Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Online Cloud Storage

This page provides links to FREE Online CLOUD Storage sites:

Google Drive 
5GB free storage
Integrated with Google Docs, Gmail, and soon the whole Google ecosystem.
The problem is that the Google Drive Download is not able to connect - keeps saying "One Moment Please"

Update: 30 Nov 2012
The problem of "One Moment Please" is gone.
The actual Google Drive Sync application for Windows is very difficult to find and is available here:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/drive?pli=1

Warning: SYNC usually means if you delete from one, it will delete from another location too. If a synced file on the web gets deleted accidentally or maliciously, then when the sync occurs, that file will be removed from the device/PC too. The strategy to avoid this is to disable automatic sync of the app (eg Google Drive Sync) on the device / PC. Instead use manual syncing.

Here is how to use Google Drive Sync on Windows PC.
1. Download the Google Drive Sync app from the link above.
2. Install the app on PC.
3. Follow the prompts to sign in with your Google account.
4. After signing in, the following 2 dialog must be done carefully.
At the first dialog, press Next.



In this second dialog, Do Not Press "Start Sync".
Instead press "Advanced Setup"

5. The Advanced Setup Dialog below is important to set this up to avoid accidents with files.

- First Click on the Change button to choose a directory to sync. Whatever you choose, it will be appended with "Google Drive" sub-directory. Everything to be synced must be on this Google Drive subdirectory.
- Sync Options - allow you to control if there are some sub-directories inside Google Drive that should not be synced.
- Sync Google Doc Files: This setting will affect those files that are in Google Docs already, and hence lie outside of Google Drive.
- Start Google Drive automatically when you start the computer. This should be UNTICKED. By choosing the manual way, you have full control of when the application perform the syncing. So if you realize one file is missing from the Google Drive on the web, then you can fix it - otherwise if syncing is on, it will automatically delete the same file on your local PC.


16 May 2013
Copy
https://www.copy.com/bigger/
15GB free and 5GB for every new user introduced (for a limited time)
Seems like a new service. There appears to be desktop app for Windows, Linux, Mac as well as iPhone and Android, that allows content to be sync across all platforms.



Tresorit
http://tresorit.com/
5 GB free storage
For Windows, more platforms coming later.
Not Web Based. So you need to install the software and it runs on your PC - which is totally fine because syncing your files from PC to cloud should not need a Web interface anyway.
Big selling point is Encryption. They are supposed to encrypt your files first, then it gets transferred to the cloud.
50GB SPECIAL to 20 May 2013 (according to life hacker). To get this offer, you need to download the Tresorit from:
http://lifehacker.com/5994394/get-50gb-of-free-encrypted-online-storage-from-tresorit
According to Tresorit website, if the 50GB does not show up then:

To get the 50GB extended storage, download directly from one of these links:

http://lifehacker.com/5994394/get-50gb-of-free-encrypted-online-storage-from-tresorit?tag=dealhacker
http://gigaom.com/2013/04/11/secure-cloud-storage-outfit-tresorit-posts-10k-hacker-bounty/

If this does not work, send us your Tresorit account's email address and we'll update your quota.



Syncplicity
http://www.syncplicity.com/
2 GB free storage
Able to sync with Google Docs

Pros:
- Has Backup as well as Sync functions
- Allow folders that are synced, to change their location in the local PC.

Usage Tips
- In Sync mode, when a file is delete from the cloud or PC, then the file is also deleted from PC or cloud.
- In Backup mode, deleting the file from the Cloud, does not delete the file on the local PC.


Skydrive
http://skydrive.live.com/
25 GB of free online storage for sharing Microsoft Office docs and photos.
Updated 1 Jan 2013: No longer 25GB. Sometime during 2012, Microsoft decided to reduce the free accounts from 25GB to 7GB. Those who have used more than 7GB were OK. New and existing users who have very little content will get 7GB accounts only.


Picasa Web Album
http://https/picasaweb.google.com/home
http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1224181
1GB Free photos and videos
Photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards your free storage.

Started playing with this and it seems to work nicely. A few things to know about.
You need to get these pieces of technology:
- Picasa - an application to download to your PC. It is a photo album management tool with editing capabilities.
- Picasa Web Album - you would have access to this if you have a google account
- Google+ is the new Google social website. You need to have Google+, then any photos less than 2048x2048 pixels will not be counted as your storage limit.

The concept and steps to backup and synchronize your photos to Google are the following:
- After installing the Picasa application, and running it, it allows you to choose which photo folders in your PC to become albums in Picasa.
- From Picasa, after choosing the photos to make albums, just click synchronize on a specific folder, and the photos will be synchronized with both Picasa Web Album and Google+ Photos.
- Warning: At this time, Picasa Web Album does not have the concept of a folder tree, ie.no sub-folders available.
- In Picasa application, the albums can be in Folder or Tree View but the default view is a Flat folder structure. This is quite confusing since folders appear at the same level as sub-folders. However this can be easily changed by going to View - Folder View  - Tree View.

Box.com
https://www.box.com/personal/
5 GB free online storage
Not good for backup of hard drive. Does not seem to have an explorer interface for backup or syncing. (CHANGED NOW - see below)
Max file size: 100MB

Update: 2 Jan 2013 - BOX SYNC - https://www.box.com/business/features/box-sync/
- this enables backup and syncing of hard drive. Box Sync is an application that can be downloaded and installed. However, it presents a single top level folder for all Box content. That means it does not allow you to pick and choose which folders you want to sync from your PC.

Update: 9 Feb 2013 - Get 50GB of Box FREE for Life & 50GB for Coworkers or Friends.
https://www.box.com/signup/o/dell_50gb_give_get
This fantastic offer may be time limited.
Also had a more detailed play with BOX SYNC. Unlike SugarSync or GDrive, this Box Sync allow the user to logoff and login again as another Box User. This means user can have multiple Box accounts and login as one user to access one set of data, then logout and login as another use and sync another group of data.

Update: 30 June 2013 - Have set this up and started using. Main problem occurred when it recognized a bunch of files that need to be synced (orange tick icon) but refused to sync it. A few other files may be successful in syncing (blue tick icon). Almost abandoned Box.com because of this. Googling it leads to the support / forum of Box.com where many users have been complaining but seems to have no solution.
SOLVED: One useful feature of Box.com is if you right click on the Box.com icon on the task manger, there is an option to view the log files. Immediately the reason became obvious since the log stated file permission type errors. People on the forum seems to blame in on the Box guys, but the Wind..OS may be partly to blame for stuffing up permissions. To fix this, "move" by dragging files to another sub-directory, then drag it back. Check file properties have included your user to have full control. Then start syncing again and it should work.

iDrive.com
http://www.idrive.com
5 GB free online storage
Appears to have a good GUI explorer interface for backup and sync.
No limit on file size for Upload or Download.
Can increase storage if you share your contacts with iDrive.


Amazon Cloud Drive
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore
5 GB of free online storage
Store your music, videos, photos, and documents on Amazon's secure servers.
MP3 format not counted towards quota.

SugarSync
https://www.sugarsync.com/free/

Get a SugarSync 5 GB Plan Free!
Free online backup, free file sync, and free file sharing
Free cloud storage gives you instant and easy access to your data anytime, anywhere.
Online backup and automatic file sync for work files or personal files like photos, videos, and music.
Download free mobile apps to sync iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian devices.
Sync 5 GB of data across an unlimited number of devices.

Usage Tips:
1. Files or Folders can be viewed 3 ways: Windows Explorer, SugarSync App, SugarSync website.
2. Sync means deleting file on Cloud will also delete file on local PC and vice versa.
3. Delete synced file from Windows Explorer - will delete file from cloud.
4. Delete synced file from SugarSync Website - will delete file from local PC.
5. Stop Sync will not affect files on local PC, but will delete files from cloud.
6. To Stop Sync, open SugarSync App, go to Manage Sync Folders. Click on the folder name, then click on the little X on the top right corner.
7. Pros: Synced files in the cloud, which gets deleted, can be recovered
8. Cons: the folders that can be added to Sync, all seem to appear on a flat structure. There does not appear to be a folder hierarchy.
9. Web Archive has the following special characteristics:
- it acts as Backup - it does NOT sync files.
- put files here manually as once off event.
- files that are deleted from the Web Archive, cannot be recovered. There is no Recycle bin.

AVG Live Kive
http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-online-backup
Free Version 5GB
AVG LiveKive automatically backs up and synchronizes all your files from your devices, enabling you to view and share data safely anytime, anywhere. Think of it as your very own virtual archive.
Note: This free version website starts with free.avg.com. The regular avg domain does not mention anything about this free 5GB version.




MediaFire
http://www.mediafire.com/
Not sure yet whether there is an explorer interface to allow easy backup.
50 GB free on line storage - this is currently the most generous - but the limitations of the Free Account is very vague.  See http://www.mediafire.com/policies/terms_of_service.php


"You control your data through your free or Premium account and/or cookies which may be placed on your computer. MediaFire maintains multiple copies of active files. MediaFire bears no responsibility for maintaining your data indefinitely."

"MediaFire is not a data warehousing service. Its intended use is for active accounts and active file sharing which may inadvertently result in backups of files being shared. Accounts with large amounts of stagnant data `collecting dust` or accounts with very limited user and sharing activity may, in MediaFire' sole discretion and without notice, be removed from the Services."



JustCloud.Com
http://www.justcloud.com
The website says "Get Free Cloud Storage", in the next section, two points listed next to each other says: "Free Cloud Storage"
"Unlimited Storage Space"
But be warned, the Free means 15MB of free storage.
This is a fantastic account (sarcasm) because it is almost like fantasy and unreal that they give free 15MB. Why do I write 15MB in such big words? Because JustCloud tries so hard to hide this fact on their main page. Check out another article about this.
http://www.bluehostforum.com/archive/index.php/t-32408.html
I cannot see 15MB on JustCloud website via Chrome browser on Windows 7. But when I used Chrome on Linux, their website writes that the free account is 15MB.
Recommendation: Yes, sign-up so you can upload all your home movies, wedding photos, graduation photos onto this generous 15MB totally free, totally unlimited storage.



DropBox - DANGER
http://www.dropbox.com/pricing
The free Dropbox account comes with 2GB of space that you can use for as long as you like.
Disclaimer: This is a personal view based on experience.
I was using DropBox to sync one of my major folders with many subfolders and total size above 1.5GB.

1. Dropbox Startup - this causes computer to FREEZE. Only solution is to reboot to Windows Safe Mode, go to MSconfig and disable Dropbox from starting automatically. Then Reboot and launch Dropbox. Make sure the very first thing you do after this is to set Preference for Dropbox to NOT startup automatically.

2. Selective Sync Conflict - With the 1.5GB syncing for a long time, that's fine. But when I wanted to have more control over the syncing, while it was syncing, I went into Preference and into Selective Sync, and removed a few subfolders. After a while is appeared DropBox had serious problems and got confused by the changed selective sync option. The result is I've got folder "A" with some files missing, and a second folder "A (Selective Sync Conflict)" which contains some other partial files. This is not desirable.

3. Original Files DELETED - After all this, I decide just to uncheck all subfolders from the Selective Sync list so I can pause and consider what happened. In front of my eyes, all the sub-folders under DropBox started Disappearing. Dropbox decided to delete all subfolders which I removed from selective sync.

All these effects may have been bugs OR it may have been that I am incorrectly using their features. BUT, to allow user mistakes to convert into actions that DELETES original files in the users PC is very unacceptable.
Use Dropbox with Extreme Caution.


Some articles on Online Cloud Storage:

War of the Cloud Drives
May 13, 2012  Talbott Crowell
"Today, users have many choices for synchronizing files and backing important memories and personal assets including music, pictures, notes, business documents, and other personal or business files.  Recently Microsoft and Google have upped the ante against Dropbox and Apple with their latest offerings.  The offerings range from free to premium services, also known as the “freemium” model.  Amazon also has some interesting benefits, such as unlimited music storage which I have started to use.  Finally Box which also competes in the space for “personal” cloud storage may be better suited for company or team based scenarios.  In this post I will cover some of the pros and cons of each and some common scenarios for usage.  I will also discuss what you get for free, and what some extra charges will get you an how much it will cost (measured in gigabytes per month)."


Cloud Storage Showdown: Dropbox - Google Drive - Skydrive
May 9, 2012 By Chris Hoffman
"The cloud storage scene has heated up recently, with a long-awaited entry by Google and a revamped SkyDrive from Microsoft. Dropbox has gone unchallenged by the major players for a long time, but that’s changed – both Google and Microsoft are now challenging Dropbox on its own turf, and all three services have their own compelling features. One thing’s for sure – Dropbox is no longer the one-size-fits-all solution."

Cloud Drive Comparison
By David Strom / June 7, 2011 06:30 AM

The Cloud, Day 25: The Cloud Is Becoming Mandatory
With cutting edge devices, and the trend toward mobility, relying on the cloud is becoming more of a requirement than a convenience.

The Cloud, Day 24: Backing Up Your Cloud
There always seems to be a lot of backlash and fuss going around the Internet about how much personal information is shared between my social networks and other sites or services. It occurred to me, though: what if the opposite happened, and rather than too much data being shared you went to visit Facebook or Twitter and all of your data was gone?

The Cloud, Day 13: Storing and Managing Pictures in the Cloud
By Tony Bradley
November 26, 2011 09:44 AM ET


"     On Day 12 of the 30 Days With the Cloud journey I extolled the virtues of having precious photographic memories stored in the cloud, and automatically synced from my primary camera--my smartphone. Today I am going to dig a little deeper into the cloud-based options for storing pictures.
      As I mentioned on Day 12, some of the cloud photo storage options have the benefit of being automatically synced with mobile devices. Every picture I take with my Motorola Xoom is uploaded to Picasa, the pictures I took with the Windows Phone 7 “Mango” smartphone were synced to a folder on my SkyDrive, and pictures I take with my iPhone or iPad are automatically shared with Photo Stream on iCloud."




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