Your own ‘drive’ in Net ‘sky’

Users can upload and store their files in three foldersThere is a generous limit of 50 MB for any one fileBANGALORE: If you have portable hard drives and large-capacity memory sticks that you lug on your travels, prepare to shed them now.Microsoft is offering free personal and secure storage on the Web of a whopping 5 gigabytes to users registered for its Windows Live services.Users of its Hotmail e-mail service can access this virtual hard drive on the web using the same name and password.The service, which was in a beta form with limited storage and went live last week across the world, can be accessed at http://skydrive.live.com/.Users can upload and store their files in three folders: “Personal,” which they alone can access; “Share with friends,” which will be open to designated friends who are also registered Windows Live users; and a “Share with the World,” where one can place files that are open to the wider public to view.Possibilities This is arguably the largest free virtual storage offered so far by any Web player and opens up a lot of possibilities for us, lay users of the Internet: One can upload photos or documents for public consumption... useful for those, like teachers or public speakers who like to quickly share the text of their talks, courses or even Powerpoint-type presentation material.Many usesThere is a generous limit of 50 MB for any one file. In fact, frequent speakers can store their PPT archive so that they can update and give any of their lectures as and when required, without having to carry their material on CDs or thumb drives.One can post photos or travelogues for a limited circle... ‘shaadi’ albums for the viewing pleasure of close friends and relatives.The personal store will be particularly useful to keep copies of important documents — copies of e-tickets, short duration insurance policies, hotel booking records, visa references, scans of important documents such as degree certificates and birth or marriage records — which can easily be retrieved if the originals are lost.SecurityMicrosoft’s Windows Live head in India, Samir Saraiya, says that the level of security is similar to that of online banking... all file transfers are protected using what is known asSecure Socket Layer.There have been other online store services, mostly for virtual photo albums and the like, but the flexibility of Skydrive makes it a formidable offering and the size of the storage makes it comparable with what one would get on the solid state drive of an Ultra Mobile PC today. Courtesy: The Hindu