How To Get 25 GBs Of Free Storage Space

So there are paid online storage services out there. Some are setup as online backup solutions, such as Mozy. But what happens if you want a free service? There are free services such as Google’s Dropbox. They give you 2GBs of storage for free. It’s a really great service, and they even have an iPhone app. But it’s setup more as a USB drive in the cloud. 2 GBs isn’t enough to backup your data. So what if you wanna’ backup your files for free? Is there a solution for it?

There is, and it’s from Microsoft of all places. It’s called Skydrive. Skydrive lets you store 25GBs of data for free. Skydrive is not setup as an automatic system, such as the $5 a month service Mozy. It doesn’t have any way to setup automatic backup of your files, and there’s no way to sync your files. It also doesn’t have an iPhone app, like Dropbox does. There’s another draw back that you can only upload files less than 50 MBs (Dropbox also has similar restrictions). Also, you can’t upload folders, you have to manually create a folder and upload files into it.

But you know what makes this service great? The fact that, currently, this is the only service that exists online that gives you anywhere near this much storage space. And that this should be large enough for most people to store their important files online. 25GBs is HUGE. That’s big enough to backup all of your most important files. (Of course, this won’t work for your video collection, but who cares. Back-up your videos the traditional way, via DVD or something.) Not only that, but in addition to having your files backed up to the cloud, you’re also able to access your files anywhere in the world. So it’s like having a free remote connection to your computer… but instead of connecting to your computer, you connect to your files. After all, the push is to move away from the “go to my PC” way of computer and turn it into “go to my files”.

25 GBs Of Free Storage Is Unheard Of

25 GBs and working with a 50 MB per file limit, this is enough to back up mostly all of your important files. My entire MP3 collection (which I try to keep small and only have the best quality of song) is 6-7 GBs. That means my entire collection will fit online and work under the 50 MB file limite. Same thing for all of my “web” files. (As far as “documents”, I already use Google Docs strictly for all my files so that don’t matter too much.) And my image collection also works, and surprisingly mostly all of my very large Photoshop files also fit no problem (but not all, read on).

To Drag And Drop Files Windows And Internet Explorer Is Needed

You can access Skydrive from any browser on any operating system. You can add files, of course, but the bad news is that you can only upload five files at a time. That’s a horrible solution when your doing your first backup, which can contain thousands of little files. The great news is that Skydrive supports an awesome drag and drop feature. You simply create the folder on Skydrive and drag and drop the files from your computer. The bad news is that a plug-in is needed to do this, and that plug-in only works on Internet Explorer and Windows. I would expect this with Google Chrome, but it’s surprising the plug-in isn’t supported for Firefox. So only Internet Explorer can be used to drag and drop files.

But hey, this is the only thing I use Internet Explorer for, so I actually don’t mind. Not a big deal.  When I need to upload files, I simply open Internet Explorer, which is already bookmarked to Skydrive and I drag and drop folders. So Internet Explorer is like one big fancy file folder online for me to drag and drop to.

This 25 GB Backup Is Free, But There’s No Way To Sync

Your able to store all of your files online, so you’ve got your files backed-up online, but then there’s the problem of adding or updating files. So you’ve got let’s say 1,000 files uploaded. What happens a month down the road, when you’ve got 100 new files? Or what happens when you update files on your computer? How do those files get synced? Well, they don’t and they can’t. I would tell you, you gotta’ sync them manually. But the truth is, there’s no way to even manually sync. Adding new files into a folder is simple, you simply select all of your files from one folder and drag and drop it to the folder online. You’ll get a “copy and replace?” prompt. You simply tell it not to copy and replace existing files, so the only files that get uploaded are the new files.

But I don’t recommend this if some of your files have changed in a folder. If you’ve got 1,000 files from your “Crazy Pics” folder in Skydrive, and you’ve got 1,100 files from your “Crazy Pics” folder on your computer, and a few of the files that already existed online have changed on your computer… your going to have to just copy and replace. Or I should say “copy and update”. This will of course take longer than if just the files that were updated were synced. But this service is free, so no big deal.

Skydrive Shouldn’t Be Your Only Backup Source

Skydrive shouldn’t be your one and only backup. You should still have a local backup. In fact, Skydrive should be used as a second backup for you. You should have one backup locally, such as burning files onto a DVD. That should be the backup that, if something goes wrong, you transfer your files from that backup source. But Skydrive should be your second backup because your bound to have at least one file that is very important to you, but is over 50 MBs. That file won’t be in Skydrive, because it’s too big. I have some large Photoshop files that aren’t in Skydrive because they’re like 80-100 MBs.

I do, however, recommend making Skydrive your frequent backup source. I back things up to DVD about once a month or two. Skydrive is something a lot easier to backup to, so I recommend adding new files once a week. And maybe once a month updating and replacing files to Skydrive.

So if you were restoring lost data, do it from your main backup source, such as DVDs. But once you do that, download the files from Skydrive and replace any files already on your computer. The reason why is because your main backup source will contain all of your files from a few months ago at the latest, but Skydrive will contain more updated versions of most of your files (but files that are bigger than 50 MBs will only be found on your main backup).

Is Skydrive Right For You?

This may not be right for all of you. I’m gonna’ answer some hypothetical questions…

Question: I’m a professional photographer… and my files update contently. Losing a file directly affects my business.
Answer: Then don’t use Skydrive cheap skate. Skydrive is a free service and you shouldn’t be using a free service for your business, so go out and spend $5 a month on a service such as Mozy (although technically Mozy is more expensive than $5 if they know your using it for a business).

Question: I’m addicted to my iPhone, and there are files I want to access from my iPhone in addition to my computer, is Skydrive for me?
Answer: Skydrive can be used as a cloud USB drive, but it’s strongest feature  is being a massive online location to use as a backup. You should use the free 2GB Dropbox service, it works great with your iPhone via the iPhone app.

Question: I looked at the size of all my important files. I realize they are less than 2 GBs. Should I use Skydrive to backup?
Answer: You can, but I say no. Use a 2GB free service such as Mozy, as it’ll allow you to download a program that’ll automatically sync your files. Or use Dropbox as it also contains a program where you can drag and drop files into it. Both are easier solutions than Skydrive.

Question: Is Skydrive good for sharing files with people?
Answer: Yes, you can, but there are other services that may be better for that. Dropbox, Box.net, etc. These services only do about 2 GBs of storage. If you need more than 2GBs and want to stay free, then Skydrive is your only choice. Anyone you see usin’ another service, using more than 2GBs, they ain’t gettin’ it for free, I’ll tell ya that.

Question: What do you use?
Answer: Skydrive. I’m a firm believer in free online services. Wordpress, Hulu,  Pandora, Google Docs, etc.

I think I covered most of the basics. You know one of the great things about a free service? It’s free and there’s no risk trying it. I’m diggin’ Skydrive (although I’m really hoping for a fabled “Gdrive” service). What do you think of Skydrive, or other online storage services such as Mozy or Dropbox?

Peace, JbB