This google drive cloud thingy?

[Monsieur]

I became a member of the cloud appreciation society some years ago so am pretty clued up on formation, category and type.
My son just came down to bestow his knowledge on me of this google drive/cloud - ''it'll make your life so much easier dad''

I use a memory stick for word, excel and the like and he lost me after 30 seconds of IT babble

Anyone here who can summarise what this thing can do and how I can use it

Many thanks

 

[Clive]

Who do you share the files on your memory stick with?

What devices do you need to access those files from?

 

[Monsieur]

Who do you share the files on your memory stick with?

What devices do you need to access those files from?

don't share the memory stick files

would be happy being able to access from another computer (work) and an ipad

 

[Clive]

don't share the memory stick files

would be happy being able to access from another computer (work) and an ipad

If you don't have one, sign up for a Google account.

Upload the files from the memory stick to "Google Drive".

For the ipad you will need to install the Google Drive app.

You are then, in effect, using "Google Drive" as a substitute for the memory stick - rather than moving that between devices you just need internet access to Google Drive to access your files on alternate devices. You may see this as a disadvantage if e.g. your work firewall doesn't allow access etc.

Personally I'd always keep my own backup of any files "in the cloud". There is an application for the PC that allows sync back from Google drive to a PC local storage but I've not used that myself.

 

[Roberto]

Useful technology. I use the likes of Google Keep for notes and Google Contacts to synch with my Android Phone, that's excellent.

I'm still very skeptical of keeping anything with confidential or important info in the cloud though. Maybe I'm just old fashioned..

 

[Monsieur]

Tried it on iphone and seems to work well - still keep the memory stick though, just in case

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

If you have a pc (don't know if you can do this with a MAC) you can use drive sync which will sync everything between your Google drive and a folder on the pc. You now have a backup of everything on Google drive or a backup of everything in the folder, same thing just a different way of looking at it. Don't forget that drive also has a suite of apps as well such as word, Excel and PowerPoint all fully accessible from a browser. If you use these apps and save in Google native format you have unlimited storage. You can download any and all files in a Microsoft format at any time should you choose so you aren't locked in.

If you want a secure cloud storage then go get a Mega account. It is fully encrypted both in the cloud and in transit (Google drive is only encrypted in transit) and only you have the encryption keys. Not even Mega or hopefully the NSA/GCHQ can access your data.

At some point you have to put your trust somewhere or get off the Internet and pull all the plugs

 

[Leasouth]

Have had a Google Drive account since it first started. Easy to use on my Android phones and my pc and I can access files elsewhere. But I mainly use the "BOX" cloud storage www.box.com as they gave 50GB FOC on Samsung Android phone.

One advantage of using Google Drive is the ability too email large sized files like hi-def video. You can send larger files than with Yahoo, Hotmail etc when combining Google Drive with a Gmail / Google mail account. The person receiving he email get a link for opening the larger files.

 

[Monsieur]

Now using on ipad and synced from PC to cloud.
Thanks for the easy guide chaps. - I'll now impress my son with my new found knowledge