How To

Microsoft’s SkyDrive Kills Thumb Drives.

By Brad Groux ⋅ June 2, 2008 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ Post a comment

It is amazing the growth of technology over the past decade and a half. I get a lot of questions from my not-so-tech-savy family and friends regarding storage, especially on what are the best ways for mobile storage as in what do I use for files that I need to be able to access from anywhere. Well, way back in the mid 90’s I would carry around my colorful floppy disks in a travel case. In the late 90’s I upgraded from 1.4MB floppy disks to 650MB CDRs packed nicely away in a Fellowes CD Wallet which seemd to do the trick for about six years or so. Then I moved on up to the east side with a thumb drive that I kept on my key chain… but sadly I was stuck with only 128MB of storage while now you can easily get an 8GB stick for well under $50.

The problems with all of those mediums is the overall lack of storage space, the hassle of lugging it all around and the security of keeping your files out of the hands of others. If you have your sensitive and personal files saved on a physical storage medium they will always be at risk of theft or misplacement, so physically storing your files is no longer the right option… I learned that the hard way as I not only had a CD wallet full of software and personal data CDs stolen out of my car but I also lost a thumb drive that fell off my key chain. The thumb drive was a huge scare as it was full of personal files including financial records, credit records and even a copy of my resume on it. Luckily I was smart enough to encrypt the files so nothing ever came about from it, but if a technically competent person found it they could have easily stolen my identity. 

So, there has to be a better way right? You’re right; there are quite a few ways thanks to the severe drop in cost of storage (1TB drive for $200!). Well, the answer for me at least is a gift from our friends in Redmond. SkyDrive is a free online storage and sharing system that is part of Microsoft’s Live family of products. For the cost of nothing Microsoft gives you 5GBs of online storage to do what you will with. The beauty of the service is you can obviously access it anywhere in the world that has an internet connection, they offer you a huge amount of storage, the site is incredibly easy to use and you can also make your files private or share them publicly with your friends, family and colleagues as needed.

I’d go through a step by step process of how to use the site if it was needed, but the system is so well put together that it is rather self-explanatory. If you want to add a file, hit he add file button. If you want to create a new folder, hit the create folder button. Public folders are obviously viewable by everyone. Shared folders are folders only those you choose can view. Private folders are just what they say they are… only viewable to you. If you use other Microsoft Live services such as Live Spaces, Live Events, Live Galleries or Hotmail then you’ll be happy to know that your SkyDrive is linked to all of those other services via a very slick and Vista-like design. So, ditch the floppies, CDRs and flash drives and take SkyDrive for a spin.

Tags: Live, Microsoft, Skydrive, Storage