Cheap online storage from Google

Posted by Doug on January 14, 2010

There are plenty of good reasons to use online data storage these days–if you have a file that you want to share with someone, and that file is too large to send via e-mail, for example, you can upload it to a site like DropBox and send a link to whomever you like.  DropBox will give you 2 GB of free storage, and you can buy up to 100 GB for $19.99/month.  If you want to backup critical files (or even your whole system), online storage gives you an option that is available anywhere you have access to the Internet.   Mozy is a service I’ve used for doing online backups–with Mozy you can also get 2 GB free, and you can get unlimited backups for $4.95/month per computer.

Google has provided free storage for several years via their Gmail accounts–I now have access to over 7 GB of free Gmail (and Google docs) storage already, but they have recently announced a pretty attractive online storage solution with what seems to me to be very good pricing:

• 20 Gb for $5/year
• 80 GB for $20/year
• 200 GB for $50/year
• 400 GB for $100/year
• 1 TB for $256/year

The last three options in the list also come with a free EyeFi card for uploading photos wirelessly to Picasa from your camera (provided that your camera is SDHC-compatible; my Olympus FE-230 is NOT SDHC-compatible, as it turns out).  If you need more than a terrabyte of storage, Google has additional options, up to 16 TB for a mere $4,096/year.

Granted, you can buy a 1 TB external USB drive these days for less than $200, but if you need online storage that is accessible from any location where you have an Internet connection, the Google storage is a pretty good deal.

I’d hate to think of how long it would take to back up (or restore) my laptop’s drive via the ‘net, but I can imagine a number of possible scenarios in which it could be extremely helpful to have that safety net there, particularly when I’m on the road.

Check it out.

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