Should we start using cloud based storage options
I have been paying the basic amount every month for my Google Cloud storage. 15GB provided by Google is not sufficient for me. People suggested creating more Google accounts and having the files in multiple accounts but that's not going to be a convenient thing. I'm already using two accounts but this need for more storage is going to be never-ending and that's why I decided to spend some money to get more storage.
I have also been keeping most of my files in cloud storage and starting to wonder if that would be the right thing to do in the future than holding my files and folders in a Laptop hard disk or an external hard disk. I started to have this feeling that Cloud could be better because my cousin recently had some bitter issues with one of his hard disks.
He did not use his hard disk for a very long time and the hard disk for filled with a lot of bad sectors. He had to pay close to 250$ to recover the data from the hard disk. They said the hard disk was filled with bad sectors and that's why there is a need for recovery and they charged so much money. I used to imagine how I was doing these things in my college days with my desktop PC. I remember recovering data from many hard disks due to bad sectors or from formatted hard disks.
After hearing about this incident from him, I decided that it may not be worth it to hold a physical hard disk. It can be good to have everything stored in the cloud and can have a lot of facilities to have backups for our data. We cannot ensure that if we hold our data in our local hard disks.
Cloud storage is costly
This is a problem. We might be paying a lot of money every month to the cloud storage provider with which we can purchase multiple hard disks. But the features that we would be getting from the cloud storage providers will be good comparatively. Many cloud service providers offer some storage space for free. I use 50 GB from Mega.nz website and I also use the free space provided by Drop box and OneDrive. Apart from these if there is some additional need, I also use Google accounts to store my data.
Privacy is a question
This is one concern for sure for anyone who wants to have their personal stuff online. What if the data gets hacked and leaked? I would recommend having any non-sensitive data on the cloud and if we have to keep private data or sensitive data, the external hard disk can be an option. Some people don't prefer to have their private photos online. Today anything is possible with AI and ML so having photos and videos online is not good and we might be digging our own grave with that. There are strong privacy policies in some of the websites and they ensure privacy but we cannot believe that hackers will respect those privacy policies.