Free Online Storage : ADrive, SkyDrive, Gmail – features, comparison and their Desktop clients.

If you are unaware or new to file sharing/storing online, the first question that will arise is “Why should I store online and how will it benefit me?”

• Whenever your local storage like  PC  Hard drive fails or external storage is damaged or lost, files stored online in some reliable servers would serve as effective backup .
• Protect your files from viruses attack.
• You can access your files anywhere , anytime in the world.
• Share files online  with your friends/Team mates for some collaborative work.
• Uploading  files like photos, documents or some daily work done  time to time  will be  fond memories of your development.

Options

So what are Options ? There are a lot of paid and free services online and I will discuss  free  storage services more than 5GB.The features of these services are discussed and compared in a table later in this article.

Using Gmail Space

The first option can be using the ~7GB Gmail inbox space as virtual Hard drive. This is accomplished by using a Firefox add –on called Gspace or a windows shell extension  named Gmail Drive.

Gspace integrates with Firefox giving a FTP kind of interface for file transaction.

This operates in four modes as explained here.

Gmail Drive Shell extension for windows makes Gmail’s Inbox space as a drive in your PC.

This storage is not legal and is accomplished by cheating Google like sending own mails with attachments to the Inbox with specific labels. This service may get terminated or may not work if Google makes technical changes in Gmail configurations.

SkyDrive

http://skydrive.live.com/

It is part of its live services and needs a live account. Though the service is from Microsoft, it  is free! and and being web based, its platform independent. So,  Linux and MAC users can also consume this “Microsoft” service for free!

 

ADrive

http://www.adrive.com/

This service from ADrive LLC., is free at basic level with a 50gb massive storage. Other paid services from this player includes higher storage capacity and many other facilities which can be compared here.

 

Feature	Gspace/Gmail Drive	SkyDrive	ADrive
Space	~7GB  (varies with Gmail inbox size)	25GB	50GB
FTP connection	No. But the interface is similar while using Gspace with Firefox	No	No. Available for paid Members
Official Desktop client	No. only 3rd party add-on/shell extension	No. Upload tool with Drag and drop facility only for IE from Microsoft	No
Account	Gmail account	Windows Live account	ADrive Registration
Folder Level Transaction	No	No	Yes
File Sharing	No	Only Public Folder	Yes, with permissions
Interface	Local. Depends on the tool used	Web. Catchy and colorful but not navigation friendly.	Web. Explorer Kind of Interface.
Reliability	Not Guaranteed
Extra Features	4 Operation modes (mentioned above)	Completely integrated with Windows Live services like Photo gallery	File searching, Zoho Editor.

 

 

 

Though these seem to be attractive, there is a major issue called Privacy. We cant just sit back and enjoy keeping our personal files somewhere in a unknown server. But every firm has its own privacy policy and can hope that they will follow it at least to cope up with emerging competitions.

Gladinet Desktop Client

http://www.gladinet.com

A decent desktop client providing cloud computing services. It supports SkyDrive, ADrive, Google Picasa, Google Docs, Amazon storage for free at basic level.

 

It creates a network drive with folders of names with services we choose. Copies files we transact to a local cache and uploads files in background. Folder level transactions are possible with this client  even in SkyDrive.Only move and cut operations are not allowed

 

Hope the article was useful!