nsmith

I don't trust people any more than you do.

I'm not sure what a network drive is, but here's my rationale for backing up somewhere else. For a few yrs now I've backed up @ home. I used to back up to some 5" floppies, then 3.5" floppies, then burned to cds, then burned to dvds, then switched to ext HD operated by back up software. I used to put the floppies & disks in a little fire proof safe here. They're not really fireproof, I think they can handle a couple hundred degrees, but I'm still not sure the contents would be anything but junk. My mother's house had a small fire about 40 yrs ago. Very little fire damage, but almost everything in the house was ruined from smoke damage. Not sure how a computer HD would've fared...that was pre-Bill Gates/Paul Allen days.

So then I considered what would happen if the house were broken in to or a small fire started for whatever reason. What would happen to my continuously-building 100 yrs worth of photos & scanned family artifacts? I've been thru 2 attempts to salvage crashed HDs. One was 75% successful, though very expensive (luckily the photos were successful entirely) and one was deemed DEAD by computer salvage experts in CA. So, I do know HDs crash, though it's been a few yrs. So then I backed up to an ext HD & moved it to a bank safe deposit box. 2 things...it takes a while to move 1.2 gb worth of photos & files & soon you realize "hey, it's been over a year since I've updated that HD @ the bank....". So, you left all of 2013-14 computer work vulnerable.

The external HD software back up does create piece of mind in case of a computer HD crash, but still the external HD could crash itself, though that seems less likely since it's only used occasionally. But anyway, if it crashes, I can tell you it takes a few continuous days again to create another complete backup. Presently I'm backing up to an on-line system & an ext HD system.

Again, I don't know what a network system is. Is the network out of my house? Where will it be stored? If my house burns to the ground, will the network be OK? If thieves rampage my house will they take my network too? I really can't think of one incriminating thing I have on my computer that's probably not on someone else's computer. The places I order from all have my cc #s now. OnStar lady in GA has my  super-secret passwords & can unlock/lock/start my truck from her house. The places I do direct deposits & direct pay with all have my banking info. The Drs all have my personal health info & they almost won't give it to me without a writ of habeas corpus anymore. I've never taken any photos that I wouldn't show my mother if she were still alive. There are 10,000 girls in the Phillipines & Tibet that all seem to know the "last 4" (& probably all of) of my ssn when I call them. So, I'm screwed anyway. I just want to be able to sleep at night & when brother asks me, "whatever happened to that photo of our grandfather on the horses.......", I'll be able to always reproduce it.

I suppose if one is concerned about some personal data, you could just back up the photo files. It seems I do have control over which files to back up with any of the services, including the software/ext HD programs.