Backing up your files is crucial. Just imagine how you'd feel if you lost all the precious photographs you have stored on your computer or lost all your MP3 music files.
There are various ways of backing up; to an external hard drive or to a USB key and, increasingly, to an online account. For example, Carbonite PC Backup service, a Which? Best Buy, backs up files to an online storage area for a flat fee of around ukp27 per year. BT offers a service called Digital Vault, which allows users to upload up to 5GB of files to an online storage area for free, or up to 50GB of files for ukp5 a month. Microsoft's Windows Live offers a service called SkyDrive. This isn't a Best Buy but offers 25GB of online storage free of charge. Here's how it works. 1. Getting started Go to SkyDrive's home page (skydrive.live.com) and, if you have an existing Windows Live account (you will if you use Windows Live Mail, for instance), click Sign in and enter your email address and password. If you don't have a Windows Live account, click the Sign up button and enter an email address, password and your personal details. Accept the terms and conditions and copy the captcha (the disguised characters) into the box provided. 2. Online folders explained By default, Windows Live SkyDrive creates four folders (as shown, below). The My Documents and Favoritesfolders show a padlock to denote that these are secure folders or as SkyDrive puts it they are 'Shared with: Just me.' The folder titled Shared favourites is designed to store your favourite web pages or bookmarks. Finally, the Public folder is for sharing files with your friends and family. 3. Create a shared folder You may have someone with whom you share files regularly and want to set up a dedicated folder exclusively for them. To do this, click Create folder. On the next screen give your folder a name. Click the drop-down arrow beside Share with and choose the Select people option. Next, enter the email address of the person with whom you want to share the folder or select their details from your Windows Live Mail contact list and click Next. 4. Drag-and-drop files A new window will appear showing the message Drop files here. You can drag-and-drop files here in the same way that you can move files around on your computer. Click and hold down the Windows and E keys on your keyboard to launch Windows Explorer. Find the file you want to save to SkyDrive. Select the file using the left-hand button of your mouse and drag the file across to the SkyDrive folder and then click Upload. 5. Edit permissions Now click on the link People I selected (beside Shared with). On the next screen click on the link marked Edit permissions. Click the down arrow at the bottom of the screen to allow the person with whom you are sharing the folder to add, edit and delete files as well as simply sharing them. Using the tick boxes you can also choose to share the file with Everyone or just People in your network (be careful what information you share with everyone). 6. Send a link Click back and then click on the blue link Let people know. Add a message in the box provided and click Send. Tick the box Don't require people to sign in with Windows Live ID in case the person with whom you are sharing the file doesn't have their own Windows Live account. Click Send. Your friend will receive an email with a link that will take them to the Windows Live folder. They will then be able to view or download files. To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
