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This is a great time to invest in cloud storage with Microsoft making a determined bid to take on Dropbox and Google by offering 1TB of space on its OneDrive cloud storage to Office 365 subscribers.
With hard drive space shrinking or limited on devices it makes sense to free up storage on your computer, phone or tablet and dump it in the cloud so that your devices run more efficiently.
You can avail of the Microsoft offer in two ways. Upgrade your OneDrive account and get Office 365 for free, or buy an Office 365 subscription to get 1TB of space. I prefer the second because you pay Rs 3,300 a year and get to use Office applications like Word, Excel and PowerPoint on your Mac or PC, smartphone and a tablet. You will need a Microsoft account and remain connected to the Internet to use these programs.
You can buy Office 365 Personal from www.microsoftstore.com/store/msin/en_GB/pdp/Office-365-Personal/productID.298279100. Don’t get misled about the free 60 minutes of Skype calls a month to over 60 countries because this is not valid for India.
Cloud storage is getting cheaper and cheaper. Dropbox and Google responded to the Microsoft challenge by lowering its costs to Rs 615 a month for 1TB storage. Earlier you’d get just 200GB. Despite this the Microsoft offer is better, but Dropbox’s service is among the best. Microsoft now gives you 30GB for free compared to Google Drive’s 15GB and Dropbox’s 2GB.
Cloud storage, when it began, allowed you to access all your files from different devices. Typically, you had to install a desktop client. A group of folders was created and every time you added a file it was sent to the cloud too. The problem was if you deleted a file on your PC, it was also deleted from the cloud. And what if you did not want the images uploaded from your phone to take up hard disk space on your computer?
It turns out that there is a clever way to offload your files to the cloud and not lose them permanently.
OneDrive on Windows 8.1: Here you do not need to install a separate app. It is built into the system. Find the OneDrive folder in File Explorer and create a folder within it called CloudOnly. Move, not copy, all the files taking up precious hard disk space here. Then right click the folder and select “Make available online only”. These files are moved to the cloud and deleted from your hard drive.
Those on Windows 7 must download the desktop client from https://onedrive.live. com/about/en-us/download. Sync all folders including CloudOnly. After syncing finishes, right click the OneDrive icon on the lower right of your screen and go to Settings and uncheck the folder called CloudOnly. The folder will be kept safe in the cloud and removed from the hard drive.
Dropbox: Similarly, create a folder called CloudOnly in your PC’s Dropbox folder. Move your files there and let the sync progress. It takes awhile. Click on Dropbox in the notifications tray, and select Preferences from Settings. Choose the Account tab and then click on Selective Sync and uncheck the CloudOnly folder. Dropbox will warn you that once you update your selective sync settings, the folder will be deleted from your PC. That’s okay because they will still be available online. Make sure to update the selective sync settings on your other computers too or the CloudOnly folder will be downloaded there.
Warning: Saving files in the cloud has its associated risks. It is best to also back up your important files on an external hard drive.
