This is work!

I'm trying very hard to shut down the PC for good. And it had been off for two days before I woke it up to see if I couldn't gather up all of the files I have on it and put them all in one central location. I do have 4 different 'cloud' accounts and I'm able to dump up to 5GB on them. My Amazon 'cloud' lets me store image files for free and the space is unlimited; but they have to be image files. They have a 5GB limit on data files.

So, we were in Costco and I decided to look at portable hard drives; maybe they had a bargain. I found one. It's a Seagate 1TB drive and it's the size of a deck of UNO cards and it was only $70! My mind flashed back to the 'olden days' and the prices we would've paid for a drive with this capacity. They would have cost thousands of dollars and they would have been far too big to be called 'portable'. Costco even had a 2TB drive with the same dimensions for the low price of $90.

Yesterday I woke my computer, the PC, and after the usual 20 minute wait I began to add the contents of my old drive to the Seagate drive. I also had 3 older portable drives and I took what I wanted off of them as well. Now I plan on using these older drives as a combined 'cloud' for us. It may take some thought and some minor hardware to make it happen but I think it can be done.

I know it sounds like I have an obsession regarding saved files and although that might play a role here, it's really because I have watched others lose all their files because of a HD failure. Back in the day, when I worked as part of the IT group, I had to be the one that would tell them that, no, the data cannot be recovered. "We will have to use your backup" I would say and they would then wail with much gnashing of teeth. "I don't have a backup!" Okay, maybe no gnashing of teeth, but they certainly did wail! Multiple backups are always recommended and one should always be at a different location (cloud) so when the flood or fire comes, you are still covered.

Now I'm trying to understand Apple file structure as I download some of the data. And the thought occurred to me that since the drive is so small and is powered by USB and not a  'wall wart', I could simply put  the drive in the same case I use to cary the Mac. Now I can relax...