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Microsoft Cloud Data Storage

Microsoft To Begin Reducing Your Free OneDrive Cloud Storage Starting Today (betanews.com) 212

For those of you who forgot -- or didn't bother -- to keep the 15GB worth of OneDrive storage, starting today you will see a big change in your account. On Thursday, Microsoft will begin shrinking your 15GB OneDrive free storage to 5GB, and also cancel the 15GB storage it gave you as part of camera roll backup bonus. For its part, Microsoft did warn about the changes to people a couple of times over the past few months. It all started when Microsoft gave Office 365 subscribers unlimited OneDrive storage space. Many people abused this, uploading over 75TB worth of movies and other files in some cases. BetaNews reports: If you log into your OneDrive account and find that you still have the full storage quota available, don't be lulled into a false sense of security. The cuts are actually being spread out between July 13 and July 27. Unless you opted out of the change, you're out of luck.
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Microsoft To Begin Reducing Your Free OneDrive Cloud Storage Starting Today

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  • Abuse? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @09:05AM (#52509671) Journal
    If you offer unlimited storage and someone uploads 75TB worth of data, they are not abusing the service but taking advantage of your generous offer. If you don't want 75TB of data, set a lower limit.
    • Re:Abuse? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @09:13AM (#52509709) Homepage Journal

      If you offer unlimited storage and someone uploads 75TB worth of data, they are not abusing the service but taking advantage of your generous offer. If you don't want 75TB of data, set a lower limit.

      Let's add to that.

      Offer unlimited storage, and when people upload 75TB worth of data it's abuse.

      But presenting misleading alerts to trick people into installing Windows10, that's perfectly acceptable.

      What I don't understand is:

      a) Why windows 10 users haven't filed a class-action suit against Microsoft, and
      b) Why the FTC hasn't dropped a hammer on Microsoft over this.

      The FTC seems to be the only federal agency that actually tries to benefit the people. They should be pounding Microsoft into the ground over the misleading alerts and unwanted upgrades.

      • The unwanted upgrades aren't related to the unlimited storage issue.

        The FTC probably hasn't received complaints about the unlimited storage issue.

        I think a lot of people would agree with your take on it, but I won't hold it against someone when something with reasonable intent becomes an onerous, unreasonable burden. Any rational person *knows* there is a point where "taking advantage of this generous offer" becomes "being a pain in the ass that breaks it for everyone" because they ruin the product's susta

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Offer unlimited storage, and when people upload 75TB worth of data it's abuse.

          How many TB isn't abuse again?

          Help me out.

          Before I answer, can you give me what you think the definition of "unlimited" is?

          Without looking it up, or asking or anything.

          When you read the word "unlimited", what comes to mind?

          • by Colin Castro ( 2881349 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @10:17AM (#52510161)
            No limits, unless it's like inflammable, that shit means flammable.
          • Offer unlimited storage, and when people upload 75TB worth of data it's abuse.

            How many TB isn't abuse again?

            Help me out.

            Before I answer, can you give me what you think the definition of "unlimited" is?

            Definition? Unlimited means absolutely nothing to me. It is one of those words like Ultra! Super! Grade A!, Jumbo! SuperSized! Maximum!

            All just pointless undefined ad content marketing hyperbole that means absolutely nothing.

            The very nature of the physics involved puta an absolute upper limit on the amount of data either by speed or storage capacity.

            Without looking it up, or asking or anything.

            When you read the word "unlimited", what comes to mind?

            That I'm being played at best, and more likely plain lied to. I don't care because I know that people lie a lot, and believe that other people are stupid.

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • My answer (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @12:29PM (#52511165) Homepage Journal

          Offer unlimited storage, and when people upload 75TB worth of data it's abuse.

          How many TB isn't abuse again?

          Okay, here's my answer.

          It's Microsoft's blame-throwing that annoys me.

          If they came out and said "we can't support unlimited as planned, we have to switch to fixed limits", then everyone would understand. A well-meaning policy turned out to be unworkable, no biggie.

          Instead, they say "we do this because of user abuse", then they're putting the blame on the users, and shows contempt.

      • Let's add to that.

        Offer unlimited storage, and when people upload 75TB worth of data it's abuse.

        But presenting misleading alerts to trick people into installing Windows10, that's perfectly acceptable.

        What I don't understand is:

        a) Why windows 10 users haven't filed a class-action suit against Microsoft.

        The unlimited data thing has been around for so long that the meaning of the word has changed. Just like an unlimited data plan for some mobile phone company I heard. They plainly state that the Unlimited plan means the first 6 gigs are at 4G, and everything after that is 2G. Which is to say - darn near unusable. Microsoft OneDrive gives people a lot of storage until it doesn't any more.

        That first hit is always free. And the people who would use OneDrive should know that's just how it works. My cloud sits

      • As to the Windows 10 users (assuming you mean those upgraded against their will): I imagine Microsoft will point out the benefits of moving as many users as possible to an up to date single OS structure versus trying to maintain and patch multiple versions. Promises to maintain older versions are fulfilled by moving users to current version. The maintenance and support is to move them to a more modern OS.
        They'll be able to point to how Apple has done with with both OSX (not always forced) and iOS (forced
      • They should be pounding Microsoft into the ground over the misleading alerts and unwanted upgrades.

        They are missing a burden of proof. Microsoft can happily show stats of people who purchased Windows 10, are running Windows 10 without issues (there's a feedback option), the trial program they have for it, and their statistics also show that people are using Windows 7 despite being part of the free Windows 10 upgrade, and that there's an option to downgrade.

        With all of this in place the FTC basically don't have a chance.

    • by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
      I guess I'm cut from a different mold, just because something is "free" or "unlimited" doesn't mean I'm going to horde resources.

      When something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I hope rational people will realize that if too many people abuse the system like this, the rules will get changed for the worse for everyone.

      Maybe I'm just weird.
    • Because we are humans and not machines and, as such, we are capable of understanding limiting principles that are fuzzy and imprecise. Moreover, in many cases we prefer such fuzzy limits because in most cases it's much less effort to rely on them than to expend the intellectual effort to precisely quantify the limits. Besides being a pain to draft, communicate and clarify, precise language creates two additional negative effects: first it displaces the existing fuzzy limits, which can actually lead to less

    • Re:Abuse? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @10:45AM (#52510413)

      No it is abuse.
      It is like going to an all you can eat restaurant stay there for the whole day and eat all your meals there.
      Or just swiping all the pennies in the give a penny take a penny bin....

      In general when you have a free service. You should be grateful that it is free, and use it respecting all the other users. Storage is about $0.25 a gig (Assuming redundant drives) So that 75TB is about $18,000 worth of space for your free service. So for a company who has to share for a lot of people. They expect to spend a few bucks per user. However abuse is pushing past that amount.

      There really isn't a justification for being a dick

      • "In general when you have a free service. You should be grateful that it is free, and use it respecting all the other users. "

        That in NO WAY reflects the reality of humanity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] You are preaching an unrealistic ideal. The biggest problem here is allowing MS to use the word 'unlimited'. That word simply should not be allowed in marketing material. If you cant offer something truly unlimited then you cant use the word in your marketing. I put the burden on on the professio
      • Storage is about $0.25 a gig (Assuming redundant drives) So that 75TB is about $18,000 worth of space for your free service.

        You think Microsoft is paying $125 each for a bunch of 1 TB hard drives? 8 TB hard drives sell for $500-600, and I'm sure Microsoft is paying less than that when they buy hundreds of them at a time. Even if they're doing full mirroring instead of something like RAID-6, you're off by a factor of 2.

  • The sale of external hard drives, thumb drives, and sd cards are expected to skyrocket.
    • The sale of external hard drives, thumb drives, and sd cards are expected to skyrocket.

      Skyrocket? Yeah right.

      If the process isn't happening automagically for the end user, they won't back up their data. Copying files to external sources would actually take effort. Fuck that.

    • At least MS lets you put external storage into your devices. Not like Apple and Google with their iPad/iPhone and Nexus devices.

      • I would be surprised if the Nexus devices didn't support USB On The Go [wikipedia.org] as my android phone does. Out of curiosity I connected all sorts of things to it to see what works and what didn't. It didn't like my 64 GB USB flash drive but my 500 GB external USB drive it liked just fine, same with the keyboard, track ball, and 32GB USB flash drives I tried.
  • So it begins... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @09:18AM (#52509733) Homepage Journal
    ...the race to the cloud is a race to extract rent payments for users. Make no mistake: that is what it is about. The strategy is to give it away for free at first to get all of us to eventually pay a monthly fee for these services so the CFO can accurately forecast their quarterly revenue. In addition, once everything is moved to the cloud, you won't need a PC anymore. You can use a "cloud" enabled. Eventually this will be a requirement, and you will only be allowed on the Internet if you use an approved "cloud" device. If you don't, you might be a terrorist, or a pirate, or a pirate terrorist.
    • point of clarification:
      Q: Is a pirate terrorist a pirate that terrorizes people or someone that terrorizes pirates?
    • by swb ( 14022 )

      What's so funny about this is that the short-sighted penny pinchers who are always howling about IT spending are the FIRST ones to flock to the cloud with this mistaken idea of how cheap and free the cloud is.

      Worse, I work for a SMB IT consultancy and our sales people gleefully sell cloud services (managed by someone else, not us) to these same customers when it's not even cheaper TCO over 4 years and without realizing that they are selling out the bedrock of their own business. And it's not even like the

      • Financial types like to pay/receive rent because it makes it much easier on them to predict their quarterly profit/loss. They don't like unknowns, even if the unknown is a net positive to the company. That is what drives the cloud strategy.
        • Sad to say, for 99% of the real world, IT is not a revenue generator; its an infrastructural cost. If/when cloud providers can provide a lower TCO at acceptable reliability/flexibility, there's no reason to prefer buying new hardware every few years and pay employee salaries to keep the hardware working.

          Cloud computing is a godsend for upper management, who now don't need to know much about computer issues to enjoy its benefits. Its also probably the most cost-effective way to diversify security costs ove

          • Congratulations. You are thinking like a CFO. Why pay for infrastructure? You should work for the U.S. Government.
      • They like the monthly spread and that it seems lower since there isn't an upfront cost. Also, it means they spend less and get a bonus short term. The US and most of Europe runs on quarterly profits and short sighted gains, 2% increase in revenue every year!
      • A good question: What is it about paying rent people find so appealing?

        Some opt to pay rent knowingly and willingly. If your job does not have steady predictable minimum income stream, you would be wise to rent a home/apartment, rather than owning. If you want to keep the option of taking a job anywhere in the country, again you would knowingly pay rent, rather than own.

        Others are forced to rent knowingly and unwillingly. Usually poorer people without good credit history, they don't qualify for loans or

      • What is it about paying rent people find so appealing?

        Some of it is related to accounting. Actual storage is capital equipment whereas cloud storage is a service and gets reported/taxed in a different bucket I believe.

  • Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, do these sound like the actions of a man whose had ALL he could eat?

    -- kids, don't do Zoloft

  • by ryanmc1 ( 682957 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @09:30AM (#52509815) Homepage
    I found about a month ago that the battery on my phone was draining really fast. Where I could usually go a day and half, it was down to just half a day. After digging around and looking at battery stats I found the culprit, onedrive, it was preventing my phone from sleeping. So I denied it the keep awake permission, but that didn't seem to help. Finally I completely uninstalled it. Honestly I have not missed it. Except for the fact that it is built into Windows I have no desire to ever use it again.
    • You had a bad backup and it was trying to finish it but never could. You have to go in, delete that backup and then start over.
  • I installed this on my Synology NAS, my computers, my iPhone, and my iPad. Haven't had any real problems with it at all. No more problems with space. I had dumped DropBox after they took some free space away from me and said that I never had it. The great thing about Sync is that since I mostly use it at home it's faster than other options because it doesn't depend on my Internet connection. But I can still connect to it if I'm out of the house.

    It is slow on the iPhone and iPad to start up and make connecti

  • I was vaguely annoyed when I heard they were dropping from 15GB to 5GB since I had taken to storing music in OneDrive since I like the Groove interface a lot better than Google Play (especially the web interface), but when I went to manage my space it offered my a free year of Office 365 with 1TB of storage. I also have a free year from the Surface bundle I bought last year, so I'm good for a while.

    But even after that expires, a one year subscription is $69.95, which is cheap compared to dropbox ($99 for 1

    • by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @09:58AM (#52510027) Homepage Journal
      What a bargain! Only $69.95 per year for 1TB? That is only 40% more than a 1TB hard drive costs. And you get to pay for it every year you say? What a great value!
      • Yes, because if you just buy a hard drive and put in in a drawer somewhere it will magically start working as a cloud storage service. I'm not saying if it's a fair price or not, but comparing a cloud storage service to the equivalent price of the storage they give you isn't really all that fair.

        To start with, they would probably store it on at least 2 different devices to ensure that if the drive dies, that all your data isn't lost. So you're already up cheaper than the cost of the actual storage. Then th

        • He is storing music not the Constitution. You can buy a "cloud" harddrive for $70 if you want and attach it to your own home network. OneDrive is not for backups - if you are using it for that you are doing it wrong. Paying $7 a month for storage is ridiculous. That isn't impressive at all. Cloud services go down all the time.
          • Actually, right now I'm paying $0/mo for storage since I got two years free. And even when that runs out I will be paying $7/mo for hosted storage, related services and a full office suite. For less than the two major competitors (Google and Dropbox) charge for less features (and again, no office suite).

            I have plenty of storage at home (around 10TB usable) but OneDrive provides me convenience and backup. I suppose I could go through the trouble of installing something like OwnCloud, then configuring all

            • Wow. Your Surface tablet was free? Christ, now I know someone who actually bought one. I was wondering what type of person actually fell for that.
              • It's was thrown in with a bundle of products I was buying anyways, so yes, my acquisition cost was zero. And my operational cost is also zero. Hence free.

                We could get into a semantic argument of the meaning of the word free, and you could probably spout tanstaafl or some variant of the same argument, but let's just nip that in the bud because I was referring to the net budgetary impact.

          • OneDrive is awesome for backups if you're a non-technical consumer. Even if it manages to somehow manage to lose some or all of your data, its still more likely to do a better job of backup than your grandmother (unless grandma indexes all her backups and gives you an alternate copy to store where you live. That's also assuming neither party lives with their mother...).

      • The data will still be there when my house burns down.
        • Except when the Cloud provider loses it because they have a system failure like Amazon has had happen in the past. The cloud isn't magic. If you are worried about backups then you should backup your data. Using the cloud has nothing it do with that. Just because your data is in the cloud doesn't mean it no longer needs to be backed up.
      • Yes, and a bare drive is exactly the same as a geo-redundant storage service which provides automatic file versioning, media file indexing and streaming (including transcoding), document collaboration, platform integration with Windows devices (including the Xbox), ifft support, etc. Oh, and a full office suite for your browser, desktop, tablet and phone. Exactly the same.

        • You are right. You would need to pay an extra $10 for the Western Digital "cloud" drive for all that. Of course you don't get the benefits of a corporation scanning all of your data though. My mistake.
          • Wow, Western Digitial includes geo-redundant data centers with multiple backbone links with their consumer products now? And an office suite? Awesome!

            Oh, it's just a non-redundant network drive with a remote access app that allows you to browse remotely (which is useful) but without streaming for anything but audio, no indexing, no versioning, no collaboration, no transcoding, no option for encryption at rest, no IFTTT channel, etc. And of course no office suite.

            Certainly a good option for sensitive info

            • If you are using OneDrive as your backup you are using it wrong. But yeah, you get an "office suite". Its free, right? What a bargain.
              • Yeah, using off-site and off-device storage as backup is daft. What was I thinking?

                • I'm not sure what you were thinking. OneDrive doesn't qualify as a backup solution. It is cloud storage, not backup. You were probably thinking your $2500 Surface came with a "free" office suite too.
  • And now we come to the third "E" in Microsoft's tired formula.

    Yes, I know it really has to do with technologies and acquired businesses; but "Extinguish" is what is being done to Users' personal data that they foolishly entrusted to Microsoft's pseudo-largesse.
    • I see it as a win-win. Microsoft somehow makes a significant increase in profit from this move, and customers learn what it means to "trust" either Microsoft or Google (or Amazon or IBM, ad nauseum...)

  • So they complain about abusers uploading 75TB, but then chops everyone down to a measly 5GB? That's ludicrous. 5GB is 1/15000th of 75 TB.

    And I got 15 gigs (Still measly) when I bought my Windows Phone, and they are chopping that down to 5GB as well.

    I'm done with OneDrive. Pulled off all my stuff and put it on my Google Drive which still is 15GB. (Of which I'm only using 2.5 GB) I've got 10 TB on my network at home, really don't need these third party services. I'm not a typical use case, I know, but it's st

    • Because then you will pay for 10GB. The issue isn't about people storing 75TB. The financial types realized that not enough people were transitioning to their paid services. It is just a business strategy.
  • by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @11:15AM (#52510611) Journal
    Why are so many of you bothering with 'the cloud' when this sort of crap happens over and over and over again, ad nauseam? Are too many of you incapable of learning?

    Surely they won't hurt us again this time, let's try Cloud storage again!

    *Bangs head against wall repeatedly*

    People, you just don't get it. 'The Cloud' is a meme; it's a ruse; IT'S A TRAP. It's only two steps away from being Ransomware: 'Pay up or your data is TOAST'.

    External hard drives are cheap and reliable. So are huge USB flash drives, both in nice fast USB3. Buy two for your most sensitive data and make two copies, just in case. Really, honestly, seriously, how difficult is this?

    It's too big, too bulky, too confusing, why should I pay for anything?

    Get a microSD card and a tiny USB adapter. Fits nicely in your wallet or purse. USB HDD's are smaller than a pack of cigarettes. Even huge, normal USB flash drives are tiny now, and they're all cheap, cheap, cheap. Meanwhile 'cloud' providers keep playing shell games with your data, losing it, getting hacked, going out of business and telling you 'tough luck', and likely snooping into your data regardless of anything they tell you to the contrary. Come on, people, why do you keep punishing yourselves this way? Did you do something bad in a previous life or something?

    Please, please,, people: Stop with the 'cloud' nonsense already. You're just hurting yourselves.

    • Look at the replies to this story. You will see people stupid enough to fall for it. One guy paid top dollar for a Surface laptop and is happy because he gets A YEAR of "free" storage! LOL.

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