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Comparison of FREE Cloud Storage services.

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dr_andus:
From experience, for documents, Google Drive/Docs will create "GDocs" copies of some of your files, and duplicate them, then later delete and update them to new formats. All without the user's say-so.
-IainB (June 03, 2015, 11:11 AM)
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I haven't had that experience, maybe that was before my time.

But I think there is a difference between saying that "Google changes your files arbitrarily" and saying that when opening and editing MS Office files in Google Drive, they may get converted to Google doc formats, whether the user realises or not - but it's due to the user's actions and choices.

As far as I can tell, a .docx file stays a .docx file, as long as you don't try to edit it directly in the Drive environment. If you do, depending on what browser you use, different things might happen. In Chrome (at least in Chrome OS), you get the option to view and edit it in Office Compatibility Mode or save it as Google Docs. In Firefox in Windows, the .docx file opens in a viewer, and then it gives you the option to edit it as a Google Doc or use other 3rd party app.

Now, an MS user may expect Google to provide full compatibility for an MS product, but Google is not really obliged to do so for a competitor's product and they have every right to try to convince the user to start using Google products. So I'm not so bothered about lack of perfect compatibility.

On the other hand, I'm a lot more annoyed when I'm editing an MS Word docx file in MS Word Online, and then I find that the resulting file is all messed up (e.g. formatting of tables) when I open it in Windows again. It's MS's own service, so I'd be justified to expect compatibility with its own product...

J-Mac:
Odd there's no mention yet of Amazon's Cloud Drive. Amazon recently set a new standard for pricing: Unlimited storage for $59.99 per year. I was already using Amazon S3 for my backups (in addition to my 1 TB Dropbox account). Now I have added the unlimited Cloud Drive. Worth a look, anyway.

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/home

Jim

Jibz:
At first look that seems great. I wonder what I would use it for though.

For quickly storing/sharing low-priority stuff, there are so many free services, and many of them (Google Drive, DropBox, etc.) have great integration with all kinds of devices and services. And I rarely use more than a few GB for that, so unlimited storage would be a waste of money.

The other use would be for backup of my "important" files. But with no client-side encryption (I can't even tell if they encrypt the data on their end), it doesn't really beat CrashPlan/SpiderOak.

Of course it might help drive down the prices of the other services, which would be great.

The one interesting option to me would be the unlimited photo storage, which unlike some of the others supports RAW files, and promises to keep your originals. It would be a relatively cheap second online backup of all my RAW files at $12/y.

IainB:
EDIT: 2015-06-07 0524hrs: Title of this opening post was changed to reflect what this thread seems to be turning into.

This especially interesting review was what encouraged me to make the edit:
Comparison of 15 Best Free Cloud Storage Services

By the way, don't lose sight of what risks you run with Tresorit - refer Tresorit - Cloud storage service (FREE) - Mini-Review. (WARNING!)

dr_andus:
This especially interesting review was what encouraged me to make the edit:
Comparison of 15 Best Free Cloud Storage Services
-IainB (June 06, 2015, 12:33 PM)
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Thanks. These sort of comparisons imply though that one should choose ONE best service for one's needs. But, as discussed earlier, there are good reasons (such as one's investment into a particular ecosystem - sorry for the buzzword again) to use several of these for different reasons.

E.g. I have an automatic daily backup service for my PC (as insurance against hard drive failure, fire, flood, theft etc.), which I use for nothing else (Mozy). This is the only one I pay for.

Then I use Google Drive for spreadsheets, PDFs and other docs that I work on a daily basis on and need quick and universal access to (and it's convenient on a Chromebook).

I also use OneDrive occasionally, but only to edit MS Word docs on MS Word Online (when I don't have access to a PC, such as on a Chromebook).

And I still use Dropbox with some apps that can only save to that or when I need to preserve an MS doc's format 100% and have to share it with other people (or myself, using a Win netbook), staying within Win environments.

P.S. Come to think of it, it's the proliferation of OS's and standards (and incompatibilities between them) that drive me to use multiple services. But maybe it's not a bad idea to keep eggs in multiple baskets...

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