Free Online Cloud Backup

If you don't backup your files, its not a matter of if but when you will loose your files. 

CDs can break or get scratched. Computer, USB, and external hard drives can fail at any time, often without warning.

Attempting to recover lost data can cost thousands of dollars, and is often impossible.

 

If you experience a burglary, fire or natural disaster, there’s a good chance your hardware backups will be affected as well.

People accidentally delete files all the time.

Viruses can also erase important files.

Backing up your files manually to CDs, USBs, or external hard drives can take a lot of time. (And you may forget to do it regularly.)

There are several Cloud Storage services, and you may end up getting confused with the huge number of Free & Paid options. After careful research we have narrowed down to just 2 that seem to be the most suitable that you can use to backup your important information.

1. Google Drive

Google Drive is at the heart of the various online services that Google currently offers.

You get 15GB of free space when you create a Google account - or link to an existing one. In fact, you already have a Drive account if you use Gmail, Google Calendar, or even YouTube. You get 30 GB per account for paid Google Apps accounts.

The storage space is shared across all these services, so if you have large attachments on emails then they will count in the 15GB, and enabling the automatic photo backup to Google+ from a smartphone acts the same way.

Google is turning Drive into a much more robust backup tool. Instead of files having to live inside of the Drive folder, Google will be able to monitor and backup files inside of any folder you point it to. That can include your desktop, your entire documents folder, or other more specific locations.

The backup feature is in the form of a new app called Backup and Sync. It sounds like the Backup and Sync app will replace both the standard Google Drive app and the Google Photos Backup app, at least in some cases. Google is recommending that regular consumers download the new app once it’s out, but it says that business users should stick with the existing Drive app for now.

Link: https://www.google.com/drive/download/

If you live in the Google universe then it really is an excellent storage option.

2. Mega.nz

Mega is a New Zealand-based company that was set up by the German-born entrepreneur Kim Dotcom in 2013, who now has no involvement with it. Mega puts its security credentials front and centre. Unlike some of its rivals, this service provides encryption in every part of the process. So anything you send to the cloud is encrypted locally, on-route, and on the destination server.

Mega itself doesn’t have any way of accessing your information, as you hold the encryption key. The upshot of all this is that anything you store on Mega is only able to be opened by you. To achieve this there are local clients for Windows, OS X, and Linux, plus there are also secure browser plugins for Chrome and Firefox. Apps are available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and even Blackberry.

The standard free package affords a whopping 50GB of space. If this isn't enough you can have 500GB (99 Euros per year), 2TB (199 Euros per year), or 4TB (299 Euros per year) and increased bandwidth with each package so you can share files back and forth with friends.

Sharing is easy with other members of Mega, behaving in much the same way as Google Drive and Onedrive, by allowing you to send an invitation to a friend and set the level of actions they can complete (view, edit, etc.) You can also send links to non-Mega users, but this involves also privately sending them an encryption key so they can access the files.

With its generous free account, fast service, cross platform appeal, and highly secure nature, Mega is a very good choice for most people looking for an online storage solution.

3. Backblaze

Backblaze offers my favorite unlimited plan for online backup because it's super-simple.

Few if any would have trouble figuring out how to install their backup software and get everything important backed up to the cloud.

Backblaze costs $5.00 /month for unlimited online backup for one computer. If you're willing to pay up front for 2 years of service, the price comes down to $3.96 /month.