The Hindu Business Line : Share data

With communication technologies evolving by the day, we are dealing with more data processing. You may want to store some of your data — such as documents, videos, pictures, and business projects — and share it with others when you want to. But not only do these files take over your hard drive but they also have you looking for alternative back-up devices such as CDs, pen-drives and floppies.

Is there any way I can have back-ups of my precious work – without the hassle? Turn to the World Wide Web. Try the following online storage providers to keep a back-up of your files:

www.mediamax.com is powered by Streamload. Here you can upload, store and share files including videos, photos, music and work-related documents. You need to sign-up to avail of these services. It provides 25 GB of free online storage. According to the Web site, files stored online in the MediaMax account are automatically backed up and accessible from the Internet. Once you get an account, you can also send large files online.

www.xdrive.com offers 5 GB of free secure online storage on the Net. Xdrive is about the easiest way to share files and folders on the Web.

You can also publish folders stored on your Xdrive to the Web. It has registration formalities. According to the Web site, it is compatible with all operating systems and browsers such as Windows® NT4/2000/XP/Vista, Microsoft® Internet Explorer version 6.0 and above, Netscape Navigator 7.0, AOL version 8.0 and above, Mozilla Firefox 1.0, and Linux, Unix and others.

www.diino.comprovides you with a secure online backup solution. Forget the hassles of CDs, floppies or tape drives for your backups. Diino automatically backs up important files and data of your choice to its secure data centres.

It gives 2 GB of free storage space. For this, you need to sign-up on the Web site.

www.driveway.com is a free online file sharing service. Users can upload and share files and folders of huge sizes that cannot be easily sent by ordinary e-mail services. You can use Driveway without registration. The Web site states that files not accessed for 90 days are deleted, making the corresponding links invalid. There are no restrictions on the number of files that you can upload. However, the size of an individual file cannot exceed 500 MB. A registered user can upload up to 2 GB of data to the Driveway account. Moreover, it has two special features:

Send Files for Read: The recipient can download and read the file.

Send Files for Edit: The recipient can read the file and edit it using Zoho/Microsoft Editor. The option is available for .doc, .xls, .ppt Office files.

To share files, the file owner needs to enter the email-ID of the associate(s).

The recipient(s) will receive an e-mail containing file read/edit links to the shared files.

Tips for the week: Press Ctrl + Tab to go to address bar in Internet Explorer.

Press Alt + Home to go to Home page.

jaish@thehindu.co.in