Does your hard drive run out of capacity? Let
us show you how hundreds of gigabytes, without any cost in some cases.
Modern hard disk drives offer large storages.
Even the cheapest one also owns hundreds of gigabytes while pricier drives have
storage reach hundreds of terabytes. However, similar to the method high-way
traffic always increases the amount of lanes; computer users are finding more
and more ways to find extra storage.
Obviously, you may buy and install (or
attach) new hard drive, which is costly. Through this article, we are going to
prove that you will be reassured to save additional large storage without any
money. Moreover, free online storage services we will introduce may be more
useful than conditional drives. Thus, just keep reading to know different types
of online storage plus how handy they will get and where to find them.
Come to cloud
If you still keep data on USB, you may be
old-fashioned. That the internet appears everywhere means common physical hard
drives are unnecessary for saving and sharing data which can be stored in
cloud.
We have discovered the term “cloud” before,
yet it was more related to that your data was kept in some computer in the
internet, instead of in your own desktop. With fast internet connection, it
appears convenient – and storage space will be easily accessed into by any
connected devices.
Create link
A continuous internet connection means cloud
storage is always available, like hard drive is. Irrelevant to steps of
uploading or attaching files to website and email, cloud storage services consults
software to make it work like hard drives. In some cases, services add
additional icon into Windows Desktop.
Nonetheless, while downloading contents
from cloud storage is fast, uploading may not. Home bandwidth often offers uploading
speed that is much slower than downloading speed – in conclusion, using
internet is most related to downloading processes. Consequently, while typical 8Mbit/s
connection is able to browse 50MB file in 1 minute, it presents 768Kbit/s
uploading speed which is 10 times slower. Some services use trick to accelerate
this and we will show you later.
In general, there are 3 different types of cloud
storage – online storages, synchronization services and back-up tools. As we
will see, some of them may be combined into one but their useful classification
to help us consider which one we prefer.
Online drives
Online drive can be seen and treated as most
PC’s ones though its data is stored online (or in cloud). It is named after a
letter or its files will be viewed through a web browser. In case of the
latter, direct adjustments are impossible because the files need downloading
then uploading again in if they are changed.
For example, Amazon’s Cloud Drive (www.amazon/clouddrive)
provides 5GB free storage for those who have Amazon’s shopping accounts. Cloud
Drive uses drag-and-drop interface based on web to manage files and individual
file size is limited at 2GB but uploaded music can be streamed online and
Amazon now unlimited storage for music with packages requiring fees. A
$20/year/20G account is capable of storage 200GB of MP3 library to stream to
any devices in any places with no charge.
Similarly, Microsoft provides 25GB free
cloud storage via SkyDrive service (explore.live.com/skydrive). It offers free
Windows Live ID only gives access via web, yet it is very easily used to share
files. Besides, Microsoft Office 2010’s apps can be online stored and opened directly
from SkyDrive.
If 2GB is not enough, Adrive (www.adrive.com)
gives 50GB but its web’s interface looks bulky, slow and difficult-to-use.
Amazon’s
S3 system powers most online storage services, including its Cloud Drive
Synchronization services
Synchronization service works by keeping
file on separate drive in PC and concurrently making an online updatable copy. This
means that local version of the file can be processed while online version will
be automatically updated if necessary.
It is inconvenient that synchronization
service is not used to ease the burden of files in hard drive running out of space
but it has two important benefits. Firstly, by copying local files to online
server, synchronization services concurrently works as basic back-up ones. Secondly,
any PC starting synchronizing will automatically download the file’s latest
version modified by any previous PC. Therefore, let’s make a Word document and
wait for it to be finished on the company’s PC.
However, the most intelligent of
synchronization service is the way file is uploaded. Although finished file has
to be uploaded first (at first use, for instance), later changes of local file doesn’t
require another finish copy uploaded. Instead, only changes will be streamed,
making synchronization much faster. Furthermore, synchronization service provides
option to restore early versions of one specific file and reach additional security
level as it kept records of changes made. Thus, regardless of that local file is
overwritten by a new one having the same name, its previous version will be
available online.
Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) sets up standard
for cloud synchronization and above features are all available in its free 2GB
storage which can be gradually increased from 250MB to 10GB by introducing the
service to other people. Dropbox uses a small utility which, when installed, creates
a Dropbox’s folder on PC’s hard drive, everything put in this folder is locally
kept for instant access as well as automatically synchronized with Dropbox’s
server – and with hard drives from any PC registering a Dropbox account. Besides,
Dropbox owns nice web interface to be used on PCs without its utility installed,
plus easy sharing options and even apps for smartphones.
Dropbox can be used to store anything but Box’s
cloud service (www.box.com) is designated for multimedia documents and files. It
gives another way to help group of people co-operate and know who has uploaded
and what has been modified and download once a particular folder is shared with
other users. Box user can preview most of files online via its nice web
interface, thus you don’t need to download anything just to see it. It also
offers a synchronization tool like Dropbox does, yet it comes with 100GB space
and costs $15/month. Free service offers 5GB storage but Box often advertises free
5GB upgrade – so you have to check the website regularly.
Microsoft also offers different cloud synchronization
as Windows Live Mesh (www.mesh.com). Free account provides 5GB storage (taken
from free 25GB space supplied via SkyDrive) to synchronize local files,
following Dropbox’s style. However, settings of Internet Explorer and Office
apps will be synchronized in all PCs, coming handy to share internet bookmarks
and Office templates, for instance. Synchronizing settings is, too, main
feature of Apple’s iCloud (www.icloud.com). It also provides 5GB web storage
for files but it is mostly for sharing data between apps (contact, calendar,
photo, etc…) on iOS devices, with Windows and Mac PCs.
Cloud back-up
Cloud storage is very valuable as it keeps
data in somewhere far away from the source (computer) and thus this is much
safer than a bunch of DVDs placed in the attic. A free synchronization service,
such as Dropbox, may be enough for multi-purpose back-ups. Though, for completed
back-ups, you need a specialized service – but it is unlikely that you will
find a totally free service because the amount of related data is often
considerably high.
Carbonite (www.carbonite.com), for example,
provides unlimited cloud storage to back-up your entire computer and it costs $63/year.
According to hard disk’s size and internet connection, first back-up (full
upload) may take a lot of time but further updates will be faster because
Carbonite will only upload changed files. It is also an install-and-forget
service, since changes are recorded online when they are made instead of following
some schedule. Carbonite won’t back-up operating system’s files but it will do
with others (custom). Thus, Windows need re-installing when a back-up is
restored to a new drive.
Livedrive (www.livedrive.com) gives unlimited
similar service with annual cost of $75 but with option for additional PCs, the
price is just $142.5/month – Carbonite require custom subscription for this
option.
Access to all fields
In this article, we have been proving that online
storage is the simple way to make files available from anywhere with internet
connection and free cloud storage costs you nothing.
However, you need some attempt to get best
free benefits because upgrades often require registrations of friends who you
have introduced the service to – consider it as a commission for increasing the
number of cloud service’s customers. For more detail, look at the below table.
If we have to introduce a cloud storage service,
it will be Dropbox. Its free 2GB space can be extended up to 10GB for people
who you have introduced and it provides a comprehensive system of features that
is user-friendly as well as make safe synchronization and back-up.
Dropbox
is among most popular cloud storage services and it offers free 2GB storage
Free your space
While these free cloud storages appears
useful, don’t forget traditional methods to free your drive’s wasted space. It
is obvious to empty the recycle bin and use Windows Disk Cleanup – just
right-click on one disk in My Computer, choose Properties then click a suitable
button on General tab of the box to start. There’s also “Compress this drive to
free space” on that tab. It may free enough space in case an upgrade for hard
drive is not your choice.
Uninstalling apps is the final resort, try removing
some unwanted features of Windows first – enter Control Panel, Programs then “Turn
Windows features on or off” in Windows Vista and Windows 7; or enter Control
Panel then “Add or Remove Programs” then Add/Remove Windows Components in
Windows XP.
How safe is cloud storage?
Using computer belonging to another person may
look irresponsible since your important data is not kept by your own self, yet
it is much smarter than what you thought.
Companies providing cloud storage keeps not
only a great number of hard disks but also huge servers with enormous and safe
storages. For instance, Amazon running what it thinks as Simple Storage Service
(S3) now stores 499 billion separate objects, each of which has size of up to
5TB.
That is such incredible amount of data but
Amazon’s provision is surprisingly fast and reliable. In fact, the company
promises to work 99.99% of time, which means the service sometimes may be
unavailable within just 1 hour per year.
Honestly, Amazon’s storage is so
trustworthy that it is the basis of hundreds of free and commercial cloud
storage services – including most of service mentioned in this article.
|
Service
|
Free storage available
|
Requirement
|
Website
|
|
Symform
|
200GB
|
Free 10GB
storage extendable up to 200GB by the number of introduced users + P2P storage
|
www.symform.com
|
|
Spideroak
|
52GB
|
Free
25GB cloud back-up + extra 50GB increased via introduced users
|
www.spideroak.com
|
|
Adrive
|
50GB
|
N/A
|
www.adrive.com
|
|
Box
|
50GB
|
50GB
storage available for different smartphone users and from regular ads/ other
option is 5GB
|
www.box.com
|
|
Microsoft
Skydrive
|
25GB
|
25GB cloud
storage including 5GB for synchronization
|
http://skydrive.live.com
|
|
CX
|
16GB
|
Free 10GB
storage + 6GB increased via introduced users
|
http://support.cx.com
|
|
Sugarsync
|
15GB
|
Free 5GB
storage + 10GB increased via introduced users
|
www.sugarsync.com
|
|
Asus
Webstorage
|
12GB
|
Free
2GB storage + 10GB increased via introduced users
|
www.asuswebstorage.com
|
|
4Shared
|
10GB
|
Maximum
size of separate file is 2GB
|
www.4shared.com
|
|
Dropbox
|
10GB
|
Free
2GB storage + 8GB increased via introduced users
|
www.dropbox.com
|
|
Teamdrive
|
10GB
|
Free
2GB storage + 8GB increased via introduced users
|
www.teamdrive.com
|
|
Mimedia
|
7GB
|
N/A
|
www.mimedia.com
|
|
Zumodrive
|
7GB
|
Free
2GB storage + 5GB increased via introduced users
|
www.zumodrive.com
|
|
Amazon
Cloud Drive
|
5GB
|
N/A
|
www.amazon.com/clouddrive
|
|
Driveheadquarters
|
5GB
|
Free
1GB storage + 4GB increased via introduced users
|
www.drivehq.com
|
|
Strato
Hidrive
|
5GB
|
N/A
|
www.free-hidrive.com
|
|
Apple
iCloud
|
5GB
|
N/A
|
www.icloud.com
|
|
iDrive
|
5GB
|
N/A
|
www.idrive.com
|
|
Opendrive
|
5GB
|
N/A
|
www.opendrive.com
|
|
Syncplicity
|
5GB
|
Free
2GB storage + 3GB increased via introduced users
|
http://manual.syncplicity.com
|
|
Ubuntuone
|
5GB
|
N/A
|
http://one.ubuntu.com/services
|
|
Wuala
|
5GB
|
N/A
|
www.wuala.com
|
|
Memopal
|
3GB
|
N/A
|
www.memopal.com
|
|
Dell
DataSafe Online
|
2GB
|
N/A
|
www.delldatasafe.com
|
|
Elephandrive
|
2GB
|
N/A
|
www.elephantdrive.com
|
|
Mozy
|
2GB
|
N/A
|
www.mozy.co.uk
|
