Last month, I was playing around with a service called Dropbox. The name of the site pretty much tells you what it basically is, a service that allows you to drop files into a folder on your computer and it syncs it up onto the cloud (the internet) for access there.

When you first install the application, it puts a folder in your Documents directory called My Dropbox. This is where all your files go to get synced with the server, and it is also where files that get put into your Dropbox get downloaded to. When uploading files to the web, I found it to be quite slow, and when I say slow, I mean that my connection can handle a fair bit more. The other issue I had here was that the program wasn’t very good at telling me the progress of my upload, as well as the speed it was going. It was very inaccurate and most of the time, looked as if it had stalled.

You also have a public folder which is a folder that you can publicly share the files in, as long as you give the link to the people you want to share with. You can also share other folders too. You can view and download files using a web browser by logging on to your Dropbox account and you have access to all your files from there. You can also share folders with other Dropbox users. There you have a common folder and it appears on both peoples Dropbox’s and when anyone adds a file to it, it will automatically sync with the other people.

My only real grip was with the uploading of files to the Dropbox. There are still many ways in which this service can grow. The storage is limited to 2GB per user, and depending on how many files you have, and how much you want synced to the internet, this could be a huge limitation for some people. The service could also improve with backup. At the moment, it is only good at backing up individual files, and even then, there are services out there that do it a lot better.

There are many features that I have missed mentioning and overall, Dropbox is an amazing service. It does what it does reasonably well. I am really looking forward at seeing what they do to improve this service and make it a real competitor in the online storage/sync/backup space. If you would like to try it out, I have 9 invitations, and you can get one by commenting below. If you haven’t already, please do try out this great service.

Yesterday, I made a post about backing up. A few hours later, Peppery, the server admin decided to upgrade my Wordpress blog to 2.5.1. Well what happened was instead of upgrading, he ended up deleting my blog off the server. He fucked up. To make it worse, he didn’t have a backup to restore my blog. Ironic how a couple of hours after I write a post about backing up, something goes wrong with my blog and there is NO backup!

At least all my posts and settings were in tack in the mysql database. He managed to restore my blog and theme and some of the plugins. I don’t have a clue what plugins are still missing but they can’t be important or else I would remember them. After he mucked around for a while, everything seems to be as good as rain. The only thing I am missing are PSP themes that were on the server. Lucky that I moved the pictures saved on the server to another host so they will be fine if anything was to happen, like this. Now I just need to restore the themes.

Yesterday, I decided that it was probably about time I backed up some files in case something goes wrong with my computer. The day before that, I got given a DVD writer for my laptop to borrow. I was going to give it straight back but they said I can borrow t for a bit longer. Since I had it, I thought that I might as well put it to use. I had some music to burn to CDs, music to rip from CDs, and some backing up to do.

I used Windows to format the disc to enable me to drag and drop the folders and files I wanted to back up. I was hoping that I could backup all my important files to one DVD disc so I didn’t have to mess around with multiple backup discs. I managed to just fit everything that I needed. I didn’t backup my desktop because the videos there will be transferred to an external drive later. I also didn’t bother backing up my music folder because I didn’t need the podcasts and iTunes libraries that were there because I wouldn’t use or listen to anything there ever again. If something did happen to my data, it would be easy enough for me to start fresh. After backing up, I closed the disc and labeled it with a marker and filed it in my Disc Case for archive purposes.

I then burnt music to disc and them ripped music into my iTunes Library. That was a simple task. I then decided that I would backup my iTunes Music Library because at times, I have heard clicking coming from my external music drive and also Windows Vista doesn’t spin down the disc when I eject it from the computer so I have to unplug it in a special way. If I just yank the USB cord from the computer, the drive makes an awful sound, and it could one day possibly destroy the drive somehow. For me to safely remove it from the computer, I have to pull the cord half out to spin down the drive, then I can take it all the way out without it making the horrible sound. It took a bit over 30 minutes and 3 DVDs to backup my iTunes Library, which was a little over 10GB.

Backing up my files on my computer will help me sleep easy and in the event on my computer fully dying, I won’t have to worry as much about the data I have lost. Also if my music drive dies, I have a backup which will contain most, if not all of my music and recovering my library in the event of a failure won’t be that painful. Using iTunes to backup my music was simple, I love how it just does it. I wish backing up what I want with Windows was as simple as that, without requiring third-party software.

SugarSync (formerly known as Hummingbird) is a service from Sharpcast that allows you to sync and access your files and media from anywhere” on different computers, on the web, even on your mobile phone. SugarSync securely backs up all your computers online and synchronizes them automatically so you always have access to your files. Best of all, SugarSync takes care of everything automatically in the background, so you never have to make backups or email files to yourself. Say goodbye to CD burning and emailing files to yourself; say hello to SugarSync.

I have been using SugarSync for a few weeks now. You install a program to your computer and it will automatically backup everything in your user folder, or folders of your choosing. I found it useful to backup a few important folders, but I did find the software to be a little restrictive. First off, you are limited to 1GB (but you get 10GB more for the beta) which is hardly enough space to backup much. You also cannot pick which files not to backup, which means it is all or nothing.

I did have a problem with accidentally deleting a folder that was backing up. What I thought it would do is delete the folder from the backup, but what it really did was delete the folder from my computer. Then after I managed to restore the files, it went and deleted them again. I don’t think it is right to let a piece of backup software do that. That is probably the killing point in this software for me.

If you want to try out this software, the first 7 people to comment below will get an invitation to this service.

Last week, Apple announced their wireless backup device, Time Machine. This device is an Airport Extreme with a hard drive in it. Now a few of you will be familiar with the fact that the Airport Extreme has a USB port which has the ability to add a printer, or a hard drive, or multiple USB devices if you use a hub. Now the question is should I go with an Airport Extreme and get an external hard drive, or should I go with Time Capsule.

If you want to backup your Mac with Time Machine to a wireless hard drive then this is a no brainer at this stage. Only Time Capsule has the ability to backup to a drive wirelessly. Hooking up a USB drive to an Airport Extreme will not work for Time Machine. In the future, Apple my release a firmware update that allows for you to use an external drive for backing up with Time Machine but until then, you only have one option.

But for people wanting to use it as network attached storage, you have 2 options. You could get Time Capsule and  you would have the convenience of having an Airport Extreme and a Hard Drive in one small package. The other option is to get an Airport Extreme and connect a USB hard drive to it. There are a few disadvantages of doing this instead of getting Time Capsule. First, you have just used twice as much space as the single unit would have. You also have used the only USB port on the device and if you decide you want a printer on the network through the AirPort Extreme, you will require a USB Hub. The final disadvantage I can think of is the amount of power sockets the devices will take up. There is one for the Airport Extreme, one for the Hard Drive, another one if you want to hook up a printer and another for if the hub is powered. That is 4 plugs you require, instead of the 2 if you used Time Capsule with a printer.

Now, how do the prices compare. An Airport Extreme costs $179 and you can get a Western Digital MyBook 500GB for $118 or a Western Digital MyBook 1TB for $251. This brings the total for an Airport Extreme + 500GB External Drive to $297 and an Airport Extreme + 1TB External Drive to $430. The Time Capsule 500GB model costs $299 and the Time Capsule 1TB model costs $499.

The 500GB Time Capsule is prices pretty similar to the Airport Extreme with a 500GB external drive. With such little difference in price, I would recommend if you only want 500GB at this stage, getting Time Capsule would be the way to go. You can always add external drives to it afterwards if you decide at a later date that you want more storage. The 1TB Time Capsule is prices quite a bit higher than getting an Airport Extreme with a 1TB external drive. You are paying quite a bit extra for the convenience of having it in one package.

To conclude, if you are going to be using it for Time Machine, there is only one option. If you are using it for network storage, if you are looking at 500GB, I would say get Time Capsule. If you are looking at 1TB, you have to decide which is better for you and your situation. Ultimately, it is your decision on if you would rather convenience over price for this configuration. On another note, you might be able to find cheaper external drives elsewhere but I have decided to use Western Digital MyBook’s for my example because I have found this product to be cheap and reliable for my friends and myself and would definitely recommend their product. If price is a factor, do your research.

Note: All prices are in US Dollars and were taken from the Apple Store and Newegg websites on the 24/01/08. Prices may vary in different countries. This article is only a guideline, you should do your own research on prices and products to see what options are right for you.Â