I use Dropbox to keep files synced on my two laptops.
I have a large "projects" folder that contains all of my jobs folders and data. I have them backup on two external hard drives, but would like to upload them to Dropbox for offsite storage. My question is can I keep it up there "in the cloud" without it downloading to all of my devices?
I guess I could use the selective sync options in the settings. My projects folder is about 20GB, so I don't want it on my tablet, phone, or netbook that I use for my TAPS stuff. I only want to be able have it there for downloading if needed.
Is this how you would do it? I want to eventually have my own "cloud" storage unit, but that is down the road.
Thanks
The phone and tablet don't automatically pull every down to the device. They access it from the cloud as needed. The selective sync works great for PC's. I've got about 300GB on Dropbox and use the selective sync to keep it from overwhelming my my laptop.
Absolutely.
When you install the Dropbox sync application on the PC, you need to drill into the settings, and turn on "Selective Sync." Then you simply check/uncheck the folders that you want to sync to the local computer, and leave those in the cloud that you want in the cloud.
I use dropbox a lot, but not for archival/backup purposes. I feel like it's too volatile.
Instead, I use Amazon's "Glacier" cloud based archive system for my super-cold storage needs. I have had great success with pairing Amazon Glacier with a desktop/server application called "Cloudberry Backup," by www.cloudberrylab.com
Glacier costs money, but you get what you pay for. My archives total 245 Gb, and it costs me about $3.50 per month. So, a years worth of backup costs will be $42, plus the cost of the backup software, which was only $30. So, for WAY less than $100 per year, you can have triple redundant, encrypted backup. Retrieval of backed up data takes time. You need to set up a queue, and basically let it run overnite. They intended Glacier as a catastrophic backup system, so by making retrievals slow, they keep costs down.
Amazon also has another cloud based storage system called "S3," or "Simple storage." It's a bit more money, but you can have immediate access to your files when ever you want, and now can even map a drive to your cloud storage. what S3 and Glacier provide is UNLIMITED storage. Dropbox will max out at 1 Terabyte, if you buy the business class service. I'm pretty sure dropbox uses Amazon S3 as it's backend, and its just transparent to use users.
I am in agreement with you Ctbailey. :good: I just recently found the S3 storage from Amazon and Cloudberry software. I found it simple but also a great system for backup. I've been using another cloud backup service for the last 4 years and they wanted $35 a month for backup (that was with me haggling them to a lower price) and now S3 is only costing me $2 a month for 60Gig and the software for a server was $80 plus $10 maintenance cost to keep up with updates.
Now setting up a backup for my home computer and all of my photos.
