In today’s world of fast and portable mobile devices, which allow us to work away from the office, we can see an increasing risk of losing these expensive devices, and with them, our data. The possibility of losing a mobile device is a reality that all of us must deal with, since these can break and be completely irreparable, or be subject to theft. So what can be done to secure your data and restore to any other device of your choice? The answer is simple, use cloud backups. Dropbox is a well-known free cloud based backup service. But there other free based backup services as well. Microsoft SkyDrive and Google Drive are two cloud based backup services that, when combined, can allow any user to backup as much as twelve gigabytes of data for free. These services from Microsoft and Google allow the user to access his or her files from any web browser and through their apps which can be installed in the most common computer operating systems and mobile devices.
The Microsoft SkyDrive allows users to save up to seven gigabytes for free. With a Hotmail or Microsoft Live account, login at “https://skydrive.live.com” and begin to use
Microsoft free cloud storage. SkyDrive apps can be downloaded and installed for Windows, Mac OS X, Android and Apple iOS devices. After the app is installed, the user chooses the path for the folder where his or her documents will be automatically synchronized with the cloud storage. This allows the user to be worry free as these are continuously synced across all of the user devices where the app has been installed. From a public or office computer, SkyDrive also allows the user to download and upload documents through most web browsers regardless of the operative system.
View of SkyDrive on Windows 7.
View of SkyDrive on a web browser.
If you are looking to back up more than seven Gigabytes but less than twelve for free, you can combine the SkyDrive with Google Drive. To use Google Drive, a Google account is needed. Then you can login to “https://drive.google.com.” to download the windows and Mac OS X apps for your computer. To get the combined twelve gigabytes, it is important to ensure that the SkyDrive folder is no more than seven gigabytes in size, and that Google Drive is no more than five gigabytes in size. This can be considered as a complicated task, but the emphasis is that this is a way to get twelve gigabytes of cloud storage for free. Just like Microsoft SkyDrive, Google Drive has apps for Windows, Mac OS X, Android and Apple iOS devices, as well as the ability to download and upload files trough the web.
View of Google Drive on Windows 7.
View of Google Drive on a web browser.
Since these are cloud based services, you may wish not to backup confidential documents to these services. However, these cloud based services are some of the easiest and free services for users to keep a backup of their files, as well as the ability to access their files from any other device.
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