Not just backing up

Other than backing up, I wanted a better way of transferring material from my College laboratory work to my dorm computer – without having to rely on my USB stick (those things will give up on you when you least expect them) or spending time e-mail it to myself on Gmail.

Another method I once used is uploading stuff to my server via FTP but that was the problem. I couldn’t upload anything to it from another location without having FTP access to the server.

Every way seemed so time-consuming especially if I had to only transfer a single PDF file. I needed a way to synchronize my files without the fear of them getting damaged.

I found about “Dropbox”

What is it? Well, Dropbox is an online service that is used for backing up your data but also with a special twist to it. You get 2 GB of space on their server (that’s the “free” version, you can pay for 50 GB and 100 GB monthly) and have to install a small application that manages your local Dropbox folder called “My Dropbox” which you can place wherever you like.

The beauty of Dropbox is that you link all your computers (and even your iPhone or some other smart phone) to your account and each of the devices gets a “My Dropbox” folder. Once you put something in one of the Dropbox folders on any of your devices (which you have previous linked to your online account) it automatically gets uploaded to the server and synced with all of your other Dropbox folders across your devices.

What’s so special about Dropbox?

One of the most attractive features that I’ve noticed is the automatic

Dropbox Web Interface

synchronization of data in all of your Dropbox folders. That means I can be anywhere with Internet access, log into Dropbox.com and upload my files to their servers and by the time I get home, I will have all that data already on my computer along with the same folder layout that is online.

This will work perfectly once I get a laptop that I have been planing for a while now. I will have everything I need in that one folder without having to manually transfer important data back and forward.

They have this link called “Votebox” at the bottom of the website where users submit suggestions and vote on them. Then the development team implements them one by one starting from the ones with the most votes. There are some amazing features coming soon. One of my favourite is “Remote destroy/purge option if laptop is stolen” which is just brilliant, especially if you use it on a cellphone which is more likely to get stolen.

Sharing a folder

You can share a folder with one or more people on Dropbox. Everything you upload to that shared folder is instantly transferred to all local Dropbox folders. This is a powerful tool for collaboration and I think it has pretty good business use. The only problem is that all people that share the folder lose space when a single member uploads something but I have hear that they voted to remove that soon.

Automatic photo-galleries in the “Photos” folder

By default, when you install your Dropbox folder on your PC, you get 2 folders: Shared and Photos. Everything that is in the Shared folder can be visible to anyone you link it to and the Photos folder changes every sub-folder into an image gallery with thumbnails and a lightbox effect that looks very similar to the photo-gallery layout in Facebook.

RSS feed for “Recent activities”

There is a tab that lists recent activities of your Dropbox folder and any shared folders you might be a member off. The amazing thing about that is that you have an RSS feed for it so you can monitor the activity from your phone or any RSS reader.

Easy un-delete feature

After deleting any file from your Dropbox, both local or from the web interface – it is never really deleted at first. You can always use the “Show deleted files” button and see what you have deleted – restore it if you need to. They keep a backup of the files but I’m not sure for how long, haven’t researched that part yet but I know that the feature is there.

Referring friends

When you refer someone to Dropbox, you get an extra 250MB of space added to your account. It only works for up to 3 GB but I think it’s more then enough at least for backing up blogging and source files.

What about for bloggers?

Now here comes the part where I explain why this service is great for bloggers. There are so many bloggers that use notebooks, netbooks and especially iPhones. There are tones of iPhone applications for bloggers, from Twitter to WordPress publishing plug-ins.

If you are like me and like to good old Notepad notes for blogging ideas and other stuff related to your blog – you will want to have it in a folder where it would exist on all your machines.

How do YOU backup your files?

I’m interested in how you backup your files, from your computer, laptop or mac. Tell me in the comments and offer your suggestion! Thanks for reading, I hope you like Dropbox because I sure do.

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