Online shared drive

G8AMB · Nov 20, 2012

I have used a few backup services over the last few years S3, Sugarsync, dropbox and Google Drive.

It may be me but non of them seem to offer a solution to my requirement.

Basically I want to move from an aging Macbook with a 750Gbps drive to a new Retina with a more limited 250Gbps. In order to free up space I would like an online drive that I can easily drop files into - for the storage of documents, photos and video.

Most of the services I have tried seem to either sync to your hard drive taking up the valuable space on it or require a complex or unreliable approach to moving files via a browser or application.

I am just looking for a shared drive that happens to be in the cloud.

I have also recently bought a time capsule which I would be happy to use as the shared drive. But if I go down this approach I can't seem to find reliable method of backing it up to the cloud,

Does anyone have a solution for either of these problems?

BrianBaughn · Nov 20, 2012

Check into WebDAV. It's been around for quite a while.

G8AMB · Nov 21, 2012

BrianBaughn said:
Check into WebDAV. It's been around for quite a while.

Many thanks for the reply.

I have used webdav before and it is exactly what I want. But the sync services don't seem to provide that sort of interface. There are third party subscription based front ends that do. But that seems a bit complicated/expensive.

Do you use webdav with cloud storage?

BrianBaughn · Nov 21, 2012

I set it up with my domain host just as an experiment. It worked, but I don't use it...it's too slow. It would be OK for small files as files take just as long to download/open as they would from FTP. I suppose music and maybe video would stream with enough bandwidth, but big photos would have to load in their entirety to view. So if you're thinking access while on the road then you're probably not going to be happy with accessing larger files via WebDAV.

Rackspace is supposed to have WebDAV capabilities. Pricing depends on storage/traffic.

If you just want a cloud backup, one of the online backup services would suffice backing up an external drive connected to your new computer at your house. Or, use the external drive for your Dropbox or Google Drive folder.

What exactly do you need to access when not at home?

Weaselboy · Nov 21, 2012

G8AMB said:
Many thanks for the reply.

I have used webdav before and it is exactly what I want. But the sync services don't seem to provide that sort of interface. There are third party subscription based front ends that do. But that seems a bit complicated/expensive.

Do you use webdav with cloud storage?

http://www.box.com

I do think webdav would do what you want. You can try with a free Box account as they support webdav. I use the FTP app Forklift to access my webdav storage on Box. I have not tinkered with it, but I see Forklift (and other FTP clients) have little "droplet" apps you can put on the desktop and just drop a file on the droplet and it would be uploaded to your Box webdav storage. This would keep no local copy like you want.

G8AMB · Nov 22, 2012

Thanks I will have a look at box.

I use Amazon S3 and 3 Hub at the moment which kind of does what I want.

I didn't think you could link google drive or drop box accounts to external storage - can you?

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Online shared drive

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