Free online storage services

CriticalThinker

Just before everyone *does* start actually using online storage, be aware that putting files, pictures and anything else on the Internet does mean that aside from the hacker risk (probably small) is the much more insidious issue of access by the US government, especially if you are not a US citizen. If you think I am being alarmist (which I accept it may sound like), then feel free to Google for, say, "us government access to cloud data" and even restrict your results to bbc.co.uk (which you may choose to trust more than most sites). And this is not something that has just become public because of Mr Snowdon in Russia, this is something that has been in place since at least 2008.

Of course, it is reasonable for people to point out that "they have nothing to hide" - indeed, but do those same people dress in full view of their neighbours in the morning? I'm simply saying it should be a matter of choice whether people allow others to access their information - by being aware that such access is possible, allows people to make more informed choices.

stfamanda

Has anyone tried Amazon Glacier around here? It is said to be the cheapest cloud for archiving and backing up data?

Any thoughts on this?

pmduk

Possibly I'm wrong, but I didn't think it was yet available in the UK.

misterwilson

Dropbox is good or maybe the best cloud service existing. But it provides so little discspase for free!
Also there`s a good russian cloud service (Google "Yandex disc"). 10 Gb for free + 10 Gb for each referal. Use Google to translate site.

pauldreed

copy.com gets my vote, 20gB for free, and lets not forget that the company is owned by Barracuda - the security experts.
I've just backed up 5gB's worth of my media - hope they look after it!

Paul

Helix

Google drive lets you have files upto 10GB. The cheapest plan is 100GB at $4.99 a month.

real_sunfire

The big big problem with most of these online storage or cloud storage services that many people have (including myself) is they only sync a specific folder.


Ok you can create sub-folders under that folder but what a lot of people want to is sync their current folders and files rather than having to move them or keep two copies.


Two services which will sync your existing folder structure:


1) BT Opencloud
2) SugarSync - which I use roughly £50 (price is $74.99 USD) for 60Gb for a year.


Best Regards,
Nick

chanz4

why not just get one of these, http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1714096.htm its a cloud drive also backsup 2Tb free to drop box also. and its £99 one off

artichi

With reference to the price vs storage comparison chart on the 'Cheapest paid-for storage' section of the MSE page.

I recently needed a copy of Office 2013, but instead opted for "Office 365 Home - 5 user - 1 year" at £61 on Amazon (£79.99 direct from Microsoft). This went against my normal policy of buying software outright and keeping it for 5+ years before upgrading.

I'm a long time Dropbox user but to my surprise Office 365 comes with 1TB of storage on OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive). The storage is per user, so 5TB in total (each user needs a different Microsoft account). The users don't have to be in the same household (maybe it says so buried deep in the terms and conditions), so you can share the cost amongst friends. At the end of the year you can buy another code from Amazon and add it to your subscription or renew via Microsoft.

I think even at £61 per year for 1TB, that makes it very competitive compared to some of the other 200GB+ services. That's before you factor having the latest Outlook, Word, Excel, etc on up to 5 PCs, Macs, plus another 5 tablets or phone. They also throw in 60 mins of Skype national/international calls a month, though that's not much use for me.

Other positives: it behaves much the same way as Dropbox on PCs and Macs, but on Windows 8.1 PCs it integrates even better.

The negatives: each individual file needs to be less than 4GB and secondly their iOS app has a few bugs that need an update.

You can use two-step verification for log in. But as many have said before, I would't store anything confidential on any remote service.

I hope that helps some of you.

artichi

chanz4 wrote: »

why not just get one of these, http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1714096.htm its a cloud drive also backsup 2Tb free to drop box also. and its £99 one off

Just to highlight that this isn't a true cloud based service, it's just WD jumping on the cloud buzz word. Therefore it doesn't offer protection in the event of fire or theft. It can connect to a Dropbox account, but only up to storage limit set to your own Dropbox capacity (2GB for free).

Secondly, I believe it's a single hard drive unit, so when that drive fails there is no mirrored drive as a back up. It can be said that it's not a case of 'if' a hard drive will fail, but 'when'. WD are no better than the other manufacturers when it comes to drive failures.

For storage of music and movies that can be replaced (possibly at a cost), then this is a good solution, with the added benefit of being able to stream certain compatible files to other devices around the home. But for backing up a PC at the same location with photos, videos and files it doesn't offer much of a safety net. Used in conjunction with a cloud based service it would work.

If you really want to avoid cloud based services, then a possible set up would be a real-time backup from a PC to a dual drive NAS (RAID) (free software called QuickShadow is very good for that), with a scheduled daily backup to an external hard drive connected to the NAS via a USB cable. Keep a second external hard drive and give one to a friend to keep off site, and swap hard drives once a month or whenever you see them. That way you limit your loses to the last month or so of data. 1TB external hard drives are around £50.