What to do before losing your USB stick

Hello,

Don't forget to create a text file which contains your contact information on your USB stick. There is a chance that you receive a call/email if you lose it. You can also label the USB stick body with your contacts.

These methods are not replacements for regular back ups.

I hope this method helps.

(edited 4 years ago)

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Reply 1

username4986690

USB stick? Is it 2010?

Save it on your cloud storage of choice.

Reply 2

JoshLL

Original post by DiddyDecAlt

USB stick? Is it 2010?

Save it on your cloud storage of choice.

There's no such thing as cloud storage, only someone else's computer.

Reply 3

username4986690

Original post by JoshLL

There's no such thing as cloud storage, only someone else's computer.

Server farms really.

Reply 4

Reality Check

USB drives are still often the most practical and quickest option. They're not 'archaic' if you need to share a large file and there is poor or no internet. I've worked in several countries where I would have been totally screwed without a USB stick, as well as finding it often the most practical solution in the UK.

Reply 5

JoshLL

Accessible over the web!? I nearly fainted when you said that. I'll stick to my floppies, CDs and HDDs thank you very much.

Reply 6

0le

Is it paranoia though? Its well known that Google and Microsoft scan your files and likely they also store metadata. I wouldn't call it paranoia but more a question of what someones threat model is. People who work in the government, whether its a secretary or a politician, may need to be more careful about uploading sensitive documents to the cloud. So I do think it is a valid point to make, but your comment is nonetheless reasonable. I think people tend to use Syncthing and Nextcloud to do these things. There was a programme to encrypt your files automatically before they synced to onedrive but I can't remember what it was called.

Reply 7

0le

Original post by DiddyDecAlt

USB stick? Is it 2010?

Save it on your cloud storage of choice.

In research, you can easily obtain TB's of data. Try uploading that to onedrive, dropbox or box. It can be extremely slow, even through a university connection, and very expensive. A lot of the time the sync fails too. Its a lot easier to just keep it stored on several mechanical drives or SSD's.

Reply 8

username4986690

Original post by 0le

I have unlimited picture storage and 15GB cloud free, my largest drawings are probably only about 30MB max.

I do 90% of my file sharing on cloud based systems.

Reply 9

0le

Original post by DiddyDecAlt

I have unlimited picture storage and 15GB cloud free, my largest drawings are probably only about 30MB max.

I do 90% of my file sharing on cloud based systems.

Fair enough. My comment was just to point out that other people have different needs and therefore cloud solutions may be less effective for their needs.

Reply 10

username4986690

Original post by 0le

Fair enough. My comment was just to point out that other people have different needs and therefore cloud solutions may be less effective for their needs.

There can't be many people transfering massive chunks of data, I can only really think of video and photography when shot in RAW.

Reply 11

0le

Imperial College wanted us to use box:
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/admin-services/ict/self-service/connect-communicate/sharing-and-collaboration-tools/box-storage/

In my experience it was rubbish to say the least!

Reply 12

ANM775

Original post by DiddyDecAlt

USB stick? Is it 2010?

Save it on your cloud storage of choice.

i don't trust clouds tbh

sooner or later it's gonna get hacked [everything gets hacked sooner or later]. and with it, your data will be exposed. heck i don't even store sensitive passwords on my pc or use password manager sites because i know they can be hacked too.

when i need a backup i backup to portable hard drive or usb. i feel it's more likely for the cloud to get hacked than someone break into my home and steal the usb/portable hard drive

Reply 13

ThuggerThugger

Why would someone go through that effort and not just buy a £5 USB? if we compare a USB stick to OneDrive the USB has more advantages.

Reply 14

drbluebox

All I use cloud storage for is long term things like backed up (up to date) drivers for Windows if I need to reinstall, a few zipped photo folders and thats about it.

Anything else I keep on a usb pendrive or have on my NAS, I can't take my NAS out of house so have things like a pen drive for books/comics and one for portable games.

It also means if I get a power failure or lose internet I have the USB as backup.

Reply 15

StriderHort

I don't use cloud storage either, don't trust it (Although I suppose things like pics on fb and email accounts sort of count)

I just don't like idea that I need internet to access it and I don't really have any control over it, the content or ability to access it could be yoinked anytime. I've been a internet user since mid 90's and just seen soooo many of these 'forever storage!' things come...and go.