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Save more with Google Drive

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Re: Save more with Google Drive

#151

Post by sp332 »

tobyjsullivan wrote: post #104
dperfect wrote: post #67

I won't go near Google Drive until they fix some serious longstanding issues with the desktop client. The two that caused me to abandon Google Drive (I even have a free TB for 3 years from my Chromebook Pixel): 1. No way to re-sync existing folders on your computer (seriously). I was pushing hundreds of GBs of photos to my Google Drive, and after syncing everything, upgraded to a new computer (the files were stored o…

I, too, would appreciate a lot more focus on the desktop client. For me, it would be a matter of selective folder synching. Right now, you have to sync the entire drive. My Air only has 128GB SSD. I just want to sync a couple work folders, not my entire 70GB of stored files. Unfortunately, Google's direction is pretty clear and I expect they'll discontinue support for the Desktop client before they ever enhance it.

Do these instructions for selective sync not work? https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375083

Re: Save more with Google Drive

#152

Post by tjohns »

fletchowns wrote: post #115
icebraining wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Download and then uploading a terabyte of data can be very expensive depending on where you live Dropbox doesn't have a 1TB plan, but 2x500GB costs $1000/year. On Drive, it costs $100/year. That's a difference of $900/year. I don't know where you live, but around here $900/year buys you a pretty fucking good connection, with blackjack and hookers included. it can also take a very long time. So what? You can still use…

I live in the Bay Area and I pay about $800/year for 120KB/s upload (AT&T U-Verse). Certainly no blackjack and hookers included.

Comcast in the bay area charges $77/month for a residential-class connection at 50 Mbps down / 10 Mbps up.

Even if you go for a business-class connection, it's $70/month for 16/3.

In short, you need to find a better ISP. :)

Re: Save more with Google Drive

#153

Post by fletchowns »

diminoten wrote: post #126
fletchowns wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the Bay Area and I pay about $800/year for 120KB/s upload (AT&T U-Verse). Certainly no blackjack and hookers included.

You're getting ripped off. Severely.

You say that like I have a choice for my ISP.

Re: Save more with Google Drive

#154

Post by arjie »

crazygringo wrote: post #70
fletchowns wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a terrible retort. Downloading and then uploading a terabyte of data can be very expensive depending on where you live, and it can also take a very long time.

If it's so incredibly expensive where you live, then you probably aren't using online file storage in the first place. And yes it can take a long time, but you might swap cloud providers every 2-5 years , you're not doing it every day. Even if it still takes a month to copy all your files, that's generally an unattended process, so it's not such a big deal. I'm not saying it's trivial, but it's not a huge deal. All t…

Not to enter the Google v Dropbox argument, but with data caps, it's easy to slowly build up a lot of backed up data that you cannot really retrieve all at once.

Re: Save more with Google Drive

#155

Post by brador »

larrys wrote: post #138
blisterpeanuts wrote: post #113

I see two problems with massive offsite storage such as Google Drive 1 TB. First, although $120/year may be quite cheap in the world of cloud storage, hardware's cheap. You can buy a 2-TB external hard drive for less than $120. 1-TB drives are going for $60-$70 now. So why pay rent when you can own? Buy a couple of 1-TB drives every year, copy your stuff onto both, and store one at a relative's house in another city.…

Raises an interesting idea. (At relatives house raises security questions..) A storage company which essentially takes a drive that you clone from your home machine (snapshot). Then they mount that drive in a data center. You then use rsync (or a client) to get them the deltas. Or, they merely store the drive and mount it when you want to do an incremental (say every week). Otherwise it goes in a vault. Cameras in va…

Couldn't the NSA just loop the security tape to keep you warm and fuzzy while they get your drive?

Re: Save more with Google Drive

#157

Post by abalone »

simonsarris wrote: post #9

I think at this point I'm a little more comfortable paying more for a company that I know won't abandon this market. I know Dropbox will be Dropbox in 5 years. How can we be sure Google Drive won't be shuttered in less time? Google is very haphazard with their web properties. Sometimes they shutter them, sometimes they stuff them in the closet. Google Reader, Wave, etc, you know. the stories. What scares me more are…

It is a bit scaremongery because if you're using it for backup you can just switch to another service if they announce its pending retirement. It's an inconvenience for sure, but not truly a significant reason to not go with Google.

Besides, who knows where Dropbox or anyone else will be in 5 years. In 5 years they'll need to be turning a profit which could have a major impact on product and pricing, especially for the "backup" use case.

Incidentally if backup is what you want, check out an optimized service like Backblaze.. $5/month unlimited storage.

Re: Save more with Google Drive

#158

Post by jimmaswell »

simonsarris wrote: post #9

I think at this point I'm a little more comfortable paying more for a company that I know won't abandon this market. I know Dropbox will be Dropbox in 5 years. How can we be sure Google Drive won't be shuttered in less time? Google is very haphazard with their web properties. Sometimes they shutter them, sometimes they stuff them in the closet. Google Reader, Wave, etc, you know. the stories. What scares me more are…

probably best to store the same data on multiple services.

Re: Save more with Google Drive

#159

Post by bane »

simonsarris wrote: post #9

I think at this point I'm a little more comfortable paying more for a company that I know won't abandon this market. I know Dropbox will be Dropbox in 5 years. How can we be sure Google Drive won't be shuttered in less time? Google is very haphazard with their web properties. Sometimes they shutter them, sometimes they stuff them in the closet. Google Reader, Wave, etc, you know. the stories. What scares me more are…

I don't take it as scaremongering, but I'd add that the switch cost from drive to dropbox is pretty low. Google will announce if it's going to close drive, and in the meantime you're paying some fractional percent of what dropbox charges.

If google shutters it, it's not like copying a bunch of files from one place to another and waiting for it to auto-sync is a difficult endeavor.

(right now my money is on Yahoo! acquiring db to better compete with Google...but the price might be too high).

Re: Save more with Google Drive

#160

Post by magicalist »

yukichan wrote: post #99
untog wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know Dropbox will be Dropbox in 5 years. As a counterpoint to that, Dropbox might not exist in 5 years. Google most likely will. Basically, there is no answer here that guarantees the future of your cloud storage. It's useful to access your files from multiple locations, but using it for long term file archival seems like asking for disappointment (as well as being a neat way of throwing money into the sky).

Dropbox is profitable yeah? Why wouldn't they be around in 5 years? Google's prices are so much cheaper than Dropbox, but the ease of use with Dropbox, and the fact that I have my families devices and computers already set up probably means I wont ever switch. I take a picture with my phone? It's on dropbox. My wife takes a picture? It's on dropbox. I take a screenshot on my PC? It's on dropbox. I even wrote a little…

All these things are true of Drive, though. The only real reason I haven't switched over is, like you, all my stuff is already in Dropbox, and they're pretty much the same thing, so I wouldn't gain that much by switching (I actually use Drive too, but only for its original form, Docs). The new price is a big discount, but we'll have to see if Dropbox moves to match it in some way (they have less room to optimize there, but it's certainly feasible...amazon has been cutting their rates too).

If I was new to the market, though, none of that reasoning really applies.

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