USB or hardrive for uni?

Hi,

I will be studying biomedical science if that is relevant. Which is better for 1st year students; a USB or hardrive? Sorry I don't know much about computers so if there is a clear difference between the two I apologise lol

Reply 1

username3118454

19

probably a USB because it's more portable

I never use them tho since I store my files online/cloud

Reply 2

Jehaan

19

So I’m in my 3rd year of biochemistry so similar. I only used a usb to transfer presentations onto uni computers as in uni you get access to OneDrive so everyone stores their stuff on there, I also bought a hard drive that’s because I have a data based 3rd year project but I doubt you’ll need one

Reply 3

RoyalSheepy

20

Original post by ZombieTheWolf

Hi,

I will be studying biomedical science if that is relevant. Which is better for 1st year students; a USB or hardrive? Sorry I don't know much about computers so if there is a clear difference between the two I apologise lol

You'll most likely have Office 365 in Uni which gives you 5TB online storage (IIRC).

Reply 4

Mr Wednesday

19

Original post by angelike1

I never use them tho since I store my files online/cloud

Thats and "Instant Fail" :mad:

No physical backup under your control is a recipe for disaster, you need to be able to pack your data up and know its safe, and you CANNOT guarantee web access when you need it. Yes a cloud backup is a useful "extra" thing, but do you want to trust your entire thesis to it or a few years of PhD research ?

For the OP, get BOTH. A tough little USB to go on your key ring, it should go with you everywhere. Use it for instant backup / moving stuff between computers. Have a separate external hard drive back in your room for keeping an additional copy of all your work files, phone cam picks etc. Storage is super cheap these days and its foolish not to have some redundancy.

Reply 5

PAPAFRANKRU

10

USB, if its purely for work you'll only need a few gigabytes. Im first year biomed and my folders only take up a few gigs mostly cus of the pictures in word documents. Harddrives are for when your gonna need 100s of gigabytes like for storing movies.

Reply 6

Anonymous #1

Please don't use a USB! Yes, it may be portable but there's a high likelihood of you losing your files i.e. corruption. You can however email your work back and forth or save files to OneDrive.

Reply 7

username3118454

19

Original post by Mr Wednesday

Thats and "Instant Fail" :mad:

No physical backup under your control is a recipe for disaster, you need to be able to pack your data up and know its safe, and you CANNOT guarantee web access when you need it. Yes a cloud backup is a useful "extra" thing, but do you want to trust your entire thesis to it or a few years of PhD research ?

For the OP, get BOTH. A tough little USB to go on your key ring, it should go with you everywhere. Use it for instant backup / moving stuff between computers. Have a separate external hard drive back in your room for keeping an additional copy of all your work files, phone cam picks etc. Storage is super cheap these days and its foolish not to have some redundancy.

Or just keep copies on your PCs like everyone does?

Reply 8

gjd800

20

Original post by Mr Wednesday

Thats and "Instant Fail" :mad:

No physical backup under your control is a recipe for disaster, you need to be able to pack your data up and know its safe, and you CANNOT guarantee web access when you need it. Yes a cloud backup is a useful "extra" thing, but do you want to trust your entire thesis to it or a few years of PhD research ?

For the OP, get BOTH. A tough little USB to go on your key ring, it should go with you everywhere. Use it for instant backup / moving stuff between computers. Have a separate external hard drive back in your room for keeping an additional copy of all your work files, phone cam picks etc. Storage is super cheap these days and its foolish not to have some redundancy.

haha, my thesis was saved in no fewer then six different places (and also Dropboxed)

Reply 9

Bio 7

21

Original post by Mr Wednesday

Thats and "Instant Fail" :mad:

No physical backup under your control is a recipe for disaster, you need to be able to pack your data up and know its safe, and you CANNOT guarantee web access when you need it. Yes a cloud backup is a useful "extra" thing, but do you want to trust your entire thesis to it or a few years of PhD research ?

For the OP, get BOTH. A tough little USB to go on your key ring, it should go with you everywhere. Use it for instant backup / moving stuff between computers. Have a separate external hard drive back in your room for keeping an additional copy of all your work files, phone cam picks etc. Storage is super cheap these days and its foolish not to have some redundancy.

I do my work on my ipad so a usb is a bit inconvenient. Using onedrive was always easy.

Reply 10

Mr Wednesday

19

Original post by Bio 7

I do my work on my ipad so a usb is a bit inconvenient. Using onedrive was always easy.

I think you will find your university regs are a decidely unforgiving on the "it was a bit inconvenient" excuse if you lose a major piece of work, can't get to a backup and miss a submssion deadline.

If there is ANY time to consider how something unexpected / a real emergency can hit you it's now. I have tutees spread across several countries trying to prep for remote exams, some with flaky web access and all with travel restrictions. Fingers crossed they all have their backup files with them.

Reply 11

Mr Wednesday

19

Original post by gjd800

haha, my thesis was saved in no fewer then six different places (and also Dropboxed)

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you do it.

Reply 12

Anonymous #2

I always back up everything everywhere all the time. Paranoid and anxious. But totally worth it as I’ve lost a usb before and damaged a laptop but still had access to all my stuff.

Now I have a USB, a hard drive, a laptop and a cloud :smile:

Reply 13

username5204820

14

Original post by Mr Wednesday

No physical backup under your control is a recipe for disaster, you need to be able to pack your data up and know its safe, and you CANNOT guarantee web access when you need it. Yes a cloud backup is a useful "extra" thing, but do you want to trust your entire thesis to it or a few years of PhD research ?

You do realise that primarily using the cloud doesn't mean you can't have a local physical copy right? OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, they all have desktop clients and you can set them to keep local copies of your work. I keep all my work in my university provided Google Drive account, but Backup and Sync keeps a local copy on both my desktop and laptop.

Original post by ZombieTheWolf

Hi,

I will be studying biomedical science if that is relevant. Which is better for 1st year students; a USB or hardrive? Sorry I don't know much about computers so if there is a clear difference between the two I apologise lol

As your primary copy? Neither. For backups? A hard drive after you've exhausted the cloud option.

For storing your data normally, pick a cloud storage or use whichever is provided by your university. Download the desktop app (if they use Microsoft accounts and you use Windows then OneDrive is already installed) and set it to keep local copies. Create a folder for all your university work, then store it in that cloud folder. This is by far the simplest way to create backups while still retaining local copies of your data in case you can't access the cloud. You also have full portability, in the form of being able to log in on any Internet connected computer and download your files.

This is sufficient for most people, but to go the extra mile I'd pay £40 for an external 1TB hard drive and regularly make backups of your cloud data on to that. I imagine there will be some debate over this (people that don't like cloud, people that think you should have off site backups too, etc.) but it really comes down to your personal risk tolerance. It's also important to consider ease of use. I could recommend that you make multiple on site, off site and cloud backups, then make sure they're updated every week. But most students won't do that. Putting your data in the cloud, then using the desktop client to keep a local copy covers the most major points.

Realistically the average student should only be using USB sticks to transfer data temporarily or over short distance. Copying some work from your computer to your friends computer for example. They should never be used as primary copies of data, and I wouldn't really trust them for backups either. USB sticks are too easy to lose or damage.