Online Storage Advice

[ugadog99]

My HP is five years old and loaded to the brim. I know we need a new computer, but it just isn't in the budget right now. I have an external hard drive that is always connected, but I think we need an online storage space. I could put our many, many pictures and school documents there and free up a ton of space. Do you also store your itunes library online? I wouldn't delete it from the computer, though, because we listen to it all the time. However, it would give me one more storage space in case the computer crashes. Can someone suggest a safe, secure, and relatively budget site to use? I'd like to hear your experiences and any other advice you have about it, too. Thanks!

 

[SarahKate]

I am an AVID user of DropBox. You can do some Google searches on it and find ways that people are using it. I currently have a free account which actually gives you a fair amount of space, but you can get a lot more space for a monthly fee. I absolutely love it.

What is great about it is that you can access your files from anywhere, any computer with internet access. If you have more than one computer or device, it will sync the files across all of them. For example.....at home there's my PC, DH's PC, our laptop and my iPhone. The computers all have DropBox installed on them and I can access and modify the files on any of them and move between. I have an iPhone app which allows me view-only capabilities.

It's file sharing but you also have a back up because the files are continuously backed up.

If there's a folder you want to share with someone, you can do that (photos or a document that you both need to make changes to, for instance).

Also comes in handy for college courses I took this fall. Had a presentation to give w/ a partner. She downloaded the DropBox application to her PC, I shared our presentation folder with her, and then we were both able to make changes to it.

The DropBox folder on your computers "live" under My Documents. So you save files to that folder - even though it looks like it's physically in your computer's hard drive, it's really not! I hope that makes sense.

 

[ConnieB]

Considering how low the price is on external hard drives right now, I'd suggest that you get a large external, back up your important "can't lose" files to it.

Many of the online storage places have gone under lately....or they cost money (which after a short time would have paid for the new external). The free ones tend to change their policy after they reel you in and you spend all that time uploading your stuff, only to find they're going to lower your "free" allotment and erase half your stuff. Last and the deal breaker for me....read their fine print...they promise to back stuff up but won't assume any liability should your stuff poof disappear.

At newegg.com you can get a 1T hard drive for around under $100. If you happen to have a Frys Electronics near you, they have 2T for under $100 this week (couldn't find it on their online store, but it's in their ad from yesterday for the retail stores).

 

[worm761]

I am another user of Drop Box. Love it!!!

 

[SweetPeasMom2]

I use box.net for my files that I want to share with my team members. It's about $8/mth.

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

I do not know about music, but I keep all of my pictures backed up on a separate shutterfly account. They have unlimited space and do not require a yearly purchase to keep stuff stored...and it's free!

 

[jsmith]

irreplaceable photos should be printed and stored-ANY method of digital storage can fail and digital data formats change rapidlly rendering older formats irretrivable. For other item Purchase a large external hard drive-Terabyte my books are relatively inexpensive- and store your documents a d music on that. Disconnect it from the computer and power source when it is not in use. Online back up can fail-it is, afterall a computer the same as yours and subject to power surges and failure, hard drive failure and other data loss. Free services come and go-and any company is going to focus on the services that generate its revune stream before its free services-and pay ones can go under as well.

 

[SarahKate]

The fact of the matter is there is NO 100% failproof method of storing files. Other posters are correct that companies do sometimes go under. External drives are not a totally safe bet either. They could fail, just as a hard drive could fail. My hard drive died earlier this year, I have a friend whose drive died, and my next door neighbor's too. Yet another friend had a flash drive that malfunctioned (virus) and all her master's coursework was on it.

With any system like this, it's a good idea to always have your files in more than 1 place. Also, the idea of having ALL digital pictures printed and stored someplace safely is a great idea as well.

I will say that with DropBox, my files ARE on my hard drive. They're in My Documents. So if for some reason they went under, which I don't see happening anytime soon (they're one of the best out there), I still have MY files....they don't just mysteriously disappear. DropBox has no liability for my files, but the same thing can be said for any type of mass storage device.

It would be nice if there was a magic, 100% safe option!!

 

[SandrA9810]

I set up a dropbox account, it's nice for file sharing between computers. But might not be the best idea for your needs.

1TB hard drive is around a 100$, and should give you unlimited space.

Like your iTunes and such. Those are saved within your account, so if something malfunctioned with your computer, you can just redownload everything. It's more time consuming than loosing valuable information.

There are services you can pay for that backs up your hard drive online. I did it once, cost 80$ for the whole year, but it saves the entire hard drive, so it can be restored. And if I set up the account on a second computer, what was saved to the first can be restored on the second computer. It's an easy way for transferring files when you change your computer.