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Free up your hard drive - online storageIf you’re like me, it seems like you never have enough hard drive space. So you start looking for things you can delete, and you find many things that are just frivolous but you hate to delete them. Next you see tons of old things you really need to keep “just in case”. But you aren’t ready to upgrade yet, perhaps you’re saving for a new system, yet you still need more room today. You might consider free online storage sites. Although many of the big boys have recently switched to paid-only access, there are still several online sites where you can store such things as mp3’s, pictures, email, address books, and more for free. Myplay.com is one of my favorite new storage sites! The information page says you can store up to 3 gigs (yes, GIGS!) of MP3 files to listen to any time you like. As a bonus, they offer to clear the licenses for you to sell songs online, and stream the audio files for you. MP3’s are usually between 3 and 5 megs in size, so you see how this could quickly free up some room, and maybe make you a dollar or two. Zden.com has a similar program for all file types. If you have anything original (artwork, jokes, computer games you’ve written, poems or stories) you can store them on Zden and list them for sale. Start with 25 megs, work your way up to 500 megs of space as other people become interested in your productions. Swiftdesk.com is one of the larger free services remaining. Up to 30 megs are at your disposal. Their services are complete including email, bookmark and file storage, web site hosting, calendar, reminders, planner and more at no charge. Visit filegenie.com for 25 megs of file storage. Its super-fast, and you can order a copy of your data burned onto CD if you like. Claim up to 60 megs of space at Floppycenter.com. You can share files or lock them so they cannot be accessed without entering an email address and password. They have step-by-step instructions that even a newbie can follow. It’s a little slow, but full featured; and did I mention free? Freedrive.com offers 5 megs of password-protected storage. They have a “freeload” option that lets you tag a file to be downloaded to your freedrive instead of your system. The download won’t slow you down now, but the file will be available on their site when you’re ready for it. Get a three meg “imacfloppy” from imacfloppy.com. Pick a color to match your screen to your computer or your mood. Yes, you can store PC files too. This site is just fun and practical. If you didn’t see anything above that fits your needs, visit all-the-free-space.com. They have a search engine dedicated to finding any free space online for almost any purpose such as FTP files or website hosting. Online marketplaces are just waiting for you to move in. Another large list is at prospector.cz/Services/Storage_Space. When using any of these online storage sites, remember, they could close at any time without warning. It is best to keep your most important files duplicated on cdr, zip, floppy, or other offline storage media. You can also use these sites as a secondary backup to important things you wish to keep on your local system. If you have a failing drive and no alternatives, upload and save what you can to one of these sites. Another plus, you can access the data from anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection. Send your homework to your site, then edit it later from class or a friend’s house. Online storage can serve as a free alternative to an expensive upgrade. |
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