External memory

[1234]

Hey!

Looking to store my pictures and files externally (I know, I'm currently being very bad storing them on my computer!)

What's the gold standard these days? Cloud storage? External hard drive? Cloud server?

[Brian]

The "Standard" these days is has it always has been. the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

Three copies of your files

On Two different devices / storage mediums

One of these backups kept off-site.

Of course, many people don't follow this rule, and that's understandable. Having three copies of everything is a little crazy, especially if you don't have any true organizational structure, and your hard drive(s) are mostly dumping grounds with crap all over the place. If this sound remotely familiar, you need to stop what you are doing and start culling and coming up with a plan. Even if you have to write it out on a piece of paper first. Specifically, how would you create a Folder Structure? Keep it simple and to the point. Make sure things are easy to find, and once you do get organized, stick with it. Laziness will eventually take over again and when stuff goes bad, you will be in a panic. Trust me.

Now, the first step is to purchase an External HD. That is still the easiest way to backup. As far as the Cloud goes, all the "Cloud" is...is someone else's Computer / Server. A lot of the times, a Cloud Service will want to keep a set of files stored locally on your computer, and have duplicates saved on its Storage Servers. Now, this is normally a bad thing Why? Because if you delete the file that is stored locally on your computer, usually within 30 Days that same file will be automatically removed on the Cloud Storage. So don't ever-ever-ever...LIKE EVER treat a Cloud Service as an External HD. Combined with that issue is you really need decent Internet Speeds if you have a lot of files. 

That said, you have lots of options when it comes to Hard Drives. You can even go as far as spending $$$ on a NAS (Network Attached Storage) which is your own personal "Cloud." It all boils down to the first question that I'm always asking:

What is your budget?

[1234]

I haven't really thought about budget per say as it depends on how long it's going to last me.  I would rather pay more upfront so that I don't have to keep buying or upgrading in the future if that makes sense... That being said, maybe around $500? I honestly don't even know how far that would take me as far as external hard drives go.  However if I could access the network attached storage on my phone or another computer (like I can with Google drive) I would definitely take that into consideration, even better if I can share a file with someone!