Levi Bloom asked:




Prices for data storage and recovery can be outrageous!

If you have ever lost any important data and paid an expert to try to recover it, you know what I mean. The thing is, the online data storage solutions can get pretty pricey. And backing up to CDs all the time is a pain in the neck.

What to do?

Well, earlier today, I made a discovery. It seems that quite a few free backup services have come about in the past year or so. I found one and thought it was cool, but then I looked around and found about 50 more!

I must admit I was getting pretty excited. None of these services were even offered a few years ago. It must be the decline in file storage hardware prices and the site owners’ hopes of high advertising revenues.

But as I browsed the numerous sites, my excitement began to wane. Most sites offered up to 100 MB of storage, which is really not that much space. There were also limits on how much you could download during a given month.

Instead of providing a list of all these providers, I am going to mention the ones that stood out from the rest. After a quick glance at each site, it was a simple process to narrow down the results.
Here are the ones that caught my attention:

FlipDrive (http://www.flipdrive.com)

This website looked nice, but after a quick look, it turned out that there was just a free trial offer. I quickly moved on!

Box.net (http://www.box.net)

This site does provide free storage, but it only goes up to 1 GB. More than that and you will need to signup for a paid option. Still, it could work for you just fine.

StreamLoad (http://www.streamload.com)

Offering up to 25 GB of free storage, this is the obvious winner. The interface looks pretty good and their terms seem reasonable. If you need more storage, the rest of their pricing plans look somewhat reasonable too.

So in the end, the dream of free file storage is not as bright as it seemed at first. If you only have a few important files, these services are great. But if you are a serious computer user, you might want to shell out the cash for a better solution.

One thing that worries me is that these sites will not make money by giving away free storage. That turns into a problem when they shut down and take your data with them!

Not to worry though, because there are reputable backup services available for as little as $5 per month.