Are clouds an acceptable alternative to your own hard drives? - Any? links to good hardware forums or pointers to external HDD enclosures with? controllers that never go stand by?

[Robert Heller]

I would NEVER use the "cloud" as the primary storage for my data.  That said, 
I do use cloud storage for backups.  But have one (or more) devices for 
primary storage.

Note, while it is true that things like external esata/usb 2.0 ide/sata 
enclosures might be getting harder to get, there are various alternitives: RPi 
5's have a PCIe interface and a SSD HAT is available, so a RPi 5+ such a HAT 
is one option.  There are PCIe => SATA (even multiple SATA) interfaces as 
well.  It is possible to build a NAS using RPi 5's or other SBC systems.  
There are other options for high capacity *local* storage, often with RAID, 
etc.

At Fri, 06 Feb 2026 07:38:47 +0100 "Ubuntu user technical support,? not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> On Thu, 2026-02-05 at 17:05 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> > On Thu, 2026-02-05 at 14:06 +0000, Wade Smart wrote:
> > > startech 3.5" external esata/usb 2.0 ide/sata enclosure
> > 
> > I have sent an inquiry to the manufacturer.
> 
> "Thank you for contacting StarTech.com
> 
> Unfortunately, we no longer carry USB to 3.5" drive enclosures. Our
> apologies."
> 
> Indeed, I missed the "Discontinued" in the upper left corner:
> https://www.startech.com/en-gb/hdd/s351bmu33etg
> 
> 
> OTOH they sell https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/s352bu33rer .
> 
> 
> Change of subject
> 
> Keeping your own data accessible to yourself has probably gone out of
> style.
> 
> The first three disadvantages of the cloud.
> 
> 1.1 If the internet goes down, you cannot access your own data.
> 
> 1.2 When I do have an internet connection, it's very slow and gets
>     interrupted every few hours, and it takes up to 30 minutes before I
>     can continue. Copper cable! Fiber optics are also available where I
>     live, but the costs are outrageously high.
> 
> 2.  If the company goes bankrupt, the data is gone.
> 
> 3.  If the company owner, the police, or anyone else wants it, the data
>     is gone.
> 
> I just picked the first thing that the devil's search engine spat out on
> the subject of the cloud.
> 
> You don't need to understand German to understand the information
> regarding GB and €:
> 
> https://www.heise.de/download/specials/Die-10-besten-Cloud-Speicher-3149052
> 
> For example:
> 
> "LIFETIME
> 
> Ultra 10 TB
> 1190EUR
> 10 TB Storage
> 2 TB Shared link traffic
> Fair sharing
> Shared link branding
> 30 days trash history
> 
> Encryption
> 150EUR
> Client-side encryption
> Zero-knowledge privacy
> Easiest way to encrypt/decrypt"
> 
> In terms of lifetime cost, you could say that it's okay insofar as you
> never have to copy data from an old hard drive to a new one. You're not
> just buying the hard drive for today, but also replacement hard drives
> for the future. What's more, the cloud is located elsewhere, so if
> aliens abduct my apartment to Andromeda, not all archived data and
> backups will be lost.
> 
> On the other hand, I can stand next to my own hard drives with the fire
> extinguisher and crossbow, and I can operate them with electricity from
> the hand-crank dynamo. I therefore have better control over defending
> myself against the forces of nature and evil people than I do via fiber
> optic or copper cable connections to a cloud that belongs to who knows
> whom.
> 
> Your own hard drives are used to store your own data, similar to gold
> coins that you bury in a wooden box in your garden as financial
> security. You hold something in your own hands that always retains a
> certain value, and risk and security are somehow balanced.
> 
> A cloud is used to store your own data, similar to a savings account
> where you keep money as financial security.
> This is convenient and offers a certain degree of security, but you
> don't have anything in your own hands. In fact, just like money, data is
> subject to inflation. Even a company like Apple was once virtually
> bankrupt. Does anyone remember Atari? It's a false sense of security.
> The data is in the hands of speculators who could go bankrupt at any
> time.
> 
> If someone cuts the copper cable, you can't get your data back with a
> crossbow. But with a crossbow in your hand, no one will touch your hard
> drives.
> 

-- 
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