If you've amassed quite a large (and expensive) music collection, then simply backing it up onto CDs, DVDs, or a hard drive may not be enough to prevent loss. Every storage medium has its downsides -- CDs and DVDs can suffer scratches while hard drives eventually fail. To add another layer of protection you should therefore consider remote storage; this extra level of fault tolerance is well worth considering to safeguard the investment in time and money you have made in building up your music collection.
*Note* This article highlights services that have free storage suitable for the average user.
1. ADrive
Image © ADrive LLC.
ADrive offers a generous 50Gb of free storage with its basic plan. You can use this service to store your music collection along with any other type of file. You can upload single files or complete folders and the service also has a search tool to quickly find files. If you've got documents that you want to store online, then Adrive also comes with the Zoho Editor that makes it easy to edit them online instead of re-uploading.
2. SkyDrive
Image © Microsoft® Corporation
If you've got a Windows Live account, then Microsoft also offer its users 25Gb of free storage with its SkyDrive. You can upload any type of file as long as it doesn't exceed 50Mb and you can choose to keep it in a private folder or share it with others -- just remember never to share copyrighted material.
3. Humyo.com
Image © Humyo.com
If you're looking for a 'no frills' service that offers a good level of storage, then Humyo's free account offers 10Gb of space. Humyo's basic package is Web-based and gives you 5Gb for media files and 5Gb for other files such as your freeware music programs that you might want to store.
4. Mozy
Image © Decho Corp.
Mozy offers 2Gb for a free account and operates in a similar way to a file backup utility. The Mozy service can be used for automatic and scheduled backups, has built-in file encryption, and also supports external drives. For users who require more than 2Gb of online storage, Mozy offers unlimited space for $4.95 per month. If you're looking for an online service that functions in a similar way to backup software, then Mozy is worth considering.
5. iDrive
Image © Pro Softnet Corporation.
iDrive is another online backup service that is similar to Mozy. It offers a free account (iDrive Basic) with 2Gb storage along with an impressive array of features for backing up your files. Features like Continuous Data Protection (CDP), True Archiving, and Versioning, make iDrive a great cloud storage service for regularly backing up your important music files and other critical data.
