Updated 2022/07/25
If you have a requirement to store data such as photos and family documents (most of us do) then a usually cheap or free method is to use the “Cloud Services” offered by Google, Microsoft, Apple and others. Most of us have “smart phones” these days and our “lives” are held on these devices. Contacts, appointments, photos and other stuff are stored on our phones and if our phone gets lost or goes on the blink, we panic! However, in most cases the contents of your (smart) phone are squirted up to “the Cloud“. Your data is usually kept very securely and is usually backed up (copied) to a different (or multiple) location(s) so you can be reasonably sure that your data won’t be lost. In fact in most cases deleting stuff you don’t want isn’t deleted, it just appears to have been deleted! That’s another topic.
For a lot of people, using the “Cloud” to store photos and documents that you want to share with others is a good option but if you prefer to store your Photos and Documents “Locally” e.g. on your “local HDD” and not “somewhere on the Internet” and you are happy to accept the responsibility of making backups of your data; you can use “Personal Storage“.
Non Cloud based “Personal Storage” e.g. no connection to the Internet required.
Personal Storage is where you store your data locally, on your main device or on a network device that is connected to your LAN (Local Area Network). You don’t need a connection to the Internet! If you create a “document” on your PC / Laptop, it will generally be saved / stored on your “local HDD”. Problems with this can arise when your HDD fails. If you don’t have a backup (copy), you basically lose the documents you have created, see Backups revisited for more info.
You can create a robust and reliable Personal Storage device without much technical knowledge and can do so on a limited budget but the thing to bear in mind is that you have now elected to accept the responsibility for making sure that backups are carried out and that the system is kept up-to-date.
You could even create a “Personal Cloud” type situation where you or others can access your data from anywhere on the Internet but I would strongly advise against this unless you are very knowledgeable about “Firewalls” and “Secure Connections”. If you really need to access your “Local data” when “out and about” there are methods of doing so without creating a “Personal Cloud”. Google and Microsoft make it possible to access the files on your main PC remotely. Teamviewer is also a very good option.
To create a “non Cloud based” Personal Storage facility,
you will need a minimum of 2 networking devices e.g. 2 Desktop PCs or 1 PC and 1 Laptop or 1 PC or Laptop and 1 NAS (Network Attached Storage). The “Personal storage” should only be available to devices connected to your LAN.
The first step is to create a “Local Storage Device” which will have a HDD / SSD of suitable size, 1 TB is a good starting point and is affordable for most people. The “Storage Device” could be a NAS or a spare PC with “Server OS” installed.
If your technical skills are limited, a NAS might be a good choice but it isn’t a “budget” option!
If your technical skills are better than limited and you don’t mind “getting your hands dirty”, a good choice would be to use a spare PC that has a Linux (server) OS (Operating System) installed e.g. Ubuntu or CentOS (now Rocky). The Linux OS is free and will run on most low spec PCs, all you need to do is (ideally) install a second HDD / SSD of at least 1TB for data and then install Samba to allow “Network Shares“.
Samba is basically a universal translator for file systems. “Windows” uses the NTFS file system and “Linux” uses either EXT or XFS File system. Samba allows “Windows” to “see” “Linux” files and vice versa. Without Samba neither would be possible.
In an ideal world, your file server would use the same file system as your “Main PC”. “Windows file servers” would work seamlessly with “Windows” Desktops and laptops and would not need Samba. Unfortunately, “Windows based file servers” are usually beyond the budgets of most home users. The Opensource “Linux” offerings provide a Free and low cost method of having a file server* in the home and SOHO environment.
*File Servers are basically a network device with (non volatile) “Storage Space” for data e.g. documents, photos etc.
The “Network Shares” allow devices connected to the LAN to access the data in the “Network Shares“. Access permissions can be modified to only allow “some users” to access the share. In a typical home user situation you would probably not get involved in “who can access which folders”. In the case of households that only have one network device, this would seem to be a bit of an overkill but read on.
The use of a spare PC as a “File Server” has a few advantages and keeps your data “Local”, instead of “somewhere on the Internet”. This mainly applies to documents like letters to Aunt Maud and other correspondence. The photos on your phone will still get squirted up to the “Cloud”, unless you disable this feature. Where you have disabled “backing up to the cloud” for your photos, you will need to connect your phone to your PC / Laptop using a suitable cable and then just copy your Photos to the “File Server”. You can then you can delete them from your phone to create more space on your phone.
Anything that you store on the “data” HDD of the File Server can be backed up to a USB HDD using “Rsync” or Robocopy, this would give you at least 2 copies of your data and allow some robustness to keeping your data safe. In addition to “normal” backups, it is also prudent to create regular “Disk Image” backups using Macrium Reflect (Free) or Acronis True Image.
NOTE. If you want to provide for a “Fire & Flood” scenario, the USB backup device would be stored “off site”.
Putting it together, if you don’t use a NAS device and choose to use a spare PC with Linux installed as the OS (Operating System). You need to:-
- Install a Linux Server OS e.g. CentOS (Rocky), Ubuntu, SUSE etc.
- Install a second HDD / SSD for data storage
- Install Samba and create “Network Shares”
- Install an External USB Drive that has at least the capacity of the second HDD.
Note. If you are a “Windows” user and have a spare PC with a “Windows Pro” license, you don’t need to use Linux or Samba. It won’t give you all the features of a “File Server” but will do most of what you want e.g. basic file and printer sharing.
This “Spare PC” is now your “File Server” and should be powered up 24/7. Generally you won’t use this device to connect to the Internet other than for getting updates.You can use your “main” device for doing your daily stuff and if you create new documents, you can chose to store them on the local HDD of your main device or you can chose to store them on a “Network Share” so that other devices on the LAN can access them.
If you only have one (main) device and the “spare PC”, the spare PC is mainly used to backup the data of your “Main Device”. You can use Robocopy and / or MSBackup / File History to backup your data to the second HDD of the “spare PC” and in turn copy the contents of the second HDD to the USB HDD, using Rsync or Robocopy so that you have at least 2 copies of your data.
If you have more than one (network) device, you can also use the “spare PC” as a “Print Server”, that allows all devices on the LAN to “share” the same printer or printers. Data in the “Network Shares” would be accessible to all devices connected to the LAN, subject to permissions.
In principle, “Non Cloud based” Personal Storage is achievable for most people but does involve having to buy a suitable size HDD to store your data and an external USB HDD to act as a backup device. If you like to be in control of where your data is stored and who has access to it, “Non Cloud based” Personal Storage is a very good low cost option.
You could use a Raspberry Pi as your file server. Its small size and silent operation make it worth looking at.
My “Personal Storage facility” is probably a bit OTT compared to most home users but I’m a geek that worked in IT Tech support for the best part of 20 years before retiring, it is what it is 🙂
My “Spare PC” is actually a “Server Class” tower PC with Linux CentOS installed (now called Rocky). It has a “Mirrored” HDD for the OS and a 2TB Raid 5 array with “Hot Swappable” HDDs for data. It also has a “redundant power supply” so that if the PSU fails, I can swap over to the other one. It also has Samba installed so that I can create “Network Shares”. My LAN has a few “Windows Pro” desktops / Laptops and we also have iPads and Android Tablets and Android phones, which can all access the “Network Shares” (due to Samba). My Android phone uses “Microsoft Launcher” which basically makes it a “Windows Phone” so that my Windows 10 PC and Android phone are integrated. I can send and receive Text messages from my PC and these go through my phone. I can make and receive calls and these goes through my phone and I can see the photos that are on my phone on my PC. I’m very happy with what I have and I’m happy that my backup system is robust.
You don’t need to be a geek to use “Non Cloud based Personal Storage” but you do need to get your hands dirty 🙂
If your “spare PC” has a valid “Windows Pro” license and your “Main” PC uses “Windows Pro”, its very easy to set up a very basic “file server” including “Network Shares” and “Printer sharing” but It won’t offer all the features of a “Server” OS. If you need to buy a “Windows Pro” license for the spare PC, you will probably find that you could buy a 1TB HDD and an External USB HDD for a lot less money. The Linux OS (Server and Desktop versions) is free and is awesome, the GUI is IMO not as good as “Windows” but there are plenty of people that would disagree.
If you are going to install a Linux (server) OS on your “spare PC”, I would recommend the “headless” approach where you don’t install the GUI (Graphical User Interface) and Admin of the Linux file server is via a remote Terminal session (SSH). If your “Main PC” is running “Windows” and your knowledge of Linux is limited, the use of “Webmin“, “Putty” and “WinSCP” will help you administer the Linux (file) server to do updates and generally manage the server.
Hopefully, I have given you “food for thought” and the knowledge that you don’t NEED to use Cloud Storage for your data.
Personal Storage is all about taking control of where your data is stored and the backing up of your data.
I still use Cloud Storage for data that I want to share with others and I still backup my phone (and photos) to the Cloud but occasionally make sure my photos are copied to my local storage and then deleted from the Cloud and my phone.
The downside (to using Cloud Storage and Services) is that you generally don’t have any control of where your data is physically stored, geographically. Maybe you don’t actually need to know but I’m old school and like to know where my stuff is stored. The thing about Cloud Storage is that you will never accurately know where your stuff is stored because of the way that Cloud Storage works and remains robust and reliable. It is very likely that your stuff is stored in multiple (geographical) places and this is to make sure that your data is secure and safe.
Another downside to using “Cloud Storage” (including email) is that it is subject to “data mining” which could be used to bombard you with adverts for things that you seem to be interested in. You might notice this when you use Facebook or Twitter (these are Cloud Services).
Pretty much everything you do using your device (Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, Phone) will be be recorded / logged. The logs are not always easy to find but there are methods to reduce and / or negate this situation but that is detracting from the article.
The main purpose of this article is to make sure you understand the difference between “Cloud Storage” and “non cloud based Personal Storage”. “Cloud Storage” needs an Internet connection but “Personal Storage” does not need an Internet connection.
Cloud Storage / Cloud Services / Cloud Computing all need a reliable Internet connection but usually offer a robust, reliable and secure method of storing you data.
Personal Storage does not need an Internet connection and your data is stored “locally”. The robustness, reliability and security of your Personal Storage is your responsibility as is the backing up of your data, so you might need to have a good think about what you are trying to achieve.
“Cloud Computing / Storage” rocks. “Personal Storage” can also rock but needs some effort and commitment.
Take control of your data storage, you can do it!