Onedrive + Microsoft 365 instead of a NAS?

[qwerty3656]

I've been following a thread on Microsoft office and a thread on setting up a NAS. What are your thoughts on using OneDrive for file backup? I see you can get a Microsoft 365 family plan for $99 a year and it comes with upto 6 users and 6 terabytes of storage. So you get the storage and MS-Office.

It seems like a good solution with redundant off-site backup. I'm considering, but wanted to see if I'm missing something.

 

[Jerry1]

I would think there would be two concerns. One would be speed of data transfer and the other, that I think is more critical, is privacy.

 

[tizod]

I know I will take some heat for this: But why buy MS? If you have AAPL just do the icloud and forget office (pages, etc work fine for most docs). If you stay PC, just go to somewhere you trust. I trust AAPL for privacy, but not google. But sites like Egnyte (dropbox competitor) and others seem very secure (don't sell your info). Go there, pay for that. I also say that for work I need MS365, and it makes my head spin. Convoluted and ever changing software. Who buys into that I'll never know, but I'll just say: ignorance is bliss. I'd map out a new plan, and one that stays stable much longer than MS ever changing setups.

 

[RetMD21]

I've been following a thread on Microsoft office and a thread on setting up a NAS. What are your thoughts on using OneDrive for file backup? I see you can get a Microsoft 365 family plan for $99 a year and it comes with upto 6 users and 6 terabytes of storage. So you get the storage and MS-Office.

It seems like a good solution with redundant off-site backup. I'm considering, but wanted to see if I'm missing something.

I've been happy with One Drive. I had the family plan but downgraded to individual since other family members weren't interested. I think it's secure and you can put files in a more secure area that requires authenticator approval to open. It's easy to open images and document files. I'm not sure that it would work fast enough to stream content which is what I think some people are doing with their NAS.

 

[bobandsherry]

Like you, I saw the benefit of subscribing to Office and getting the 6TB storage. I have moved many of my files over to OneDrive. Benefit is access anywhere, even from my phone.

BTW, look for deals for Office. Authorized reseller have had this for $45 for a year for Family plan. You can have 5 years paid in advance.

 

[catii]

The problem is that you're depending on Micro$oft to not change their terms of service. With external drives costing a few hundred dollars, you can easily set up your NAS in RAID 5, & have TB of file storage under your sole control.

 

[donheff]

I got an individual MS 365 subscription for just this purpose. I have one PC to backup and 1T fits my needs. I'm already on Windows so I may as well get the MS Office suite with my cloud space. I accidentally trashed my PC (don't ask, dumb user error) with no saved image so I reinstalled Windows and brought my files down with no hiccups. I had to reinstall a bunch of apps but I was blowing unused stuff away when I screwed up so this just helped me along.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I've been following a thread on Microsoft office and a thread on setting up a NAS. What are your thoughts on using OneDrive for file backup? I see you can get a Microsoft 365 family plan for $99 a year and it comes with upto 6 users and 6 terabytes of storage. So you get the storage and MS-Office.

It seems like a good solution with redundant off-site backup. I'm considering, but wanted to see if I'm missing something.

That might be the future, once as Jerry said the speeds of both the network and individual devices are good enough to stream a video file and decode it on the fly. The main thing it's missing is the ability to run programs. I run a lot of backup services, IP camera storage, my Plex server, and a few other things on my NAS.


My biggest concern would be OneDrive's reliability and stability. I tried to sync hundreds of gigs of data from an old w*rk computer to a new one, and it took almost a week and took a lot of intervention. It does fine for files you don't use much or at all, but I'd be concerned about relying on it for very intensive use.

 

[misanman]

I have Office 365 and OneDrive. Nice to be able to share the files between computers and also access them from my smartphone. I have Android and DW is iPhone and we both auto upload photos to OneDrive - gets them all together by month. Also, I'm a relatively heavy user of Excel and Word and never found the substitutes quite up to par.

 

[target2019]

If you have a small business, would you trust your data with just OneDrive and what you have stored on local PCs?

I think of family PCs as business. So the reason to have a local backup (NAS or similar) as well as external (cloud) is for double redundancy.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

My NAS drive has been in its box in a closet for a few years now. I just decided to trust the cloud instead. I started with MS OneDrive, but then decided that I was going to centralize on Apple devices and get rid of my PC. OneDrive worked perfectly well, however. So I am now fully set up with an Apple Cloud world. It couldn't be simpler - easy access from all my devices built right into the user interface and experience. If one assumes it's safe (it is until it isn't, I suppose), it works very well.

I think MS OneDrive or Apple iCloud are both comparable and feasible options. With today's internet speeds, I have zero issues with uploads/downloads.

 

[FLJim]

We have been using MS Office & 365 along with OneDrive and it works perfectly for our needs. We have separate PCs' in Florida and Indiana, so we always have access to all our "things". Nothing saved in OneDrive is life-or-death, anything THAT important or irreplaceable travels with us on a portable SSD and/or flash drive.

 

[bobandsherry]

The problem is that you're depending on Micro$oft to not change their terms of service. With external drives costing a few hundred dollars, you can easily set up your NAS in RAID 5, & have TB of file storage under your sole control.

For me, not a major concern that MS will change TOS that makes it unusable for me. Worse case I find some other alternative option, but on the list of concerns that doesn't even make list.

 

[bobandsherry]

If you have a small business, would you trust your data with just OneDrive and what you have stored on local PCs?

I think of family PCs as business. So the reason to have a local backup (NAS or similar) as well as external (cloud) is for double redundancy.

Honestly, I have no concern. What's your game plan with PC and NAS all at same site and fire or natural disaster hit?

 

[target2019]

Honestly, I have no concern. What's your game plan with PC and NAS all at same site and fire or natural disaster hit?

1) offsite backup drive(s)
2) cloud