Many of us have either a laptop, desktop, or another type of system to work for school, business, or any other reason. And one of the main components that go along with that is that we’re constantly creating or gathering data using these systems. So one of the important things is that you want to make sure that you’re able to save those crucial files somewhere where they’re going to be accessible and if something happens to that system. And at one day goes caput. You’re not losing all that data that you’ve created or gathered. Today I really want to talk about the different storage types that are out there and the ones that you should be considering to back up your system.
1. USB Drives
The first storage type is USB flash drives. So these are little portable drives that you’re able to insert in your USB port and be able to save the data in there and retrieve the data. And they had definitely evolved because I remember when I first started using them, and this was probably like in the early 2000s, they could only hold like eight megabytes, 16 megabytes. And now, some can hold like over two to four terabytes. And I know that a lot of gamers use them for being a supplement to their hard drive. So it isn’t just with a laptop or desktop; you can also use it for your gaming systems. And so it’s definitely good to have flash drives around. I think even companies, um, they give them out for free. I don’t know if they do it as often as they used to, but I’m assuming that they’re giving out USB drives at conferences. So definitely, it’s always good to have a few available. So then you’re able to quickly use it to either get the data from a system and then be able to put it in another system, or you’re able to just use it, like I said, to be a supplement to your internal hard drive. So definitely USB drives are always a good storage type to have
2. Cloud Drives
The next type of storage type is the cloud drives. And there are so many out there. And if you get a little overwhelmed with all the options that there are out there, there are multiple comparison tools that you can use. So go out there and look; you want to look at how much space you gifts for free, how much it is if you need to expand it. And also how easy it is to use it with the systems that you’re using. For me, I’ve used multiple ones, but then it really came down to the fact that I use a PC and a Mac. And there are some out there that can’t handle either the Mac or the PC. And I had to find one that could actually handle both. And I’m actually thinking of creating a video of the three main ones that I’ve used lately: one drive, a cloud drive, and Google drive. Still, definitely, cloud drives a really good to have because one thing that I like is that you’re able to have it as part of your finder or Windows Explorer.
And so it looks like a mapped drive if you’ve ever used those at work, mainly that’s where you use them. And so, instead of having it on your internal hard drive, you have it on the cloud, and then you can access it anywhere. One thing to know is that the risk falls on the provider because you’re not the primary owner of the servers storing that data. It is the provider. So you want to make sure that they have good cybersecurity practices, especially that the smaller ones. Cause there are some smaller companies out there that do offer cloud storage, and the price might seem very attractive, but you have to think that your data is even more important than what is costing you. So I love my cloud drives because I’m able to, like I said, access my data anywhere, but you don’t want to just pick any one.
3. External Hard Drives
The third type of storage type is an external hard drive, and those are great because they can hold a lot of data. I have one. I’ve actually had probably three or four in my lifetime. And one thing that is really important to know is that you lost all your data if that thing drops. And that’s what happened to the last one that I had. I dropped it, and it wasn’t even like a hard drop and not just completely crashed. And so that was something that I learned that day was that those things are very sensitive. They’re perfect for just keeping them in one place, especially if you’re like me, that drops everything. I’m someone who’s constantly dropping my phone. And so, if you need an external hard drive, make sure that you consider some of the ones that have, um, those casings.
Like they’re very rugged casings. I know many content creators prefer those because they’re always on the go and want something that doesn’t just need all their data if it does drop it. So that’s definitely a consideration if you’re thinking about an external hard drive, the one that I have, I just have it on my desk, and I don’t move it because I learned my lesson from dropping my last one. But those are really good because, for example, I am doing podcasts and videos, and I don’t want to just delete all that data. And if I put it in a cloud drive, it would just take up all the stories. And so it’s nice to have an external hard drive that can hold two to four terabytes of data. And definitely, you want to invest in an external hard drive if you are someone who is very, very data-heavy.
So those are the three main storage types. Nowadays, back in my day, when I was younger, we had the floppy disk. I don’t think that people are using those anymore. There are also CDs, but I think that’s where the average user is not using CDs much anymore, mainly because the newer laptops don’t even have a CD-ROM reader. So there’s no point in having CDs anymore. But one important note does not just rely on one storage type. So that includes your internal hard drive. You want to have multiple areas to store your data because of one crash; you have the other ones available. So that is one thing to really think about. So which type of storage are you using? Please let me know. I will love to know if there are others out there that I didn’t even touch on. I know that I work, there are more options, but I was really focusing on people working from home or students and other people who are just home and are not at an office. So let me know what you’re using. And I really hope that you have a wonderful weekend and I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.
