Do you prefer network storage or local storage hooked up to your computer?

I prefer network storage, it allows me to back up more than one computer w/o having to go to every computer to plug in a storage device to backup. An also allows me to backup the computer simultaneous.

Yeah I use network storage too, for the same reason as isaiah. External drives are clunky, take up space, and are a pain for sharing files. On a file server, you can reallocate space as needed, create multi-user shares, etc.

For the things I do (recording Chris videos and bloopers) I would prefer a Networked Drive over a standard connected to computer drive. Also I like a networked derive since I can retrieve video on other computers or DLNA compatible set top boxes.

I prefer local storage. I've been using local storage forever and I've never had any problems.

I guess I would prefer network storage, but since I only have local storage that is my preference :P

I like network storage, but im not as hard core. I have a separate partition on my 1TB external drive (20GB) that I share through the network so if someone wants a file I have, I put it on the drive and we are done.

I also have an OLD thinkpad R40e as a print server. printer goes in there, share it, DONE!!! This thing is designed for Windows 98. Im running xp on it :P 248mb RAM 15GB Hard Drive 1.6Ghz Processor

Get my drift? :PP

i use an external hard drive for just about everything... but i also use network storage mostly for just backing up the computers on my network.

Network storage for me. You can eliminate cable mess by having a wireless router to share the files to it when you are at home. It's not as fast as an ethernet cable but if it's a load of stuff you can always leave it run in the background or while you sleep.

External hard drives can get easily damaged if you always move them around and it's really a pain to take it with you and it can get lost or stolen.

If I need some small files I can easily ftp into my server and get critical data such as work from any computer from anywhere in the world.

local storage is what i use!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both. For speed, definitely local storage. Backups of my computer stay on a drive that's always connected and ready, but stuff that I need to take with me could either be put on a thumbdrive or in the cloud.

In the home, I don't really believe in network storage, mainly because I haven't taken the time to learn why networking is so damn frustrating! I do share a 1TB HD on my PC that all other computers in the house can connect to, and it's pretty awesome to just have an alias on my Mac to the folder for storing old programs and such on it without plugging it into my Mac or browsing through my PC's files over the network to get to it. Aliases are my best friends :)

For the average user that doesn't care much about speed, network storage is a beautiful thing to have. Only if you have more than one computer, though. If you only have one, it's kinda pointless......?

Overall, it's just personal opinion. Just like Mac vs. PC. I hate both, so I just use both and live with them! Storage is simple enough, local and networked, so I use both. But I am not gonna go store all my Mac's apps on a network drive. That would just be crazy and unnecessary.