[jhollington]

Originally Posted by TenFour

Then you have different family and friends than I do! I can't even get my employer to invest in a proper backup system. My father has lost multiple computers over the past ten years due to one failure or another, and any sort of actual backup system or routine is beyond him--way too technical. Even if I set it up for him he would manage to disable it or change the settings within a day or two rendering it useless.

Well, I've reached the point where I recommend services like Backblaze to most friends and family that are on Windows. It's a recurring expense, but if your data isn't worth five bucks a month, then there's not much more to say about it.

Of course, I realize that's also a cloud service, but again my earlier point was about trusting the cloud exclusively — if you're using Backblaze, everything is still on your local computer, and if you're using Backblaze in addition to Google Drive, then you're covered on both ends.

For my friends who have Macs, I've had no problem convincing them to invest in something like a Time Capsule and simply flipping on the built-in Time Machine feature.

In any case, this is why I think for many people the ideal is a Chromebook where your stuff is stored in the cloud and reasonably secure compared to the typical problems that befall local storage.

Sure, provided you always have access to a reliable Internet connection. That was the number one failing of a Chromebook for me.

Honestly, though, since most typical users will be syncing to services like Google Drive, I don't really see it as a problem for the average person. Your data is local, and your data is in the cloud. If you don't have an Internet connection, or forget your password and can't figure out how to reset it, at least that important project file isn't going to be rendered inaccessible to you two hours before it's due. Conversely, if your hard drive suddenly fails, you can find a web browser somewhere, log onto your cloud service, and you'll still have access to it. Adding something like Backblaze is really mostly just to prevent those "user error" situations that come up all the time with typical users who accidentally delete, corrupt, or misfile a document. The backup increases your chances of easily getting an old copy back, whereas that can be much more complicated with a cloud sync service, if it's even possible at all.