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I still use them regularly, and will buy one if one breaks or something like that. I use cloud storage most of the time but frankly I don't trust it completely

I still use them regularly, and will buy one if one breaks or something like that. I use cloud storage most of the time but frankly I don't trust it completely for privacy as well as access reasons, and my storage needs would be pretty huge, so I backup files on a flash drive as a kind of second backup. I also use external SDD drives, but only periodically as they take up much more space and I don't lug them around. I can fit a flash drive in my coat pocket when I'm traveling, and so forth and so on. I guess I just like redundancy, having control over my own physical storage, have a sort of backup routine (cloud for super frequent temporary storage, flash for less frequent more capacity, and SDD for even less frequent even higher capacity) and flash drives are super portable. I tend to buy them in the biggest fastest format I can, and pay extra for a brand name from a vendor I trust. I suppose I could use my phone; I hadn't thought of that, but I like to leave as much space as possible for stuff on there, and I'd still not want some backup for that.

TeMPOraL 4y ago
> I also use external SDD drives, but only periodically as they take up much more space and I don't lug them around. I can fit a flash drive in my coat pocket when I'm traveling, and so forth and so on. This may be a more recent development, but I was recently buying an external SSD for my in-laws, and current options on the market are ~credit card sized (though thicker) and store a terabyte. It's already small enough I'd worry about misplacing it, but also small enough it would fit in my coat pocket, and there surely are smaller options. I'm like you wrt. controlling my own physical storage - it's just repeated bad experiences with USB sticks and SD cards that made me reluctant to ever spend money on them ever again. Even with SD cards, I just reuse the few good ones I got some 6 years ago (there's one I use for phones, and a few I got sitting inside Raspberry Pis). > I suppose I could use my phone; I hadn't thought of that, but I like to leave as much space as possible for stuff on there, and I'd still not want some backup for that. Same here - if I use my phone in this role, it's strictly temporary, just to transfer data between machines. Space on the phone is precious - in my experience, no matter how much of it you have, it will mysteriously disappear somewhere within a year, leaving you with a phone barely capable of storing recent photos and few apps before it starts choking due to lack of space... (I say somewhere because I really have no idea where - on my Android phones, the "storage use breakdown" in settings feels like it never adds up.)

TeMPOraL 4y ago

> I also use external SDD drives, but only periodically as they take up much more space and I don't lug them around. I can fit a flash drive in my coat pocket when I'm traveling, and so forth and so on. This may be a more recent development, but I was recently buying an external SSD for my in-laws, and current options on the market are ~credit card sized (though thicker) and store a terabyte. It's already small enough I'd worry about misplacing it, but also small enough it would fit in my coat pocket, and there surely are smaller options. I'm like you wrt. controlling my own physical storage - it's just repeated bad experiences with USB sticks and SD cards that made me reluctant to ever spend money on them ever again. Even with SD cards, I just reuse the few good ones I got some 6 years ago (there's one I use for phones, and a few I got sitting inside Raspberry Pis). > I suppose I could use my phone; I hadn't thought of that, but I like to leave as much space as possible for stuff on there, and I'd still not want some backup for that. Same here - if I use my phone in this role, it's strictly temporary, just to transfer data between machines. Space on the phone is precious - in my experience, no matter how much of it you have, it will mysteriously disappear somewhere within a year, leaving you with a phone barely capable of storing recent photos and few apps before it starts choking due to lack of space... (I say somewhere because I really have no idea where - on my Android phones, the "storage use breakdown" in settings feels like it never adds up.)