Dropbox - Online backup, file sync and sharing

[Drarok]

Dropbox is awesome!

For those of you not in the know, it's a way to automatically sync a folder on your computer up to the Internet. You can then access those files from anywhere you can get online, or run the Dropbox program on any of your computers/smartphone/whatever for access to those files. It appears like a regular folder on a computer so you can just save files like you normally would and they'll be backed up online. You can even roll back to a previous version if you accidentally break anything!

I've set all my really important files (photos, software licences, certain music ) to go into it so now I have an off-site backup so I don't lose any of my most treasured stuff should my computer explode or get nicked. Some folks don't tend to back up – we were talking about it at work today, a girl in the office has loads of photos of her kids and all sorts of memories stored on her computer and nowhere else!

You can also share stuff with other users so they can edit it, or have a public folder for pictures you want to let people see (have you ever tried to share a picture on a forum that doesn't allow uploads? Nightmare!)

I've been using it for some time now, but recently I've found more and more reasons to use it and now want more space.
Sign up at this URL and we both get extra space as a kickback.

Sorry if this seems like an advert, I'm just really impressed with the service. Especially as it's free!
I'm sure the mods will delete this if it's not appropriate. Even if you don't sign up, at least think about your data. What would you do if your computer was stolen or broke?

[Pedro]

I see no need to cry "Spam" at this.
Useful info.

[Gman]

I'll check it out - I tried MozyPro but found the upload process to be painfully slow. It reckoned it was going to take a month running the PC all night to upload my important stuff!

[Claudio]

Well, I'd used DropBox while ago, and I've to tell you, is wonderfull!! Because you can share any folder in any PC that you have without to upload to any website. You just put your files inside the folders, the soft start the upload process and Voila!! is synced with your other files.
In more than one ocassion, Dropbox save my life  :lol: Here is the LINK if you want to open an account  

[namister]

Been using a good while now and couldnt live with out it.

[Mouse]

Sounds like a useful thing, and this thread has reminded me that I really should back up and organise my files some time soon. I'd be heartbroken if any of my music projects and photos were to vanish overnight.  :shock:

[Drarok]

Yeah, getting backups off-site is very important and something most people don't consider. I've got about 30GB or so of music projects last I looked, they're on an external drive as well as the internal one, but should someone steal both I'm screwed. I might copy it all up onto my server via the external drive then just send changes nightly... Hmm... :mrgreen:

[RacingHippo]

Do it now, Mouse!
Procrastinate ye not!

In 90% of cases, the computer crashed / got TWOCked / spontaneously combusted / was eaten by zombie chickens just the very day before reliable off-site backup was to be done

[MrBabou]

Yeah but... Is it free? and does it work on a Mac?

[Claudio]

Yeah but... Is it free? and does it work on a Mac?

Yes Mr, it's FREE and works in Mac, Linux and Windows. Take a tour HERE

[MrBabou]

Yeah but... Is it free? and does it work on a Mac?

Yes Mr, it's FREE and works in Mac, Linux and Windows. Take a tour HERE

Awesome! I'll check it out when I get back home. I have my own backup solution on a NAS (a.k.a. Network Accessible Storage, not "an ass"... hehe), but I do need an online storage solution for additional safety. If I would get robbed, or if my house would burn down, for example, I would have our precious pictures and family videos elsewhere, safe.

[MrBabou]

Oups, I take the "awesome" back... Essentially, or should I say realistically, the free version is not for backup purposes, it's more useful to share some files. If you want to debate that, ask yourself who in today's computer world only needs 2Gb of storage for backups? That's about 600 pictures. Well OK, if you've just started to take digital pictures, that's fine. But you will soon find that 2Gb is not enough...

But also, keeping in that "realistic" frame of mind, I would not expect a true backup service to be free of charge. But I think a less costly solution is to get an external drive, make your backup on it (I calculated I need about 80Gb for pictures), and keep it somewhere else (at work, at a sibling's, a p.o. box if you already have one, etc).

[MikeEvs]

I shoot regularly on a 32gb card and fill it I have 4TB worth of storage here and will be doubling that soon, all my photos are backed up on external drives which are kept locked in a fireproof safe at another location

[Drarok]

I don't think it's really for the professional type, but then they're the type that should already have proper backups.