mattclinch Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 Hey all, After my WD myBook 500gig drive randomly expired recently, i've been playing with cloud storage solutions. Initially i was not expecting much, the odd 500 meg here for free, bad implementation etc as i thought it was early days for this kind of thing. Turns out i was very wrong... Been exceptionally impressed with both Dropbox and SugarSync's free accounts. Ended up going with SugarSync because of the Android app support (they also have iPhone and Blackberry apps). I'd definately check them out. Anyone wanting a free 2Gb SugarSync account (+ a shameless free 500meg for you AND me can sign up here - https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=timknr6q8yj8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BVI Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 Hey all, After my WD myBook 500gig drive randomly expired recently, i've been playing with cloud storage solutions. Initially i was not expecting much, the odd 500 meg here for free, bad implementation etc as i thought it was early days for this kind of thing. Turns out i was very wrong... Been exceptionally impressed with both Dropbox and SugarSync's free accounts. Ended up going with SugarSync because of the Android app support (they also have iPhone and Blackberry apps). I'd definately check them out. Anyone wanting a free 2Gb SugarSync account (+ a shameless free 500meg for you AND me can sign up here - https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=timknr6q8yj8 Ive used a few plugins that turn GMAIL into an online storage facility. http://www.getgspace.com/ & http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm are pretty nifty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BVI Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 Just a side note - you can also chain accounts with Gspace - its pretty amazing. I suspect its Firefox only - but very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Buchhofer Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 interesting one, I've been using dropbox since the betas, and its been solid, and their versioning system has actually come in handy a few times too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattclinch Posted August 14, 2009 Author Share Posted August 14, 2009 Just a side note - you can also chain accounts with Gspace - its pretty amazing. I suspect its Firefox only - but very cool. I don't like that - Using your gmail space for FTP usage is not supported by google. "It is not supported by Google at all. When they change the Gmail back end as recently happened it breaks GSpace. And you are stuck until GSpace is updated. The add-on author was quick this time but I was out of luck for a week. Because the add-on is not supported and the author is doing this for donation there is NO guaranty that it will be updated." also 5. My Gmail account was locked for 24 hours. What should I do? A. Wait for 24 hours . This happens if large amounts of data is uploaded or downloaded in a single day. So, try to avoid that. If you are lucky, sometimes even though the account is locked, you can try logging again. It might work. (It worked for me sometimes, I don't know the reason). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKitts Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 i've been debating starting to use one of these services. I saw an ad the other day for one on tv.... just shortly after my external HD with my entire professional life died on me. that one's sitting on a shelf as I'm probably going to end up forking out the excessive fee to get it recovered.... but going forward I'm thinking of doing a cloud backup. I'd also be curious to know how many people are using these services. the ad I saw was for mozy.com. Figure for free 2gb of free stoarage isn't a bad offer, I'd be willing to pay $5 a month for unlimited storage considering I've been dropping $100 every other year on a new external HD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dollus Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 I use dropbox and love it. Since I could be using any of 4 systems at any given time, it's a quick and painless way to make sure I can get to what I need when I need it. Often, I'll drag a few files from work into it and by the time I get home, they are on my desktop and ready to go. hmm..now that I type that out, maybe that's not such a good thing after all.... I don't use cloud storage for anything critical though. No personal info and nothing I can't live without. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainbanks Posted August 15, 2009 Share Posted August 15, 2009 Thanks Matt, or you guys could get and extra 256mb by joining through my link here for dropbox. getdropbox.com/referrals/NTE1Mjc1Mzg5 Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted August 15, 2009 Share Posted August 15, 2009 Guys, what's the difference between a service like Dropbox or Box.net? There are so many of these different services that it gets confusing. For instance, because new stuff keeps becoming available, I now have stuff and Box.net, Flickr, iDisk, etc. What is the most useful and why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattclinch Posted August 15, 2009 Author Share Posted August 15, 2009 Thanks Matt, or you guys could get and extra 256mb by joining through my link here for dropbox. getdropbox.com/referrals/NTE1Mjc1Mzg5 Cheers hahaha. only 256 iain?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandmanNinja Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 I'll be the Negative Nelly and cite some of the things that trouble me with this service. 1) it's not local Which means if your Internet Provider has a tech glitch, you can't get to it. Also means if you are in the middle of nowhere without 'net access, then you can't get to it. 2) Cloud Computing LOTS of tech savvy people are declaring their love of Cloud Computing, but there are also a LOT of reports and white papers on the lack of proper security for Cloud Computing. There isn't a unified security protocol for it yet and it is very easy (if you know what you're doing) for people to go Cloud Browsing and get what they want. 3) Not everyone has ADSL2+ or Cable modems I live in a very rural part of Australia and the ONLY reason I have ADSL is because I'm near the only "highway" that connects Melbourne to the Western-most city in Victoria. I don't think I'll get ADSL2+ for a long time. 4) What happens if my quota gets capped and I want my online data? I can get it, but only at the speed of a modem. 5) HDs aren't really that expensive I just got a SATA cradle for AU$49 and it handles any SATA drive (either smaller laptop models or larger desktop models, thanks to SATA data and power ports being in the same location for both styles). I have several SATA drives on my shelf: Video Tutorials, Work Backup, My Documents It's as easy as grabbing a drive and whacking it into the cradle. Spins up in seconds and the cradle uses USB 2.0 so it's fast, and I can take the cradle to other computers just like an external drive. Unlike external drives, it's very easy to swap drives and add bigger drives as they come out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kippu Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 i agree with joel , harddrives are inexpensive and safer than saving them online Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BVI Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 I don't like that - Using your gmail space for FTP usage is not supported by google. "It is not supported by Google at all. When they change the Gmail back end as recently happened it breaks GSpace. And you are stuck until GSpace is updated. The add-on author was quick this time but I was out of luck for a week. Because the add-on is not supported and the author is doing this for donation there is NO guaranty that it will be updated." also I would not store massive files on thre - but for quick file storage (and I assume most of the online storage is relatively temporary) it seems to work fine. You can also login directly to that gmail account if the plugin doesnt work if you need to access those files - they show up as email. But you are correct, I wouldnt put mission critical stuff up there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic H Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 im terrified of my external drives dieing. looking into these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandmanNinja Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 USB 3.0 standard has been finalised and PCs will start shipping with them standard in early 2010. MANY times faster than USB 2.0 Another Negative Nelly point: What if the Cloud Computing/online storage solution provider goes belly up? I am dubious of anything 'free' as they need something to prop up their infrastructure. Will they run blind searches through your data and pop up ads based on the content? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
illegalalieninbeijing Posted August 17, 2009 Share Posted August 17, 2009 Hey all, After my WD myBook 500gig drive randomly expired recently, i've been playing with cloud storage solutions. Initially i was not expecting much, the odd 500 meg here for free, bad implementation etc as i thought it was early days for this kind of thing. Turns out i was very wrong... Been exceptionally impressed with both Dropbox and SugarSync's free accounts. Ended up going with SugarSync because of the Android app support (they also have iPhone and Blackberry apps). I'd definately check them out. Anyone wanting a free 2Gb SugarSync account (+ a shameless free 500meg for you AND me can sign up here - https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=timknr6q8yj8 Hi. Sorry for going a little bit out of topic but I was just wondering how long did you have your WD MyBook 500G before it showed signs of deterioration? How did it die? Did you drop it or just simply a wear and tear sort of thing? I am actually planning to that sometime this week. But I guess you're not going to recommend it since it died on you. Thanks a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattclinch Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 Hi. Sorry for going a little bit out of topic but I was just wondering how long did you have your WD MyBook 500G before it showed signs of deterioration? How did it die? Did you drop it or just simply a wear and tear sort of thing? I am actually planning to that sometime this week. But I guess you're not going to recommend it since it died on you. Thanks a lot. I've had two, a 250 and a 500. myBook Premium Editions. Both died of wear after a year to a year and a half. Not impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonHo Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 im using dropbox - so far so good. but as mentioned, i do not trust to put sensitive data there. for the hd, i was very disappointed with wd mybook's - but very impressed with the iomega drives. i've 2 of them here, both mirrored internally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
illegalalieninbeijing Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 I've had two, a 250 and a 500. myBook Premium Editions. Both died of wear after a year to a year and a half. Not impressed. mattclinch, That was very unfortunate. That will deter me from getting that WD 500GB portable. I guess I'll go with my second choice then - a bit expensive but good reviews. I just need to consolidate all my stuff in one drive + additional space rather than lugging my 5 year old Hitachi 2.5" 80 GB and 2 year old Maxtor One Touch III Mini 160 GB at the same time. Thank you for the heads up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Buckley Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 hope you enjoy your extra free 500mb Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danb4026 Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 I cannot seem to get my 3 machines to successfully DR while using Dropbox as the common file holder. Is there a reason that Dropbox would not be able to be the common folder for maps, materials, etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Twyman Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Thanks for the link, just signed up too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SandmanNinja Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Are you using a remote drive on the internet as the material and textures folder during your renders? Sorry, just making sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Maybe I'm old fashioned but I prefer to build my own reliance and redundancy than assume some other firm is doing the job. That's a big assumption considering its my data. I use leapfile for file transfer, which effortlessly lets me send 100's of MB in emails to anyone. But I like the idea of having control over backups, how they stored and the security of knowing it's all close by. I know it isnt cheap but a good raid system has always done me well and keep me at peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now