Any reason not to use MS one drive to backup?

[Clariman]

I have a household subscription to Office 365 which includes 1TB one drive per person. Is there any reason that I shouldn't have my hard drive automatically back up to it?

C

[Mike4]

I have a household subscription to Office 365 which includes 1TB one drive per person. Is there any reason that I shouldn't have my hard drive automatically back up to it?

C

Well the main reason seeing as no-one else has answered, if it's a reason at all, would be the your level of paranoia. How paranoid are you that Bill Gates will decide to have a good nosey through your files, or worse, give access to the government to do the same?

If your levels are high, the argument "i have nothing to hide" won't wash. What about when the police state establishes itself here in 2030 and the thought police trawl your files compiling a dossier of your thought crimes, then come and arrest you for what you wrote in 2018?

Or did you mean from a technical standpoint? The chances of that nice Mr Gates tripping over the computer cable and accidentally pulling out the plug thereby losing your backup is pretty remote, I'd say...

[Infrasonic]

https://www.howtogeek.com/448488/how-to ... our-files/

Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service now includes a “Personal Vault” for your sensitive files. These files are encrypted and protected with additional two-factor verification, even when they’re synced to your Windows 10 PC.

[chas49]

Syncing your data to a cloud service isn't backup. It's storing it somewhere else.

Why isn't that the same thing?

Backup is preserving your data as at a given point in time.

Syncing doesn't do that. It continually updates every change your computer makes. Even the ones you don't want.

IMHO cloud services like OneDrive are useful. But it isn't really backup

[modellingman]

Syncing your data to a cloud service isn't backup. It's storing it somewhere else.

Why isn't that the same thing?

Backup is preserving your data as at a given point in time.

Syncing doesn't do that. It continually updates every change your computer makes. Even the ones you don't want.

IMHO cloud services like OneDrive are useful. But it isn't really backup

I agree with your distinction between backup and syncing but there is a way to use OneDrive as a backup.

Storage on OneDrive can be made inaccessible to the PC client by using OneDrive's settings. So, for example, you might have an accessible live folder and an inaccessible backup folder. Both folders are actually accessible through the web interface but only the live folder can be updated from applications running on the PC. The backup folder remains unchanged. Periodically, the web interface can be used to create a backup copy of the live folder.

OK, it's not a very sophisticated form of backup but it does keep the backup out of harm's way.

[torata]

https://www.howtogeek.com/448488/how-to-use-onedrives-personal-vault-to-secure-your-files/

Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service now includes a “Personal Vault” for your sensitive files. These files are encrypted and protected with additional two-factor verification, even when they’re synced to your Windows 10 PC.

I don't think this service gets around the paranoia factor that Mike4 mentioned. From what I remember, MS, like many of the other cloud storage services, are not zero-knowledge based, and they reserve the right to poke around in your files: kiddy porn, terrorist, looks a bit funny...
torata

[Mike4]

So it looks as though we need to discover something about the motives of the OP for asking.

If he wants to know his files remain safe should he say, drop the puter and damage the HD beyond recovery, then syncing is perfect.

If he wants the ability to delve back and see old versions of files, e.g. all the previous versions of a file that he regularly updates, then no syncing is not suitable (unless he is happy to frig about as described by modellingman).

[Clariman]

If he wants to know his files remain safe should he say, drop the puter and damage the HD beyond recovery ..
...

Don't be silly. That'll never happen to me

[Urbandreamer]

So it looks as though we need to discover something about the motives of the OP for asking.

If he wants to know his files remain safe should he say, drop the puter and damage the HD beyond recovery, then syncing is perfect.

If he wants the ability to delve back and see old versions of files, e.g. all the previous versions of a file that he regularly updates, then no syncing is not suitable (unless he is happy to frig about as described by modellingman).

Actually I would argue that syncing or backing up to "local" storage (ie a NAS drive) might answer most of those needs. Where cloud storage comes into it's own is accessing the data from all over the country/world or to insure against loss in the event of a local disaster (ie house fire).

I tend to think Linux, so use Rsync. Indeed I mirror the NAS automatically each night to protect against the NAS hardware failing.
With Windows, Robocopy is shipped and does a not too bad job. Put the commands in a batch file and if desired use the scheduler to call the batch file.

NAS drives are surprisingly expensive, given what they are. A cheaper idea is to use an old PC with appropriate free software.

[Clariman]

My PC is a laptop and I've always found them more awkward to schedule any kind of backup because they don't sit in the same place all the time and aren't always powered up.

I have a NAS drive believe it or not, which came with our sonos system. I've also bought a 1TB extern drive which I'll attach to my docking station. Perhaps I should get into a routine of powering up laptop first thing in the morning and doing daily backup manually?

[Urbandreamer]

I have a NAS drive believe it or not, which came with our sonos system. I've also bought a 1TB extern drive which I'll attach to my docking station. Perhaps I should get into a routine of powering up laptop first thing in the morning and doing daily backup manually?

NO. No, no, no!

It's a computer. Get it to do it for you.

https://caughtinpixels.com/how-to-creat ... -robocopy/

The reason that you may have lost some stuff is because you had to put effort into something that you didn't expect to need. Only put the effort in once, it makes sense.

[Infrasonic]

https://www.howtogeek.com/448488/how-to-use-onedrives-personal-vault-to-secure-your-files/

Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service now includes a “Personal Vault” for your sensitive files. These files are encrypted and protected with additional two-factor verification, even when they’re synced to your Windows 10 PC.

I don't think this service gets around the paranoia factor that Mike4 mentioned. From what I remember, MS, like many of the other cloud storage services, are not zero-knowledge based, and they reserve the right to poke around in your files: kiddy porn, terrorist, looks a bit funny...
torata

So run your own third party client side encryption, multi OS capable if needed.
These days it's relatively trivial to take control of your data end to end and run it encrypted.
Nothing is 100% secure, but some of the ideas people have about cloud have no basis in reality.

I've been using OD, Google Drive et al since they came out, initially just with test documents to see if there were any major security issues.
These days I've got most of my low level files on there, reserving the more sensitive stuff for services like Sync.com (zero knowledge encrypted cloud storage) Protonmail (encrypted email) Signal (encrypted messaging) etc. There's even multi site cloud available now that splits all the data up, like Internxt (got a free account with them just with test stuff on there currently).
https://internxt.com/drive

[martinc]

For a home user OneDrive keeps the last 25 versions of your files (right click 'Version history and choose the one you want to restore). This isn't perfect but it's much easier than multi-generation backups. I also keep a a full backup on my NAS just in case of course. Versioning (also available on AWS and other cloud services) is also ideal for restoring after a ransomware attack.

[scrumpyjack]

I have a NAS server, Acronis takes regular backups and occasionally I do image backups of the C: drive.

But I also subscribe to Dropbox (much like One Drive?) and have it as the default location for my stuff. This has the great advantage of a) being off site so safe if my house burns down, b) version history so I can go back to earlier versions of every file and c) Each laptop and desktop that I use is fully up to date all the time so I can work on my stuff on any of my kit at any time

[Infrasonic]

Cloud is only one part of any comprehensive backup plan, primarily it provides off site file sync/backup/versioning (as per the previous posts).

On my W10 box I also run scheduled File History, Macrium Reflect for OS/folders (paid, as you get Image Guardian [anti ransomware] and Folders as well some other useful features). W10 also has a protected folders facility which I have turned on.

My Chromebook has an all cloud backup solution built in (backs up to GD), but I still have the restore OS facility on a micro SDXC card, just in case of no network connection in the event of a total crash, and also files on a seperate micro SDXC.

Android Phones backup settings/logs to GD automatically too, although it isn't a 'full' backup that you would get from something like Titanium, which will do a full restore much like Macrium would for W10.

Higher end Synology NAS' will do file versioning these days, if you have a lot of data and can justify the cost that could be a good wholly independent way of going about things. With symmetrical 1Gbps FTTP becoming more prevalent then if you got someone close by to replicate your setup you can even have encrypted partitions on each NAS as mirror backups. So automated offsite with no cloud.
https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledg ... per_Backup

[Clariman]

But how do you all cope with a laptop that is movable and not always connected?

[Infrasonic]

But how do you all cope with a laptop that is movable and not always connected?

You need a 'local' solution. As per my previous post you could use W10 File History to an external drive, preferably something small like a USB SSD (I have a Samsung T5 which can be run encrypted if you want, T7's have a fingerprint security option built in which is less restrictive).
Same with Macrium for the OS, save manually to the external or set up an automated schedule.
W10 restore points can be triggered manually as well, I wouldn't rely on them though.

It is possible to run W10 persistently from an external drive (works best from SSD over Thunderbolt or USB 3.1 gen 2), so in the event of a complete internal drive failure you could carry on. It's not trivial to set it up and you need to think about the licensing (a full retail version would be best).

Edit: In all the above scenarios you'd need to make sure the external is formatted as NTFS. If you wanted to run OD or Dropbox sync from an external they would have to be NTFS as well (for the journalling). FAT, exFAT et al won't work any more.

[kiloran]

My PC is a laptop and I've always found them more awkward to schedule any kind of backup because they don't sit in the same place all the time and aren't always powered up.

I don't have a need for daily backups, once a month is fine for me.
I have a gmail calendar entry which emails me every month to remind me to do a backup of my laptop, and discipline myself to do this within 24 hours.

Having an SSD rather than a HDD, the backup is very quick..... plug in the external drive, fire up Macrium Reflect and it's done in 15 minutes or so

--kiloran

[Infrasonic]

With Macrium if you set up a schedule (mine is monthly full weekly differential) then it will kick in automatically at boot, even if you miss the scheduled date. So my scheduled Monday evening backups often get done first thing Tuesday morning at boot before I have even logged on.

You could even set up W10 Task Scheduler to wake from sleep, let the MR backup schedule run, and then turn off the laptop.

[Urbandreamer]

But how do you all cope with a laptop that is movable and not always connected?

My NAS is plugged into my WiFi router, though I could plug it into one of my HomePlug powerline adaptors. My mirror backup is in a different room plugged into a HomePlug. My laptop connects to both Web and NAS via WiFi at home. Moving it around the house doesn't prevent NAS access.

Obviously If I was not at home I would have to use a cloud based solution.