# Recommend a Free File Storage Site
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 23, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433 "2007-02-23T20:58:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/1 "2007-02-23T20:58:10Z")
I’ve been using Yahoo Briefcase for many years: these days, I mostly use it for files related to my graduate work. I get 30MB of space, which seems to be plenty (I’m currently only using 42% of it), and so far I’ve always been able to get it to do what I want it to, but it can be kind of buggy and I feel like it’s Yahoo’s red-headed stepchild. I feel “meh” enough about it to look into alternatives, but Googling “free file storage” returns 80,700,000 results – that’s a little overwhelming! 🙂 So I turn to the Dope for recommendations. If you use a free storage site similar to Briefcase, which one and what do you think of it?
_Note:_ Before anyone recommends Google Docs, it only supports certain file types and I need to be able to upload any kind of file. That disappointed me a little, because I’m a big Google fan, but I guess it really is meant for collaboration rather than pesonal storage.
_Another Note:_ Before anyone recommends using a flash drive, or another type of removable media, that won’t work. I really do need online storage.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/2 "2007-02-24T04:11:11Z")
One little bump for the night crowd…
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/3 "2007-02-24T04:28:08Z")
There’s an article by David Pogue in the New York Times of January 4, 2007 reviewing programs for online backups (not exactly the same thing, I realize). He mentioned Xdrive, owned by AOL, which gives you five gigabytes of storage and MediaMax, which gives you 25 gigabytes.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/4 "2007-02-24T04:35:49Z")
If you use FireFox on all your computers, you could use the [Gmail Space](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1593/) extension. It uses your Gmail account for file storage.
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### Author:  [@IGJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IGJoe)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/5 "2007-02-24T04:39:29Z")
Since you’re a Google fan, there’s a neat little Firefox plugin called [Gmail Space](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1593/) that’ll let you use a Gmail account as file storage.
You could also look into some of the Windows XP [extensions](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=gmail+file+storage) that do the same thing. I haven’t tried any of them myself, but I have had people tell me they work pretty well.
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### Author:  [@IGJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IGJoe)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/6 "2007-02-24T04:40:53Z")
Darnit.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/7 "2007-02-24T20:05:30Z")
[QUOTE=Dewey Finn]
He mentioned Xdrive, owned by AOL, which gives you five gigabytes of storage and MediaMax, which gives you 25 gigabytes.
[/QUOTE]
Thank you! Xdrive might actually be just what I’m looking for: AOL might the devil when it comes to installing stuff on your desktop, but their apps are typically very user-friendly. I’ll poke around both sites, though, because it’s tempting to sign up for 25GB of space. 😃
[QUOTE=scr4]
If you use FireFox on all your computers, you could use the Gmail Space extension. It uses your Gmail account for file storage.
[/QUOTE]
I prefer Firefox, but unfortunately I have to use IE at work – which is one of the places I need to be able to upload/download files from. Also…
[QUOTE=IGJoe]
You could also look into some of the Windows XP extensions that do the same thing.
[/QUOTE]
…I don’t have a Gmail account.
Yes, I think that Google makes great stuff, but I’ve had a Yahoo Mail Plus account for many years that I’m very happy with, and I’ve seen no reason to switch.
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/8 "2007-02-24T20:20:00Z")
[QUOTE=Misnomer]
Yes, I think that Google makes great stuff, but I’ve had a Yahoo Mail Plus account for many years that I’m very happy with, and I’ve seen no reason to switch.
[/QUOTE]
You don’t have to _switch_, just consider it another service offering 2GB of free file storage.
You can use gmail for storage without the extensions, as long as your files aren’t bigger than about 10MB (that’s their cap on attachments). Just attach, send to yourself, and you can access it from anywhere you have the Internet. Who says you need to use it to send (or receive) email?
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/9 "2007-02-24T20:43:31Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226]
You don’t have to _switch_, just consider it another service offering 2GB of free file storage.
[/QUOTE]
Or, I can use MediaMax and get 25GB of free file storage without having to mess with any plugins. 😃
> [@](#):
>
> Who says you need to use it to send (or receive) email?
No one, including me: I was simply explaining why I don’t already have a Gmail account, especially after professing a love for Google. It’s a moot point, though, because I can’t access web-based e-mail from work.
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/10 "2007-02-24T20:51:49Z")
[QUOTE=Misnomer]
Or, I can use MediaMax and get 25GB of free file storage without having to mess with any plugins. 😃
[/QUOTE]
> [@me](#):
>
> **You can use gmail for storage without the extensions** , as long as your files aren’t bigger than about 10MB (that’s their cap on attachments).
…
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/11 "2007-02-24T20:58:35Z")
[QUOTE=Misnomer]
…I don’t have a Gmail account.
[/QUOTE]
If you want one let me know and I’ll be glad to send you an invitation. Some will disagree but personally I never use anything else because I love the file storage and size of attachments it allows.
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### Author:  [@einekleine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/einekleine)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/12 "2007-02-24T21:11:23Z")
Yahoo briefcase has the best, longest track record. Some things that seem “buggy” on the browser end are not really their problems. I know I had a problem where the “processing” bar wouldn’t quit and go back to the prior screen. But it cleared up when I turned off my pop-up inhibiter.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2007, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/13 "2007-02-25T05:55:05Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226]
[QUOTE=me]
**You can use gmail for storage without the extensions,** as long as your files aren’t bigger than about 10MB (that’s their cap on attachments)
[/QUOTE]
[/QUOTE]
Dude, what parts of “I don’t have a Gmail account” and “I can’t access web-based e-mail from work” don’t you understand? Quit deliberately ignoring the salient parts of my posts.
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
If you want one let me know and I’ll be glad to send you an invitation. Some will disagree but personally I never use anything else because I love the file storage and size of attachments it allows.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks, but I don’t want one. 🙂 Anyway, I don’t think they require invitations anymore.
[QUOTE=einekleine]
Yahoo briefcase has the best, longest track record.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, it’s entirely possible that I’ll just keep using that. I’ve signed up for MediaMax and Xdrive accounts, and so far I like the MediaMax interface the best. I’ll use it for a while and see if I like it better than Briefcase; the Yahoo app does have the advantage of their whole single sign-on thing, and maybe I’ll find out that I just needed to satisfy an itch of seeing what else is out there. 🙂
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### Author:  [@and\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/and_1)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2007, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/14 "2007-02-25T06:53:03Z")
I use [rapidshare.com](http://rapidshare.com) premium. It costs about $11-15/month.
You can use the free “Collector Zone”, which I believe is the exact same as the premium account as far as upload limit goes.
I have 10GB+ uploaded onto my premium account; your upload limit is unlimited. But the filesize per file has a limit of 100MB. So break it up into parts with winRAR if you need to. (On a forum this one guy has 150GB uploaded onto his account.)
With rapidshare, they delete your files if you havn’t accessed, or downloaded, them within 45 days. That’s the only drawback.
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### Author:  [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2007, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/15 "2007-02-25T07:55:10Z")
You could get a keychain-fob USB drive; [here](http://www.colamco.com/store/product/detail.aspx?product=569729) is one that holds 1 GB for $13. You keep your data on your keychain all the time; no server-crashes, no Internet outages. (Obviously, you’ll want to sync it with your hard drive; no sense keeping the only copy of an important document on a $13 drive.)
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/16 "2007-02-25T16:53:15Z")
[QUOTE=and\_1]
With rapidshare, they delete your files if you havn’t accessed, or downloaded, them within 45 days. That’s the only drawback.
[/QUOTE]
I was going to check them out until I read that … 45 days isn’t even half of a semester. Oh well. Thanks for the recommend, though! 🙂
[QUOTE=jackelope]
You could get a keychain-fob USB drive
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=me, in the OP]
Before anyone recommends using a flash drive, or another type of removable media, that won’t work.
[/QUOTE]
But thanks.
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### Author:  [@and\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/and_1)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/17 "2007-02-25T19:12:34Z")
Mediamax looks like a wonderful service–for free! But how long do they keep your data? I couldn’t find it.
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### Author:  [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-free-file-storage-site/393433/18 "2007-02-25T19:22:48Z")
[QUOTE=and\_1]
Mediamax looks like a wonderful service–for free! But how long do they keep your data? I couldn’t find it.
[/QUOTE]
According to the NY Times article that **Dewey Finn** mentioned, they keep it indefinitely.