Posted on by Amit Schreiber

I’ve Upgraded To A 50GB Dropbox Account

Dropbox is one of the only file backup/sync services that works across Windows, Mac and Linux. I’ve had an unused free Dropbox account for a while now, but today I upgraded it to a 50GB account for 10$/month. I’ve been considering an online backup solution for a while now (even before the trip) but now that I have all this data from the trip (mainly pictures from the cameras but also music files and others) and considering that I will now have three computers (Linux desktop, work laptop and this Eee netbook) I can no longer pretend that my data is safe and organized. Even things that I have multiple copies of – I can’t control the last time I backed them up and where that backup is.

The only thing that’s really annoying about Dropbox is that it synchronizes and backs up only one folder. So if I want to backup/sync my pictures I have to move all of them into that folder. So I did that with my pictures and my music and now I have 8 more upload days until everything is backed up online. When I’m back home I’ll install Dropbox on my Linux machine and work laptop and everything will be synched automatically on them.

Dropbox gives you 2GB for a free account, which is perfect for storing configuration files (for example, Linux’s /etc folder.) I’m already know 50GB won’t be enough for me, but it’s enough for the duration of the trip.

Update: I spoke too soon. There is a way to sync files outside of the Dropbox folder. In Linux/Mac/Windows Vista (or later) it’s as simple as creating a link. In Windows XP you need to use a utility.

6 Replies to “I’ve Upgraded To A 50GB Dropbox Account”

  1. I recently started thinking about backup too (wedding pics ;)). It looks like external HD (or even two of those) which will be plugged in once a week for backup and unplugged is a cheaper solution, 300GB is about 100$.

  2. I know it’s cheaper, with the HD solution everything is gone if the house burns down. And also you don’t get the automatics syncing to all computers, which I really like. Imagine all your pictures available on any of your computers, including the latest changes.

    I have stuff scattered across 3 computers and I didn’t even mention my Windows virtual machine that contains my old computer. It’s all a big mess and I hope this will help me clear it up. If it doesn’t, it’s easy to stop the subscription… I thought about this too – it’s not as sticky as deduplicaion :)

  3. Good point about the burning. Syncing is also nice, but somehow 10$ a month sounds expensive. I guess i need to get used to the idea. Besides, when u stop paying the data is gone i guess..

  4. I wanted to start using the service.
    Just started filling out the details for a new account that I saw that the details fillings is not secured, nor does the login itself.
    Kind of a surprise…

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