NeutralAxis

As long as I’m mentioning Carbonite today, I may as well give a little mini review of Dropbox too.  In essence, Dropbox makes a folder that resides on multiple computers simultaneously.  While I rely on Carbonite to save me from disaster, I use Dropbox as a simple convenience when I’m needing to work on a file from multiple locations.  You start by installing Dropbox on two computers where you want to be able to access the same files.  When you install Dropbox it creates a new folder called “My Dropbox” inside your “My Documents” folder.  From that point on, anything stored in “My Dropbox” on Computer A will appear in “My Dropbox” on Computer B in a few minutes.  The file takes up space on both computers, so there are definitely two distinct copies, but they’re connected such that any change made on one computer gets propagated to the other computer automatically.  Deleting a file from the dropbox folder on either computer also deletes it from the other.  I can verify that Dropbox works across at least 4 systems and cross platform (Windows/Linux in my case.)

From the Dropbox website you can also log into your account and retrieve files from computers where Dropbox isn’t installed, so they’re storing a copy too.  You either need to trust that they’re encryption and security works, or don’t put sensitive files into your Dropbox.

I’ve used Dropbox to very good affect when I’m working on a project both at work, home, and mobile.  I can keep the working file in My Dropbox and know that wherever I happen to be, the current version of the file will be available to me.

Dropbox