Last couple of weeks, my students from the Educational Technology lab sessions asked me for some suggestions on ways to backup their documents in case of emergency or computer breakdown (especially due to virus attacks). Of course, the most common methods are to do backups in USB drives (be it external hard drive or handy flash drive) and to burn/copy them in CD or DVD formats. Apart from these methods, another popular way is to backup your docs online. Some would suggest you to attach your documents to your email and save them as drafts or using other online storage services.
One of these online storage services is SkyDrive by Microsoft Live. SkyDrive delivers a satisfactory online file storage and sharing solution in a free and easy to use service. It has a design that is both attractive and functional. It allows you to store your files using your Windows Live account (Hotmail). You can store it as private documents (with password) or share it with your friends.
SkyDrive comes with a 25GB limits, a reasonable storage size for a FREE service. If you need more, you can always sign up for multiple Windows Live account. I use SkyDrive to backup files that I use regularly, so that I can still retrieve it even when I forget to bring my USB drive. SkyDrive is actually Microsoft’s strategy of competiting with the more popular Google Docs service. Expect to see more features from both sides soon!
