In today’s digital world, personal data storage has become an increasingly cumbersome task. Almost everyone uses some form of cloud storage to save personal data, whether it is photos, contacts, emails, notes, etc. Most cloud storage platforms (Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon drive, iCloud…,) are subscription-based models, on average 10 dollars a month for 1TB of storage. That would cost almost 8000 dollars for a single user to manage personal data storage over a lifetime.
I am one of those persons who is an avid fan of Apple products, but I prefer to use Google applications for almost everything
- Chrome for browsing
- Gmail for emails
- Google Contacts
- Google Drive for storing
- Google Photos
- Google Maps
- Google Keep for notes
- Youtube
- ….
Hence, majority of my personal data is stored in one or more of these applications. But I also keep local versions of many documents on my Macbook, iPad, and iPhone. Consolidating everything into one place can be a daunting task unless you want to be spending on an expensive subscription.
I recently discovered this application called Google Takeout. If you also have a majority of your personal data on Google applications, I would recommend to use the service. It is free of charge, and can be used to create an archive of all data (including emails, photos, etc.) stored on Google products at once. Creating the archive could take up to a day, but you don’t have to keep waiting. You just have to initiate the process, and Google sends you a link to access the archives once it is completed.
For my personal data storage, I prefer building archives from Takeout on an external 1 tb hard drive. You can buy a lightweight travel-friendly 1 tb external drive for as cheap as 50 dollars. I find storing and accessing data this way much more convenient and pocket-friendly. For all other data which I might require at a moment’s notice, I am quite happy with Google Drive.
Fun fact:
Did you know that Google keeps an archive of all of your files (even deleted files from the Bin) for 25 days!! Just in case you need to recover something that you deleted accidentally, Google customer care is one of the best.