Cloud Storage Solutions - Google Drive and Dropbox

Did you know there are over 25 different cloud storage solutions available?  Some of free and some cost as low as $1 a month to over $8 a month.  They all have similar features and some which are unique to themselves.  This article will cover only Google Drive and Dropbox and an effective means of using them both for your mobile device and for your day-to-day operations.

- Use It For Your Camera Picture and Video Backup




Dropbox is one of the free to use or you can subscribe and get more space.  If you follow the advice of this article, the free version is just enough and they offer many ways to earn extra storage space at no cost.  For example, one of several methods of getting extra space for free is by referring friends.  Doing this you can gain up to 16GB of free storage!  For more information on earning free space, click here.  Sometimes if you purchase a new computer device you may be eligible for free space.  In my case, I purchased a Samsung Galaxy S10.5 tablet in early 2015 and I was awarded 48GB of free space!  My space including all of the free methods of increasing space has given me a total 54GB!  I have been a user of Dropbox since 2011.

So what do I do with all this space?  I use it for automatic syncing of my pictures on my cell phone and on the tablet.  The Dropbox app is perfect for this when you open settings and enable camera uploads.  When I take a picture it is saved to my cell but immediately a copy is uploaded to the "Camera Uploads" folder in Dropbox.  If you are low on data or don't want Dropbox to use your data, you can change the setting in the Dropbox app to upload only over wireless.

As with most cloud storage solutions, you can access your Dropbox account from any internet-based computer by going to their website.  There is also a desktop client you can install which will put a "drive" on your local computer, allowing you to easily drag and drop files between your computer and Dropbox as well as browsing, sorting, naming, editing, etc., those files stored.  Files and folders can be shared with others as well.

For current Dropbox pricing information click here.

- Use It For Everything Else





Google Drive is another excellent free storage solution with the option of subscribing for a very low cost for more storage space.  By itself it gives you a location to store documents which you can access from any internet-based device.  It too has a desktop client to go along with the mobile app making editing files, adding and removing files and sharing files with others a breeze.

By default, you are given a whopping 15GB of storage space for free!!  Impressive to say the least.  Google gives you several options for upgrading.  You can upgrade anywhere from 100GB to 30TB if you so desire for as low as $1.99 a month.  For current Google Drive pricing information click here. 

The way I use this service is for everything else.  I have all my pictures and photos sync to Dropbox and have all my other documents, spreadsheets, etc., are stored in Google Drive.  The biggest benefit of storing these files in Google Drive, aside from being able to access them from anywhere, is the use of Google Apps: Docs, Sheets and Slides.  With these free apps provided by Google, which are low-scale Office compatible alternatives, I can open, view and edit any of my files as needed - even on my cell phone!  Collaboration is something Google Apps are really good at, multiple people can edit and interact with the same document each with a revision history making it a good choice for business use as well.

Plus my files are backed up on Google's server so in the unlikely but possible event my only laptop should die tomorrow I don't need to worry about losing all my important files.  With the desktop client, I can easily drag and drop everything and arrange the folders on Google Drive as I see fit.

It also means, if I upgrade my Windows OS to the next version and the upgrade goes awry and I loss everything I merely just reformat my hard drive, reinstall my old OS and then download/install the Google client and I am back in business.    Or if I don't want the client installed, I can still do everything through my web browser - though it won't be as easy as a click and drag.

Between the two, when used as directed in this article, you will have excellent storage backups in case of hardware failure or theft.  You will have the ability to update your resume or create one while eating lunch at your favorite restaurant who provides wireless access in case your device doesn't have cellular data capability.  You can collaborate files from Drive with co-workers or friends and share photos or videos with family members.  Together these apps work wonderful.

My USB drive won't format in Windows!

In times where using Explorer/My Computer will not format the drive, there are a couple of easy to do things to possibly make it work again in Windows.

(Screenshot of Windows 8.1 Professional)

First you will need to open "Computer Management".  There are two easy ways to do this you can click on Start then in the search box type compmgmt.msc and press enter. 

You could also right click on My Computer from the desktop or "This PC" from the Start menu, just depends on which version of Windows you are using.  Then select "Manage" from the submenu. 

Both ways will open Computer Management.  Then expand, if needed, the Storage section on the left side of the screen and click on Disk Management from the submenu.

Now select the flash drive from either location as indicated in the screenshot.  Right click on the drive or partition volume and then click the Format option.

You'll be prompted for a few options to choose from, here you will be able to rename the device.  I usually use my full name, followed by a number based on how many flash drives I own.  Granted this doesn't really help any should the device get lost - unless I misplace it at work, which case a co-worker could plug it into their computer and see the name and know to return it to me.

You are also given the option of doing a quick format.  A Quick Format usually works fine for this but, if it fails to format the device then repeat the steps and uncheck the box. 

A regular format may take a very long time, depending on how large your drive storage is! 

You can also change the File System type.  The options are FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT.  If you don't believe you'll use the drive on anything but a Windows computer then you can change the type to NTFS. 

If you are going to use the drive on Legacy Windows or OS X systems (Leopard and older) change the type to FAT32.  The exFAT option is for highest compatibility between modern Windows and OS X computers, a drive formatted exFAT will play happily between both operating systems.  Linux users would need to install exFAT drivers.

Click OK when ready.  Once it has finished, you can close Computer Management and eject the drive like normal.

There may be an occasion where this will not work.  If this happens, download the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.  When using this tool, do not perform a Quick Format.  You'll get better results, though a bit slower to process using regular formatting.  You can find this utility by clicking this link.  If this link is broken, do a search for the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool using your favorite search engine.