I've noticed that the wonderful tool Dropbox has received very little attention at Hatrack, and with the permission of the esteemed Kathleen Dalton Woodbury I would like to give you a brief overview and let you know how it can help further your writing goals.

In it's essence Dropbox is cloud computing file hosting service. You sign up for a free account on the website and receive a 2gb folder. Of course you can use this to backup your data and not have to worry about flash drives, but Dropbox goes way beyond simple file storage and access. You can install your dropbox folder on any Windows, Mac, or Linux computer or even on an iPhone or Android phone. You can create shared folders to ease collaborations or just send out photos of your kids.

Here is a well-executed two minute video that goes over the details rather well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4eTR7tci6A

So why am I here shilling for this service? The 2gb free account is great, but if you use Dropbox with any regularity you'll find that amount of storage limiting. There are two ways to increase your space: paying for a pro account or referring others to sign up for a free Dropbox account. If anyone here decides to try out Dropbox and uses the referral link below, I will receive 250mb of storage on my account. (500mb if you have an .edu email address) All I ask is that if you feel that Dropbox is something you'd like to try, please consider using my link.

Thanks for your time! I will update this topic every few days with other tips and tricks for getting the most out of Dropbox, including how to use it as a free webhost, how to email files directly to your account, syncing IM chat logs, password management, and how to launch applications remotely.

Referral Link: http://db.tt/yfQvLQj

As long as you're clear it's not a strictly, uncrackably secure storage, it's spectacular.

But whatever the tool, having an online backup that's easy to stash data into is great. For me it means:

- Security. My laptop got stolen or broken? I'm backed up! Yay! :) Even if I can't afford another one! :(

- Portability. I'm at home and using the desktop machine. At work and want to email someone my latest draft. At the cafe with the laptop, yada yada...

How to encrypt your files for use on Dropbox - http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/IncreasePrivacyAndSafety

Here's an extended explanation of using TrueCrypt to only sync encrypted files for your sensitive info - http://www.scottallen.com/2011/04/how-to-protect-your-files-on-dropbox/

You can accomplish the same "accessible from anywhere", and have more control, by paying for a minimal web hosting account with a real hosting service (NOT one of the freebies)... which start at about $3/mo. for 10GB or so. I pay $6/mo. for 150GB, including unlimited traffic, 1200 mailboxes, 2 domain names, and an FTP account with individual login control.

My point is: while this is a good place to discuss various products that help us as writers it is not a place to get some free advertising or building your google profile. If you want an ad on Mr. Card's site I suggest you pay for it.

JohnColgrave, yes storing on an external harddrive or flash drive is a good solution, but don't make that the only place you store your files. I've had both of them fail me at inopportune times when my only copy of a file was on the HD or flash drive. If the data's important, it should be in at least three places.

Pure Dynasty, as Grayson said, I knew that this topic might potentially go against forum rules, so I emailed Kathleen first and asked if it would be okay. The only thing I'm gaining is a little more storage space if people sign up. Sorry if it reeked of snake-oil; I've worked at an advertising agency for the past four years (in the Accounting department) and I guess it's rubbing off on me. That said, I do think that services such as Dropbox are valuable for working writers and I do plan on adding more tips and such to help those who are interested get the most out of the service.

I use my cloud email as one backup method, usually only for the latest and/or when I know my auto backup isn't slated to run for a few hours. I have a desktop external drive, but I'm wary of it being all my eggs, because I've had the external drive go belly up before. I use a subscription-based EXTERNAL backup service (I use Mozy, but there are others.) I've had to tap that backup before, and it's really really useful when switching to a new computer (can just restore your backup to the new computer and voila!) Your house gets torched in a fire? Computer stolen? Toddler gets at your keyboard and types Format c:? Offsite/external backups are your savior.

I would never consider a thumb drive or portable drive my primary storage (my primary storage is my physical hard drive, which is large and conveniently attached to a large monitor and not likely to move from its spot in the family room except in cases of extreme burglary or natural disaster - in which case see aforementioned offsite backup...)

"In it's essence Dropbox is cloud computing file hosting service."

Cloud computing is the concept of storing your information on the internet instead of on your physical computer. A hosting service is exactly what it sounds like, a service either online or offline at a remote location that stores (or hosts) data.

I've occasionally had random bits of other people's mail show up in my mailbox, after the ISP had some sort of failure and restored from backup. Backup was corrupted. And of course if the backup is from a few days ago... whatever came between is lost.

The best backup for a writer is actually the oldest: the hardcopy printout. There's no digital medium that's anywhere near as reliable, durable, or relatively immune to disaster. A number of pro writers have learned the hard way -- at the end of the day, print your work. Retyping it is a lot easier than recreating it.

The next best is probably the flash drive as they're durable under stress (washing machines, being run over, one that was tested even survived having a nail driven through it!), but that presupposes a method of reading the file. I recently discovered with my camera, that if its flash drive (card, same thing) is full, the computer sees the flash drive as empty and refuses to read it at all. I had to delete a file on the camera to get access back.

I've also rescued a few documents for folks who'd lost access to their editing software or platform, or suffered from corrupted files... salvage is doable if the body is stored as plaintext, but otherwise it's a crapshoot. If you use Word in particular, I'd strongly recommend saving a second copy as plain text.

And NEVER EVER save from Word to an external drive; eventually this WILL corrupt the file. Always save, then copy the file manually. (Old Word bug that dates back to the DOS4 era.)

The fun thing about a system like Hg is that you can make as many backups of the repository as you like with a few keystrokes, and there are plenty of free online storage sites.