hmmm, not many people here, I guess I can make myself famous by saying something now :)
I've been using DriveHQ storage service for several months, and generally like the service. I have tried other services before, so below is my two cents about why I choose DriveHQ.
Most people have focused too much on the amount of free storage. This is a big mistake. Unfortunately, even some experts also made such mistakes, incl. PC Magazines (and myself, initially...), etc.
Online storage is very different from hard disks. All hard disks are essentially the same. However, online storage services are very different. For example:
- some people feel Gmail is online storage; in reality, it is not. Gmail is email, just like Outlook is not storage, it doesn't have a real file/folder concept, and the attachment file size is generally limited to less than 10MB.
- Yahoo's briefcase has been around for a long time, but it's just plainly not very usable.
- XDrive used to be the largest one (and the best?), but the service has degraded a lot over the years, and it is getting worse after AOL acquired it; of course AOL always does stupid things.
- Box.net and streamload.com don't have good client software, very hard to upload / download many files.
- FilesAnywhere has some good stuff only if you like their UI.
Clearly it doesn't make sense to just compare amount of free storage. E.g. both DriveHQ and Box.net offers 1GB free storage. However, I choose DriveHQ because DriveHQ has way more features than Box.net. DriveHQ FileManager and WWWBackup are awesome. Box.net also claims to offer backup service, but that's misleading -- without an automatic backup tool, it is not a real backup, it's just upload, or storage.
I was attracted by Streamload for it's generous free storage offering. 25GB free storage! But when I actually tried to upload a 1GB video file, I immediately realized their upload tool sucks. Then I noticed the bandwidth limit... and ehh, DriveHQ also has this limit. After a moment of thinking, it makes sense to me: there is no free lunch. Companies spend money and offer good services should at least get their cost covered. You think you are getting something for free, it's not...either it's bad, broken, or they can change the terms and force you to pay later. When most companies are charging $40 for 5GB, offering 25GB for free is suspicious, unless the company has a deep pocket like google.
The worst things are:
- To be forced to pay later,
- The company went out of business.
Who knows? if they don't make money, they will be out of business eventually. and the most risky part is: it is said at least 90% of online storage / backup companies will be out of business in 1-2 years. It is clear to me that the most important criteria is to choose a company that has a viable business, has services that differetiate from others. DriveHQ seems to meet these criteria, and StreamLoad not.