There’s nothing remotely exciting about the mundane task of backing up your photos, music and other files, but it has to be done, and you’ll definitely get excited if your PC goes belly up and you haven’t archived all that vital information somewhere safe. And if you don’t do regular backups, then you are living on borrowed time and disaster could be just one boot-up away.
The last time I looked at online storage early last year, but the landscape has changed a bit since then, including a great new service. Of course, we all know that there’s free online storage a plenty for digital photos, with services like Picasa and Snapfish, but until now similar services for other data have been much more difficult to find. There are commercial online storage services that offer a varying amount of free storage space, in the hope that you will like the service so much that you will upgrade to a paid service. If your storage needs are modest, these services may well serve your purpose, and if that is so, see ‘Other free storage’ at the end of this article.
While I don’t suggest that you abandon the tried and true hardware backup methods for an online-only regime, online backup services provide an excellent extra layer of insurance to those traditional backup methods. One of the great things about storing copies of your important files and folders online is that you can get to them from anywhere you have access to a PC. Best of all, the ones I look at in this article won’t cost you a cent to use.
Exciting Windows Live Changes
The most exciting online storage announcement in a while involves huge changes to Windows Live’s free SkyDrive service. Windows Live recently announced that it would increase the online storage capacity of SkyDrive from its current 5G per user to a whopping 25G and up to 1,000 new files each month, making it a serious option for significant backups. The changes to SkyDrive are part of a series of exciting changes to the Windows Live stable of products, rolling all its services into one easy-to manage personal home page, and adding a host of new features to each component service.
As well as storing your files in SkyDrive, you can choose to make them private or share them with specified friends or colleagues. SkyDrive uses a simple folder structure, so it’s easy to organise your material and access it from anywhere you have an Internet connection. And getting your files and folders from your PC to your SkyDrive couldn’t be easier using simple drag and drop upload transfer.
To take advantage of this impressive resource, you will need to have a Windows Live ID – if you already use MSN Messenger or Hotmail, you will already have been issued with a Windows Live ID. If you don’t use these services, it’s just a matter of going to www.hotmail.com to create one. Just provide the required information, and in a couple of minutes, you’ll be registered. You can track the rollout of the new features at Windows Live at www.windowslive.com or keep an eye out at http://skydrive.live.com for news on the implementation of the new storage limits.
Using Gmail For Backup
For some time now, savvy Gmail users have been using their Web mail as a defacto storage facility by emailing their important files to their account. However, the ever-increasing storage capacity of Gmail accounts – over 7G – has led to the development of third-party applications that allow you to use your Web mail account as a virtual drive for storing backups. The most popular of these is a Firefox add-on called Gspace. However, be aware that this practice contravenes the terms and conditions you agreed to when signing up for you Gmail account. If you violate those terms, Google can suspend or terminate your account.
As promised earlier, here are the other free storage alternatives that offer substantial storage space.
- Mozy – http://mozy.com – 2G
- DropBoks – www.dropboks.com – 1G
- 4shared.com – www.4shared.com – 5G
- Orbitfiles – www.orbitfiles.com – 6G
- Humyo – www.humyo.com – 10G
- iDrive – www.idrive.com – 2G
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