Lots of FREE online storage

ToadVine

I'm not sure if this strictly qualifies as a "bargain alert" ... I'm posting here as it involves lots of free cloud storage. It comes from a lifehacker article here.

The idea is to use lots of free online backup services to create a really cool (and free) way to backup all your data. The concept is pretty simple: sign up for as many free cloud storage accounts as you need and utilize each one to back up different kinds of files. For example,

• Dropbox offers you 2GB of free storage that you can expand to a full 16GB by referring others to the service. Because Dropbox also syncs files to your other computers and makes your files easily accessible on your mobile devices, it's a good candidate for your primary work files.
• SugarSync offers 5GB of free storage and syncs files just like Dropbox. While I prefer Dropbox, SugarSync has a bunch of features Dropbox does not at it's especially good at handling media files or any files on your hard drive (while Dropbox only really syncs files inside your Dropbox, unless you circumvent that limitation). SugarSync is a good option for syncing important files that you keep outside Dropbox, but I think is especially good for your photos. While Dropbox has photo viewing options, it's not quite as robust as SugarSync. If you have photos you want backed up and can keep them under 5GB, SugarSync will handle them very well for free.
• Amazon CloudDrive gives you 5GB for free, or 20GB if you also purchase an album (the 20gb may not be available in ROI ... see posts below). It's a great option for storing your music because of Amazon Cloud Player, which lets you access your music (assuming it is DRM-free) from anywhere. Also, if you buy music directly from Amazon it doesn't count against your storage.
• Windows Live SkyDrive isn't great for backup purposes, as all files need to be under 50MB, but you do get 25GB of storage for free and that makes it great for archiving documents. You'll have plenty of room and can use Windows Live Mesh for backup and synchronization purposes if you're on a Windows computer. Mac users will have to backup manually through the site, but that's a small price to pay for 25GB of storage.
• MemoPal offers 3GB of free cloud storage and gives you more space through referrals in the same manner as Dropbox. It's capable of automatic backup and runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
• ADrive offers 50GB of storage for free. You won't get any sync or auto-backup options, so it'll make for a better file archive than anything, but it's still 50GB of free online storage.
• IDrive offers 5GB of free storage and automatic backup for Windows and Mac. It also has smartphone apps so you can access your files remotely.
• mspot are giving away a free 5 gbs at the moment too. The specialise in music storage and have a free music player & streaming service so you can stream your music to iphone/ipod/ipad or android device via wifi or 3g.

There is the ability to create a virtual F: drive on a PC which links to my cloud storage with GLADINET

Might be useful for someone


/edit 1/ ... I'll add to this post as people suggest other free online storage options. Please feel free to suggest other innovative ways of using this free storage or useful utilities like GLADINET.




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Wolverine359

Thanks for compiling this list of free storage sources, will have to check out a few of them.

_Whimsical_

mspot are giving away a free 5 gbs at the moment too. The specialise in music storage and have a free music player & streaming service so you can stream your music to iphone/ipod/ipad or android device via wifi or 3g.

I've found it great so far.

Soarer

Top work op.

JimsAlterEgo

ToadVine wrote: »

I
[*]20GB if you also purchase an album[/URL] (which you can find on Amazon for as low as 89 cents). It's a great option for storing your music because of Amazon Cloud Player, which lets you access your music (assuming it is DRM-free) from anywhere. Also, if you buy music directly from Amazon it doesn't count against your storage.

Might be useful for someone [/QUOTE]
only the 5GB is available to us on Amazon

Only residents of the United States with a United States billing address are eligible for this offer.

masterK

With any of these is there any ability to create a virtual let's say F: drive on my PC which links to my cloud storage?

wildefalcon

Perhaps an opportunity for someone?

Here's an idea. If some clever soul could make a front end that would aggregate all these services, and "handle" the back up of files from a PC/Mac.

It could be advertizing supported, and the suppliers would agree because the portal would generate more business.

Just an idea.

BionicRasher

As pointed out in the original post on the Lifehacker site - it comes with this warning

The downside to using a bunch of services is, obviously, that your storage is fragmented

Is it really worth the hassle of logging in to a bunch of services - getting all your stuff all over the place and then in a few months saying to yourself

'now where the heck am I backing up my holiday snaps to again??'

I also see it as a major downside that some of these services dont have a sync tool available so a lot of this is going to be a manual drag and drop each time you do a backup - big time consumer

Its a good idea and its free but if you want a bargain then I suggest sticking to 1 service like Google Docs where you get a nice 20GB for $5 and 80GB for $20. Thats about 25 cent (USD) per GB. You also get a sync tool that will set up a G Drive for you on your PC and its just as straight forward as putting anything you want to backup in to the folder and volia - its backed up

degsie

masterK wrote: »

With any of these is there any ability to create a virtual let's say F: drive on my PC which links to my cloud storage?

Try GLADINET

howamidifferent

JimsAlterEgo wrote: »

Might be useful for someone

only the 5GB is available to us on Amazon

Only residents of the United States with a United States billing address are eligible for this offer.[/QUOTE]

Not true. I have an amazon.com account, also amazon.co.uk and amazon.de and I was able to sign up for the 5GB ( not that I'll use it ) . My only address links all 3 accounts and its Irish.

dastardly00

Great work OP

ADrive offers 50GB free, when the majority of others only offer 2-5GB free.
Is there any catch??

quilmore

great post

ToadVine wrote: »

[*]Windows Live SkyDrive isn't great for backup purposes, as all files need to be under 50MB, but you do get 25GB of storage for free and that makes it great for archiving documents. You'll have plenty of room and can use Windows Live Mesh for backup and synchronization purposes if you're on a Windows computer. Mac users will have to backup manually through the site, but that's a small price to pay for 25GB of storage.

would you know why I'm getting 5gb on mesh?

Dymo

dastardly00 wrote: »

Great work OP

ADrive offers 50GB free, when the majority of others only offer 2-5GB free.
Is there any catch??

Apart from their website being a bit crappy, it seems legit, here's a review from cnet and reviews from people. The only thing is if you need to get the 50GB, its going to take a long time to recover it.

masterK

degsie wrote: »

Try GLADINET

Just what I was looking for, thanks.

unkel

degsie wrote: »

Try GLADINET

That's class, thanks!

ToadVine

wildefalcon wrote: »

Perhaps an opportunity for someone?

Here's an idea. If some clever soul could make a front end that would aggregate all these services, and "handle" the back up of files from a PC/Mac.

It could be advertizing supported, and the suppliers would agree because the portal would generate more business.

Just an idea.

That is a brilliant idea. If only I had the time ...

scorn

What happens if one of these cloud storage companies goes under? Will you lose all your backed up data?

These days you can get a 1TB HDD for around €50...

BionicRasher

scorn wrote: »

What happens if one of these cloud storage companies goes under? Will you lose all your backed up data?

These days you can get a 1TB HDD for around €50...

Would completely agree - choose someone that you think will be around forever (Amazon, Windows Skydrive, Dropbox {maybe}) but all these are limited in what they can do in upload limits and storage space limits etc. A 2TB HDD is now also only about €99.

Theses services are great if you have the time, patience and are very organised to have all this stuff running on your PC and all your account details to hand (how much stuff have you signed up to over the years to find you use it once and then forget about it)
If you look at the original article in Lifehacker you will see little caveats on each service and the overall process of having multiple on-line storage accounts has its downsides too.
And all your stuff needs to be nicely organised - if not, like me, I still always find it easier go back to Google storage and do a double backup to my external HDD

Sorry OP for going back to a paid version of storage instead of talking about the FREE stuff

Fingleberries

quilmore wrote: »

great post



would you know why I'm getting 5gb on mesh?

Windows Live Mesh doesn't sync to Windows Live SkyDrive, it syncs to a separate 5GB storage location - which means either an extra 5GB for storage, or another place to have to save files (depending on how you look at it).

I'd say Mesh and SkyDrive will be unified in a future release - it was likely that they couldn't do much with these releases because a lot of work was going on in the background with Office 2010 and SkyDrive / Office Live that didn't really play well with Live Mesh. But they should have that sorted in the next release (hopefully).

ToadVine

scorn wrote: »

What happens if one of these cloud storage companies goes under? Will you lose all your backed up data?

tui0hcg wrote: »

Sorry OP for going back to a paid version of storage instead of talking about the FREE stuff

I totally agree with you guys ... the cloud is messy, takes effort and is not 100% guaranteed. However, it is the way things are going, and I personally find having data in the cloud is really useful. Also, the choice between an external HDD and the cloud is not a mutually exclusive one ... both should form part of any good data backup strategy.

Anyway, my point in creating this thread was to highlight what is free out there in terms of online storage. Many, many people will find this useful, and that is the point of bargain alerts after all :D:D




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bk

Remember an external HDD isn't a perfect solution for backups either.

What if both your PC and external HDD are at home and you are burgled and both are stolen or if you have a fire/flood at home and lose both.

You could keep the external HDD (encrypted) at work or a family / friends house, but then you have to bring it home every so often and remember to backup. But then what happens if your PC dies between backups?

Personally I've a large NAS (network attached storage) device that I use at home with time machine backups. Once a month or so I backup to an external HDD that I keep in the office and I use dropbox and sugarsync to constantly backup my most important data.

BTW If you use referral links when signing up to dropbox, you will get an extra 250MB of storage and 500MB with sugarsync. If you use my referral links when signing up we both get the same extra storage space:

Dropbox
SugarSync

wingnut

Google has fantastic pricing for storage, but no dropbox like virtual drive functionality ;(

68 lost souls

bk wrote: »

Remember an external HDD isn't a perfect solution for backups either.

What if both your PC and external HDD are at home and you are burgled and both are stolen or if you have a fire/flood at home and lose both.

You could keep the external HDD (encrypted) at work or a family / friends house, but then you have to bring it home every so often and remember to backup. But then what happens if your PC dies between backups?

Personally I've a large NAS (network attached storage) device that I use at home with time machine backups. Once a month or so I backup to an external HDD that I keep in the office and I use dropbox and sugarsync to constantly backup my most important data.

BTW If you use referral links when signing up to dropbox, you will get an extra 250MB of storage and 500MB with sugarsync. If you use my referral links when signing up we both get the same extra storage space:

Dropbox
SugarSync

Pretty much what I was going to say. I have back up of backups and its always a good idea. Once every year or so as well I have started making DVD copies of backups, this is a crazy process for a lot of information though a Blue Ray backup would be easier.

wil

scorn wrote: »

What happens if one of these cloud storage companies goes under? Will you lose all your backed up data?
...

I would imagine so. You dont even necessarily know where these companies are or what legal jurisdiction they are in.

Another important question is security. How secure is your stored information from both external hackers and internally within the storage company? Do they have access to it. Is the storage farmed out to independent storage companies or sitting unencryted on a server in a Kolkata call centre.

There is only one ISO accredited online storage company in Ireland that I am aware of. I dont know which if any of these have any certification.

Johnny_Fontane

I'm looking to back up a server (SBS). We dont mind paying as a business as long as its not too expensive.

any recommendations for server backups. It would need to automatically happen on a nightly basis. We have a tape drive that we back up regularly aswell, but it would be good to move away from that.

Groinshot

Johnny_Fontane wrote: »

I'm looking to back up a server (SBS). We dont mind paying as a business as long as its not too expensive.

any recommendations for server backups. It would need to automatically happen on a nightly basis. We have a tape drive that we back up regularly aswell, but it would be good to move away from that.

As I said in my pm, try right-click.ie

BionicRasher

wingnut wrote: »

Google has fantastic pricing for storage, but no dropbox like virtual drive functionality ;(

You can use SyncDocs - watch the video its pretty cool, even will do document version control in word docs

if you really need a Drive letter for the folder then you can use the dos command “subst” or The free windows program Visual Subst which will map a local folder as a G Drive

wil

Johnny_Fontane wrote: »

I'm looking to back up a server (SBS). We dont mind paying as a business as long as its not too expensive.

any recommendations for server backups. It would need to automatically happen on a nightly basis. We have a tape drive that we back up regularly aswell, but it would be good to move away from that.

right-click.ie ???? that is just a repair & supplies shop.

keepitsafe.ie are the only ISO accredited online backup company in Ireland afaik. They back up your data rather than whole servers so up to the date data recovery rather than disaster recovery
They dont tend to deal direct but through support companies but they can advise you accordingly and run a server audit for you.
Use j-disk or Treesize yourself to get an idea of how much changing data you have.

For disaster recovery purposes you might look at some drive imaging programs to NAS to usb storage as the online equivalent gets expensive.

Johnny_Fontane

we got quote by keepitsafe.ie and its about €450 per year - which I thought was alot. The tapes work fine, but surely there is a way to float the data onto the cloud for alot less?

What we're trying to backup is an sql server drive with about 5gigs of data on it.

bk

Johnny_Fontane wrote: »

we got quote by keepitsafe.ie and its about €450 per year - which I thought was alot. The tapes work fine, but surely there is a way to float the data onto the cloud for alot less?

What we're trying to backup is an sql server drive with about 5gigs of data on it.

You could use Amazon's S3 cloud service set to the European region, which is based in their data center here in Ireland.

Advantage is that it is cheap, and if you use the european region, then it is safe harbour compliant, fast because it is based in Ireland and has Amazon service level agreements for availability and redundancy:

http://aws.amazon.com/s3/

Cost is $0.14 per GB per month, so 5GB is about $0.70 per month.
There is also an upload charge of $.10 per GB, so uploading 5GB every day would cost $0.50 per day or $15 per month.

So less then $200 per month. You could also keep multiple days of backups if you like, each additional day would only cost an extra $0.70 per month (there would be no additional upload charge, as it would have already been uploaded).

Personally I'd do a MySQL Export daily (MySQL has different tools/options depending on your needs) to a file once a day, then encrypt that file using TrueCrypt and copy the encrypted backup to Amazon S3.

Don't forget to regularly test your backups, download, decrypt and import into a test DB.

If people like my advice, you can use my dropbox and sugarsync referral links here :

Dropbox
SugarSync

Groinshot

wil wrote: »

right-click.ie ???? that is just a repair & supplies shop.

Nope, they're not. Send them an email and they'll quote you.

chin_grin

Hey just got this in my news feed. AVG are doing their own cloud storage. There's an unlimited trial (space-wise) for 30 days when you sign up. I think the free version is 5GB.

http://www.avg.com/ie-en/avg-livekive

EDIT: Yeah free 5GB. http://product-team.blog.avg.com/2011/04/avg-launches-livekive.html

Esel

Johnny_Fontane wrote: »

we got quote by keepitsafe.ie and its about €450 per year - which I thought was a lot.

So, €9 a week?

That's mad, Ted! Sure, who's mission-critical data would be worth that much?

Capt'n Midnight

scorn wrote: »

What happens if one of these cloud storage companies goes under? Will you lose all your backed up data?

These days you can get a 1TB HDD for around €50...

Backup is a belts and braces. You should use both. It's unlikely for all the clouds to go under at the same time, (unless a new law is passed) or you don't have internet access to them (like cables being cut or governments forcing ISP's to block routes or the whole net neutrality issue)

The cloud is handy but unless you are paying money I wouldn't rely on it too much, and even paying money I wouldn't rely on it totally.

BionicRasher

here is another for the list

Found another nice little freebee called Minus – 10GB to start and a free 1GB up to 50GB per referral (P.S My Referral link is in my sig – please use it and pass it on)
Oh and both parties seem to get the extra 1GB per referral so that's pretty cool

It has an app for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu and also nice Android, iOS and WP7 apps too
There is also Chrome and Firefox add ins
Seems to be great for sharing stuff and is working very nicely for me at the moment for all my photos (doing a backup from PC at the moment)

CiaranC

https://one.ubuntu.com/

Also deja dup on ubuntu will aggregate services and allow you to backup to multiple cloud storage sites, whoever was wondering above.

johnp

http://www.petandrive.com/

It gives you a terabyte for free. You get 2GB per day.
There's an addon that you can add a drive to your windows explorer.

loyatemu

johnp wrote: »

http://www.petandrive.com/

It gives you a terabyte for free. You get 2GB per day.
There's an addon that you can add a drive to your windows explorer.

it gives you a petabyte for free supposedly (ie 1000TB) - I guess they're assuming that nobody can actually upload that much data. Interesting, but no Mac client as yet .

johnp

loyatemu wrote: »

it gives you a petabyte for free supposedly (ie 1000TB) - I guess they're assuming that nobody can actually upload that much data. Interesting, but no Mac client as yet .

Oops, you are correct, a petabyte. I guess the clue is in the name :doh:
Yeah, that was my thought too, a petabyte is far more than anyone can use. For most I guess it's "unlimited" space.
Anyhow, works for me. It's not the nicest UI, but hey, you're getting a whole load of free storage!

ripcord

I find it odd that people are discussing all of these new online-storage sites.

This is just my opinion, but if you have something that you need to backup online, then it's important enough to use the best protection for it. Surely then, the only companies you should be looking at are Microsoft, Google, Apple and (to a lesser extent) Amazon.

These are billion-dollar companies, with the best protection and reliability for your data - why would you use anyone else? Again, this is just my own opinion, but I wouldn't put my important files anywhere near "Adrive" or "Box.net".

I prefer Windows Skydrive. 25Gb free and can download entire folders. I keep meaning to try Gladinet to work with it.

When Windows 8 gets established, most people will have it in their office and home pcs. It will be so integrated with skydrive, that people will automatically start using it. Just drop a work file into a folder in windows explorer - and it is there when you get home! No other software required!

Whitehawk

thanks for all this info all!

zom

Which of FREE cloud you could recommend for storing big files? I tried Skydrive but it's limited to 100MB and some of my stuff, especially Photoshop files are often bigger (even after zippping).
I experienced that Skydrive upload speed is quite low, are the other faster?

bnt

Old question, I know - but cx.com apparently allows large files. They used to have a limit, but they removed it, and this discussion includes a report of someone uploading a 500MB file.

I posted something about this on the UCD forum, but it occurs to me that it could use a wider audience. I'm currently testing a free service called Otixo that aggregates multiple cloud storage services under one WebDAV link. So far I'm using it to access 9 separate services, including 2 Google Drive accounts (the UCD-provided account and my own), UCD Connect Files, Microsoft SkyDrive, Dropbox, box.net, and others. (It will be 11 when they add support for cx.com and Ubuntu One as promised. I have no idea how I got so many accounts.)

Each service appears as a folder under a single WebDAV link, and I can also move data between them via the website. Since they don't provide storage themselves, there's no space limit, but they do have a bandwidth limit staring at 2GB/month. A referral is not required, but using one gets us both an extra 100MB/month - PM me your email address if you want a referral. With regards to security / privacy: I don't put any genuinely personal data on "the cloud", nor do I do piracy - at the moment, for me, this is a solution in search of a problem. But it's fun to see all this stuff working and coming together like this.

sabahm

ToadVine wrote: »

I'm not sure if this strictly qualifies as a "bargain alert" ... I'm posting here as it involves lots of free cloud storage. It comes from a lifehacker article here.

The idea is to use lots of free online backup services to create a really cool (and free) way to backup all your data. The concept is pretty simple: sign up for as many free cloud storage accounts as you need and utilize each one to back up different kinds of files. For example,

• Dropbox offers you 2GB of free storage that you can expand to a full 16GB by referring others to the service. Because Dropbox also syncs files to your other computers and makes your files easily accessible on your mobile devices, it's a good candidate for your primary work files.
• SugarSync offers 5GB of free storage and syncs files just like Dropbox. While I prefer Dropbox, SugarSync has a bunch of features Dropbox does not at it's especially good at handling media files or any files on your hard drive (while Dropbox only really syncs files inside your Dropbox, unless you circumvent that limitation). SugarSync is a good option for syncing important files that you keep outside Dropbox, but I think is especially good for your photos. While Dropbox has photo viewing options, it's not quite as robust as SugarSync. If you have photos you want backed up and can keep them under 5GB, SugarSync will handle them very well for free.
• Amazon CloudDrive gives you 5GB for free, or 20GB if you also purchase an album (the 20gb may not be available in ROI ... see posts below). It's a great option for storing your music because of Amazon Cloud Player, which lets you access your music (assuming it is DRM-free) from anywhere. Also, if you buy music directly from Amazon it doesn't count against your storage.
• Windows Live SkyDrive isn't great for backup purposes, as all files need to be under 50MB, but you do get 25GB of storage for free and that makes it great for archiving documents. You'll have plenty of room and can use Windows Live Mesh for backup and synchronization purposes if you're on a Windows computer. Mac users will have to backup manually through the site, but that's a small price to pay for 25GB of storage.
• MemoPal offers 3GB of free cloud storage and gives you more space through referrals in the same manner as Dropbox. It's capable of automatic backup and runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
• ADrive offers 50GB of storage for free. You won't get any sync or auto-backup options, so it'll make for a better file archive than anything, but it's still 50GB of free online storage.
• IDrive offers 5GB of free storage and automatic backup for Windows and Mac. It also has smartphone apps so you can access your files remotely.
• mspot are giving away a free 5 gbs at the moment too. The specialise in music storage and have a free music player & streaming service so you can stream your music to iphone/ipod/ipad or android device via wifi or 3g.

There is the ability to create a virtual F: drive on a PC which links to my cloud storage with GLADINET

Might be useful for someone


/edit 1/ ... I'll add to this post as people suggest other free online storage options. Please feel free to suggest other innovative ways of using this free storage or useful utilities like GLADINET.




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Thank you very much for compiling the list along with brief overview.In addition to the aforementioned list, there are dozens more with ample amount of free storage space.One of the name that recently becomes viral on the web (MediaFire) with 50GB storage space. Its really cool, i believe! I am looking to share a colossal free cloud storage inventory for all the community members. Lets hope i can do that at my earliest!