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Do you only save your files in the cloud, or do you back them up some other way?

Traverse

Traverse

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
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I am starting my last year of undergrad and was curious about other people's workflows.

For the past two years I have kept my primary files on my system and kept a backup copy in OneDrive (previously Dropbox). Since updating to Mavericks this has become a pain since I tag documents and end up with duplicate tags unless I take the time to remove them all. Plus, I am starting to use multiple devices more with my iPad and having to keep up with updated files in the cloud AND on my system is a pain.

Do you store your files solely in OneDrive (or any cloud service)? How do you back them up, if at all?


Edit: Also, I use tags, so creating a copy for my OneDrive creates duplicate tags that I have to manually remove from the copied files.
 
Last edited:
Wow. That might be a bit overkill for my measly 10 GB of school data. o_O

I do keep bi-weekly TM backups on an external drive.
 
Multiple time machine destinations, CCC clone, cloud, and Crashplan. A lot cheaper and easier than trying to recover lost data.
 
I guess more specifically, I'm asking if you have only one copy of your files in your OneDrive/Dropbox/ect. folder and back up that folder to your external devices or do you also keep a local copy in addition to the on in your cloud folder.
 
If data doesn't exist in 3 separate physical locations then it doesn't exist at all.

cloud service =1st physical location

your computer = 2nd physical location

an externalHD kept at your grandmas house = 3rd physical location

simple
 
Just realised you were possibly after a little more information.

I produce audio for a living so I have my main machine in the studio, on here I have a folder on the desktop where all my in use critical projects live, when I need to work on something I use the version in that folder. Then every night I drop that folder into my cloud service folder and let it overwrite the contents of that folder. Then once a week I do a full clone back up of my entire computer on an external drive that gets taken off site to my home. So now my data is at work, in the cloud and at home.
I also have timemachine backup in the studio just in case I have a problem there.
 
CelestialToys said:
If data doesn't exist in 3 separate physical locations then it doesn't exist at all.
Click to expand...

I like that expression. ;)

CelestialToys said:
Just realised you were possibly after a little more information.

I produce audio for a living so I have my main machine in the studio, on here I have a folder on the desktop where all my in use critical projects live, when I need to work on something I use the version in that folder. Then every night I drop that folder into my cloud service folder and let it overwrite the contents of that folder. Then once a week I do a full clone back up of my entire computer on an external drive that gets taken off site to my home. So now my data is at work, in the cloud and at home.
I also have timemachine backup in the studio just in case I have a problem there.
Click to expand...


This was the type of set I was talking about. Thanks!

I never realized how far people go to back things up, but I've experienced heavy data loss so I am now much more careful.
 
To be honest if your data isn't massively valuable then you can get away with just the cloud and machine, but being as you're looking at final year work I'd personally value it as much as anything I'm working on to get paid for...

Believe me when I tell you that it's not pleasant losing final year work, I had a guy on my degree course who had that happen and he failed his finals. Don't be that guy :)
 
CelestialToys said:
To be honest if your data isn't massively valuable then you can get away with just the cloud and machine, but being as you're looking at final year work I'd personally value it as much as anything I'm working on to get paid for...

Believe me when I tell you that it's not pleasant losing final year work, I had a guy on my degree course who had that happen and he failed his finals. Don't be that guy :)
Click to expand...

Exactly. :) Plus I can't afford to loose anything in grad school while studying for my CPA.

I think I save my files in my OneDrive folder, which is backed up by time machine, and I'll back up just my OneDrive folder to a USB flash drive as well.

I have this huge fear that a OneDrive glitch will tell my system to delete the local copy on my HD due to a sync error or something.
 
- Nightly CCC clone (incremental)
- Documents in Dropbox
- Source code under git, pushed to BitBucket

...not really anything in iCloud except for Safari reading list ;)
 
Traverse said:
I guess more specifically, I'm asking if you have only one copy of your files in your OneDrive/Dropbox/ect. folder and back up that folder to your external devices or do you also keep a local copy in addition to the on in your cloud folder.
Click to expand...

No, I keep the master in a folder on my Mac and sync that folder to the Dropbox folder. As a result both folders get backed up. I only have a few gb of data I keep in the cloud.
 
Most of my documents are back up by Time Machine. Never thought about back up to any cloud because the storage is so small. I put all of iWork documents in the iCloud and some Office documents go to Dropbox with pictures. :apple:
 
No online - at all.

First, nightly backup of docs to thumb drive.

Second, nightly backup of docs to ext drive.

Third, weekly full clone to another ext drive.

Don't use TM.
 
Traverse said:
I have this huge fear that a OneDrive glitch will tell my system to delete the local copy on my HD due to a sync error or something.
Click to expand...

That's exactly why you shouldn't consider a cloud synced copy of your files a backup: By design they keep your local machine and the cloud copy in sync so if something bad happens it's likely to happen in both places!

I try and ensure I have data in at least 4 physical locations across multiple technologies

On my mac I use Time Machine and Crashplan Online to backup all my OneDrive documents from the local copy and on my windows machine I use Crashplan to a local drive and online. In addition, I rent a hosted virtual server that also runs crashplan and my machines back up to that one too

Source code is stored in Visual Studio Online and copied regularly to a local machine (which is then backed up with Crashplan as above)

For photos, I have at least 8 copies of them (OneDrive, Flickr, Google Photos, Local Machine, Revel, Time Machine, Crashplan online and Crashplan on my VM), which might seem like overkill but for me they are irreplaceable and it's worth taking the time to back them up properly :)
 
My documents got the OneDrive, my current images go to a Time Machine volume and Carbon Copy Cloner volume as well.
 
maflynn said:
My documents got the OneDrive, my current images go to a Time Machine volume and Carbon Copy Cloner volume as well.
Click to expand...

Do you use Time Machine and CCC to back up your OneDrive folder regularly?

I would like to just have one copy of my files (due to duplicate tags) in my OneDrive folder, and just back that folder up.
 
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