Free Online Storage and Backup

Online data storage and backup is a growing business with people having to backup large volume of data. An average music library can range anywhere from 5GB to 50GB stored away on a local drive. Then there is the photo library, your important documents and the mammoth video library! Running out of space is an easy goal to cross these day. But what if your drive crashes??

I currently have 3 accounts each with a different service provider for varying online storage volumes. All free off course! Before we get into these service, let me give you a quick overview of what I use online storage for.

1- Create a Data back-up (Archive data)
2- Create a Sync folder (Working across multiple systems)
3- Share my music
4- Save my digital Movie purchases

Unfortunately none of the 3 services I'm reviewing today provide for all my requirements. Hence I have 3 accounts.

Now on to each service



Adrive was the first service I registered for. I wanted to provide downloads on my site but I dint want to waste my hosting space.

- Adrive provides 50GB of online storage for free!
- They also have a desktop utility for easy file upload.
- The online interface allows you to create folders and share files on a public folder.

When you share a a file, it serves the file over an exclusive share link. All you need to do is provide this link for anyone to download the file. But the catch is, the HTML the file is served on has Ads.

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Esnips is also another provider that gives 50GB of online space. Most users share music, primarily because esnips has a widget that sources you music files and creates a play list. You can add this esnips widget just about anywhere and add some music to your site. They also have esnips slideshows for images.

- Esnips 50GB free online space
- Esnips provided convenient media tools for your Blog/site.
- You can also archive data in a private folder.
- Share Private folders with a specified mailing list.
- Share individual files or folders(Great for Photo albums and music)
- Adding to slideshows or playlist is easy and you can also collect for other public libraries.

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Dropbox is my personal favorite. Its just the simple easy of data Sync and back-up. I use multiple systems, windows based for work and macs at home. Getting data moved across seamlessly over the net has never been simpler. Dropbox creates a folder in your system called "My Dropbox" Any file you move into the dropbox is synced immediately online. you can create an instance of dropbox on different systems and the data is synced real time. Dropbox is a brilliant tool and is very effective when collaborating. Whats the pain point - they offer only 2GB of free space.Drop box is not good for content serving.

- Offers 2GB online space
- Multiple system data sync
- Great UI and extremely user friendly.
- Offers both public and private folders views.
- Referral program to increase your online storage upto 3GB

Get Dropbox