If you have just the one computer, you have a problem. You have got no easy way of doing backups (except maybe to an external hard drive, USB or other memory stick, or recordable DVD or CD media).
If you have multiple computers, you can solve that problem easily by copying your important files between them, but then a different problem manifests itself. If you work on projects on multiple machines and you “hot desk,” you may not have the files you’re working on on your current computer. Also, you have to make sure that the important files are copied in both places.
There are a couple of solutions to this. If you’re running with a Windows PC, there are two applications that allow you to synchronise the contents of your folders. This means that the two folders will have exactly the same contents. It is handled by performing operations on the remote folder periodically to ensure the same files exist on both sides with the same contents.
For Windows PCs, there are two applications that handle this. SyncToy is free software from Microsoft that can perform this task.
Karen’s Replicator will do the same job, but it also allows you to set up a schedule, and keeps details of its history. It is free for non-commercial purposes; a relatively cheap licence is available if you want to run it in connection with your business; and there exist a number of other programs that come with that licence.
These are fine if you run Windows all the time, but there is a solution that works on other platforms, including Mac and Linux. You can even access your files via an iPhone.
It stores a copy of your files on secured servers on the internet, and then when you make any changes to the folder that you set up to synchronise, those changes will be copied to the server on the internet. They will then propagate to any other machines that you have connected to the service on which you have set up a similar folder.
The service is intelligent enough to know that if your computers are on the same network and powered up and running at the same time, they can talk to each other to synchronise the folders between them, and the transfer does not have to proceed across the internet; this saves time. Of course, the files are still copied to the servers on the internet, regardless.
The transfer over the internet takes some time, depending partly on the speed of your internet connection (BroadBand recommended). This is not good for copying huge quantities of data, unless you’ve got the time to wait for it. For tens of gigabytes of data, it could take days! But for smaller quantities, and especially if you’re working on a project, it’s a good service.
The service is positioned as a backup solution as well. Again, if your backup needs are light, then it’s likely to be good for you. If you have a lot of data that you wish to back up, you’re better off getting a hard drive big enough to handle the data, and using one of the software-only solutions described above.
The service is called DropBox, and at the time of writing it is free for up to 2Gb of data and has subscription options to allow you to use it for up to 100Gb. If you use the link below, you and I will get an extra 250Mb on our accounts for free!
Click here, sign up for DropBox and get an extra 250Mb for free now!
When you’ve done that and got your account, you can get some extra space for free here at the time of writing.
Update 21st June 2011: There are various other services that are similar in nature to Dropbox. They provide online file synchronisation and/or backup services. They don’t usually work in the same way as Dropbox which runs in the background, synchronising the contents of a specific folder, but they may be more useful for backup. These are as follows:
Spideroak provides 2GB space for free, then adds space in units of 100GB for $10/month or $100/year. They store archived versions of files. They save space by deduplicating your data (so if you store the same file twice under separate names, the data is only stored once). They also claim that your files are completely encrypted and that they do not have access to the password for them; this may be necessary if some of your files are protected under confidentiality agreements.
Ubuntu One may be worth checking out if you mainly use Ubuntu or other Linux variants. They provide 2GB for free and you can purchase 20GB units for approx $3/month or $30/year. A Windows client is available as a public beta.
Amazon Cloud Drive gives you 5GB for free. There are several expansion plans that set you back $1/GB, but they also provide you with 20GB for a year from the date of an MP3 album purchase.
Windows Live Skydrive gives you 25GB free, although I’m not sure whether there is a limit of 50MB per uploaded file. It is mainly a web upload service and I don’t think it is restricted to Windows users.
Google Docs allows you to upload files to the account. You get a paltry 1GB of free space for your files, but you do get the option to increase that space for a very reasonable $0.25/GB/year.
Finally, ADrive deserve special mention for providing a huge 50GB package for free. They provide clients for Windows, Mac and Linux through the Adobe Air platform. They have premium plans with extra features running at about $7/month or $70/year per 50GB (note that the first such plan does not provide you with any extra space, but simply more features for your existing space).
