How to Partition HDD & Make Image Backups

Aaron Here said:

Hmm, probably displaying my 'noobishness' here, but what's the diff between Dropbox and the other online backup services mentioned?

Click to expand...

Dropbox isn't really a backup service. Think of it as a "folder" that syncs between your devices. For instance, at home on my Mac, I have a Dropbox folder. Let's say I put something in there like a new Microsoft Word document. When I do this, the file is uploaded to Dropbox's servers and stored there.

Now, if I go to my work computer, which also has Dropbox installed, I can open the Dropbox folder, and see the new document I created on my Mac at home. In essence, whatever I put in my Dropbox folder on one device, will make it available to change/view on another.

So, it doesn’t backup data per se. Instead of creating copies of all the files on your computer, it just syncs whatever you put in your Dropbox folder. It’s more like a way to make it easy to access files between multiple devices. The benefit of using it is that you can have a file stored locally, but have a copy of it online in the even that something happens to your computer.

Others can probably give a better example of the differences but here's my take FWIW.

Online backup services such as those mentioned are based on the idea that the user will be backing up most, or all, of the files on their computer. The software has to focus on the backup/restoration of large amounts of data.

Dropbox on the other hand is primarily designed to make a group of files available on more than one device/location. The goal is to keep a relatively small group if files in sync. Free space is caped at 2 GB but more is available either for referring friends or purchase. Since it is cloud based the files are available almost anywhere as long as a net connection is available. In fact, the initial developer of Dropbox apparently conceived of the idea as a student because he kept leaving his flash drive behind and couldn't work on documents.

Dropbox Review & Rating | PCMag.com

This has been quite an education (my head is spinning!) - thank you one and all...