Inexpensive cloud storage has been something I’ve been looking for for some time. I really appreciate my Dropbox account. But have spent some time investigating backup solutions that store online like Carbonite, as well as the new Dropbox competitors such as Sky Drive by Microsoft, and G drive by google.

So far I’ve stuck with Dropbox, mostly because they have ways way you can increase your free storage space allocation. I’m currently at a little over 10GB of free storage. The other big reason, is it works pretty easily, however Sky Drive and Google Drive have pretty much copied their method.

But when it comes to a large amount of cloud storage I’m at a loss. Even looking at Amazon S3 for cloud storage it was too complicated a setup and seemed expensive for a home user.

Recently I discovered JustCloud.com (which uses Amazon S3). I’m predicting this service is going to be a big hit. They offer an option for unlimited storage, across multiple computers for just over $150 for two years. That’s remarkably inexpensive when you throw in words like “unlimited”.

But this isn’t something you try out with a free account. You won’t get 5GB free, like the other services I mentioned above, but instead only 15mb of free storage space, and with their lowest tiered paid account, you get 1 GB free. So if you are going to use this service, go for the whole kit and kaboodle.

Do you know about Dropbox? Do you know how useful it can be?
Dropbox is cloud storage that also syncs to any computer that has the dropbox client installed on it. There is also android and iphone apps to access your files stored in the dropbox cloud. The free account gives you 2GB of storage.

I have installed dropbox on my home pc, my laptop, my work pc and my iphone. By installing the client software on my computer it makes a “My Dropbox” folder in my Documents folder. Any time I place another file/folder inside this “My Dropbox” folder, the client automatically uploads (in the background) these files to my cloud storage. Once the file is in the cloud, once any of my other computers are turned on, the dropbox client automatically syncs the files to that computer.

This has virtually replaced the need for my thumbdrive, and is much simpler than e-mailing files to get them onto other computers.

Recently Dropbox opened a new beta version of their client software (version 1.3.13). This beta version is testing the automatic upload of pictures and videos from a memory card.

According to the official forum post:

During this beta period, we are also offering additional free space to test automatic uploading of photos and videos. For every 500MB of photos and videos automatically uploaded, you’ll receive another 500MB space bonus, up to 5GB total.

To get the most space first signup with dropbox using my referral link. By doing this we’ll both get an extra 250MB right of the bat. So you will start with 2.5GB of space.

Then install the new beta client version of the software found on their forum.

Next insert a memory card containing photos and/or videos. If you have Autorun turned on, you should see a popup with a list of options to choose from for you storage device. There is a new option at the very top.
“Import pictures and videos using dropbox”

By selecting this option, the dropbox client will begin uploading the files on the memory card into your dropbox account in a new folder named “Camera Uploads”.

Once the first photo is uploaded, you will see a balloon by the system tray stating that your account storage space has increased by 500MB.

Every time you upload 500MB to your account using this new feature your storage space will be increased by 500MB.

I took hundreds of random photos and set this up, then went to bed. In the morning my dropbox account now shows that I have 7GB of space available.

Delete all the files in the “Camera Uploads” folder and you are good to go.

For more free space you can do a couple more things at https://www.dropbox.com/free