can be killed but drop or water. your pc hard drive can fail or it can be in a house fire and all the parts lost. if you go a little more extream you put the files on a usb stick and place the stick in two places ...one in a fire proof safe...the other off site. if you go the extra step like a biz they put that info on the cloud/net. so if phone one gets flushed..the house burns down and the fire proof safe fails...and the ofsite usb stick went bad. there still one last copy of your data online. with cloud storage if your a sales person or need the data anywhere you can put it online and then pull the data from any pc when needed.

 

[USAFRet]

Is the cloud better than an external HDD?

If your house burns down, the copy in 'the cloud' will still be there.
If the cloud provider goes out of business or stops that function, the copy on your personal external drive will still be there.

For instance...I have a very specific pic of my eldest grandson, taken when he was 2. He is now 11.
This image exists in multiple places.
On my main PC
In a drive image created with Macrium Reflect
In a secondary drive in this PC
In another drive on another PC in the house
In the cloud somewhere

No matter what happens, I can still use that image to blackmail him when he shows up at my door with his first girlfriend.
Why yes, I am the Evil Grandad.

Fire, hurricane, theft, business bankruptcy, whatever....that image (and others) still exist somewhere.

 

[USAFRet]

"the cloud" is simply a bunch of servers run by some company. Amazon, DropBox, Google, etc.
Some entity 'out there'. It is not magical.

Bottom line...a file that exists in one place may be said to not exist at all. That is one drive crash away from disappearing forever.