Those percentages probably come from smartphone users with the default Google Drive and iCloud backup features.
I figure it is something like that. It would have to be a specific group and not your average PC user. That was my first thought when I saw this... who did they ask?
If someone does backup of one file per year i.e. tax statement then it counts as doing backups I guess. It doesn't matter that person would lose 99.9% of files - there is technicaly a backup done.
The article sort of contradicts itself. 87% claims to backup their data, 63% lost their data due the lack of a proper backup. For the record, sync like OneDrive is not a backup, it is mirroring, I lost a recent data twice because of it. The same, people I know do not even know their Google password to login on a new phone.
When you remove files in OneDrive they get removed in PC, when you remove them in PC, they get removed in OneDrive. I have learnt from this "experience" and I move OneDrive folder, so I have time to arrange the sync after setup. It is similar to MS Authenticator, when I setup the new phone, I have to be careful not to enable backup right away or it will remove the backup. One of the reason I stopped using Edge password manager, it removed all my passwords. The "fun" part was that I backed up passwords file, so I simply restored them, but once I started Edge, it was like: Hang on there are no passwords in the cloud, let me fix it for you and it removed them again and again. MS is genius.
Yes, I had troubles when I use OneDrive as well, it once deleted a 23 gb music folder, luckily I had a backup.
I had them lose a bunch of my files once too. It's a good place to access files between multiple devices but always have an offline copy elsewhere.
I recently jettisoned Onedrive from my PC in favor of Mega. For weeks I'd been unable to access my Onedrive acct via the app on my laptop, but I could do so without issue online. Support was useless, they kept saying they would send me a verification code to my email address. That code(s) never came. In addition, Onedrive moved all my desktop, docs, and pics off my PC to the cloud without notifying, or given permission. I subsequently learned it does this by default thereby putting the onus on the user to opt out. Unlinking my acct had no effect. For me Onedrive is more trouble than it's worth.
Yeah, OneDrive by default stores files always online and when the user eradicates OneDrive and gets rid of MSA, they are lost and on top of it, bitlocker silently encrypts their files and stores the key in the removed MSA. Lovely.
I found that out when I uninstalled the app. Fortunately, I did a file transfer of all my files on Onedrive to Mega before I did the uninstall, otherwise I would've been knee deep in that disaster.
PC ONLY - it would be interesting to know how many people "back up" using their OS drive, because I'm sure I don't have to explain the dangers. PS - @digmor crusher 23GB? I thought I was being excessive with 17..
This is one of the reasons why I stopped going to peoples homes and help them with computer issues because it just wasn't worth the money as they just wouldn't listen to good advice. However when bad things happened, they made stupid phone calls. Like If I didn't immediately drop everything in my life to go and help them. Then I'm in the wrong. As for backing up stuff. I've rarely come across another computer user that uses any sort of back up / imaging software. It is really like we're a microscopic minority of computer users, who uses such software.
Backup software makes things easier and allows to do backups much more frequently. However copy-paste to external hard drive counts as backup. Or even e-mailing a zip file to yourself
That's what I still do, I copy and paste files to several SSD's. The problem is I do it only once a month, I still haven't found a way to automatically back up stuff. I guess I should be looking into cloud based services. And M$ should also be ashamed that they still haven't integrated a tool like Copywhiz into Windows. It let's you select multiple files and then copy/paste them all at once, very handy when trying to backup files. https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/Copywhiz.shtml
