Tuesday 17 April 2012

Online File Storage

I was wondering recently about online storage and if it has a place in my work with writing. I wondered how many people use it, and if they do, what their thoughts were on it.

In an age when we often possess more than one computer in the home and have the ability to take one with us t on, online storage seems a perfect solution.

One such storage company I have heard about is Dropbox. It says what it does on the tin. You drag and drop your documents/photographs into the box/file and can open it anywhere you so choose, through dropbox.



The good points? You can save your work where-ever you are and when-ever you want. A certain amount of space is free. If your computer goes bang, the file is safe.

The downside? I've read amongst their terms and conditions, that everything placed within drop box is the property of dropbox. Now I'm not sure how that works for writers, or anyone else for that matter. I have a feeling that it is just a legal phrase that isn't enforced or actioned in anyway. It does make me a little nervous though.

I have only used dropbox as an example because it's the one I've heard people say good things about. There are many similar facilities out there. Do you use such a facility and what are your thoughts, good or bad on it? The way forward or a fragile piece of nothingness?

13 comments:

  1. Sheesh, I didn't realise that anything in the boxes became their property! I will be careful what I use it for! Even if it is just a legal phrase, it's a scary one lol.

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    1. Our document support in an document containers implies more than just interface implementations: it also requires knowledge of using the interfaces of a containers object. The same applies to active document extensions, where the containers must also know how to use those extension interfaces on the active documents themselves in the containers.

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  2. I've never heard of Dropbox or any online storage. I'm a bit of a numpty as far as computers are concerned and rely on my children to sort me out. But it sounds a great idea and I'm quite interested now. But I would want to find out more about the legal side of it.

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  3. I know backing up, storing things safely away from the home etc is important. I often worry about what would happen if I lost my laptop - and then I backup on an external harddrive. But I don't do it often, and if there was a fire I'd lose EVERYTHING. Maybe I shuld get myself a lot more organised... but maybe not Dropbox - I want to own my writing!

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  4. I have external hard drives, USBs and Digital Vault. My work is saved automatically to Digital Vault but I've only once attempted to 'enter the vault.' I should check it out regularly, really . . . *sigh*

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  5. I want to get an external hard drive, but mostly I use those handy little memory sticks.

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  6. We just back everything up on an external hard drive. I do like the idea of an online storage facility, but I don't like the idea of the company owning everything stored there. That would keep me away.

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  7. You retain full ownership of all your stuff. I use it all the time as they have a restore facility too, so if you get a corrupt file or delete something by mistake you can go back to a previous copy. USB pens are not 100% reliable, another tip, don't keep saving the same document, do a save as now and again.

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  8. I have a dropbox account, but I haven't used it yet for my own files. I have read files that way, though.

    I have a flash drive that also comes with 8 GB of online storage. I can't remember the name of the site, but I do sometimes use it as back-up storage.

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  9. I hadn't heard of Dropbox, but the issue about the company owning everything definitely turns me off. I've been wanting to look into options for this though, as I always worry I don't have everything backed up enough.

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  10. I've never heard of Dropbox, but it sounds very interesting! Cool post.:)

    mistoftheblossomrain.blogspot.com

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  11. Thanks for sharing such valuable information about Online file storage services..many thanks

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