Filed under: Internet, Windows, Social Software, Web
Livedrive goes live (online storage and backup)
by Brad Linder Feb 18th 2009 at 2:00PM
You can certainly find cheaper online backup solutions (Mozy and Carbonite come to mind). But Livedrive offers a few features that you won't find from other services, including integration with Windows Explorer and social features like Facebook integration. And once your files are uploaded to Livedrive's servers, you can access them from any computer with a web browser.
If you signed up during the beta, Livedrive is offering a 20% discount to the first 10,000 beta testers who sign up for paid accounts.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
free4t said 2:25PM on 2-18-2009
I may have gone with the 100gb plan but the 1 computer thing is a definite dealbreaker for me. It really makes the service quite useless in my opinion. And the unlimited plan is just way to expensive.
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Paul said 3:06PM on 2-18-2009
Thank you for pointing that out free4t, I was also considering signing up but that silly 1 computer rule makes it not worth it. Why do they care if is installed in one or 10 or 20 computers anyways? as long as users are not uploading more than the 100 gigs paid for, it should be okay, but for them it is isn't....
It sounds fishy to me, and I will stay away.
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Paul said 3:16PM on 2-18-2009
Just to clarify, I have 3 computers, my desktop (main) and two laptops that I use for school and travel, and I need to able to upload from the 3 of them if I want to.
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Fred said 4:55PM on 2-18-2009
Need to go check out dropbox.com as well. 2gb free, plus auto backup, integration with explorer and autosynching with other systems.
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JP said 5:10PM on 2-18-2009
How about using DropBox? I like it a lot. http://getdropbox.com
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zach said 5:10PM on 2-18-2009
Check out SkyDrive. It is 25G free. There is a Gladinet program that can mount SkyDrive into Windows Explorer. so you can use SkyDrive's 25G from as many computers as possible with Gladinet. Microsoft is the company behind SkyDrive so SkyDrive is likely to stay. There is also Amazon S3 integration there. Amazon S3 is very cheap pay as you go model. If you only use 1G, you only pay for 1G.
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Taylor. Yes, Taylor. said 6:52PM on 2-18-2009
Is there a way to do this using my own server? I use FTP now but explorer integration isn't that great. Is there a better way to integrate into explorer using FTP or some other service? I'd love a seamless thing like this without having to rely on anyone else.
-Taylor
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bigsofty said 9:32AM on 2-19-2009
Installing on one computer is to dissuade file sharing... at it current price, its not worth it for me.
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Michael E. Rubin said 8:43PM on 2-18-2009
I know the main point of the article is Livedrive, but you also mentioned Carbonite. I would just like to point out that Carbonite was recently busted for engaging in sleazy stealth marketing practices. Some of their executives were caught posting reviews on Amazon under phony names without disclosing that they were employees.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/carbonite-stacks-the-deck-on-amazon/
Disclosure: I have no affiliation with Carbonite, Livedrive, or any of the companies mentioned here.
---
Michael E. Rubin
twitter: merubin // 847-370-3421
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Bryan Price said 4:35AM on 2-19-2009
I had it installed on my Vista laptop. Shortly thereafter, I had to do a repair of Vista just to get it booting again. I then did a wipe and installed Win 7 minus Livedrive.
I installed it on my 2003 workstation, putting the cache drive on a secondary drive. Because of the disk contention that it causes, just loading up Firefox or bringing up the Add/Remove Programs box meant waiting 15 minutes or more instead of under 5 seconds without it. It's a quad core not doing a damn thing according to procexp. And what the hell it was doing is a good question. I normally just kept it off it was so obnoxious. And then to find out that beta is ending, they want real money? Forget it. And yeah, I thought the 1 computer plan was extremely stupid. I can get two computers and two gigabytes free at Mozy just for asking.
So I thought I'd do them a favor and delete everything I had there. Well, guess what, deletion of non-empty folders is something that they are coming up with Real Soon Now. So now that I've uninstalled their software (first thing I did when I got the email), I use the web interface to delete the files, sometimes forcing me to reload the page because the web interface decides to fritz out, usually after I deleted a 60 file chunk, the largest you can delete.
Screw it. I'm done with them. Won't be back. I don't see ever.
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notifymeplease said 5:40AM on 2-19-2009
Hi,
Here's my 5 cents. I think the service is overpriced too much. I think it is my cheaper to get yourself a server or place on server from a rpovider and use some software like SyncToy to synch the data.
By the way, there're also many good 3rd-party software that do this for much less money, like Handy Backup. This one also provides a remote backup service for something like $5. So, the LiveDrive is obviously missing something their with their pricing.
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notifymeplease said 6:54AM on 2-20-2009
Here's the link to Novosoft Remote Data Backup service: http://remotedatabackup.net
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Edouin said 10:17PM on 3-27-2009
$2/GB/Month.
So, I have over 200Gb of data I was archived, safe and accessible. At the prices they are looking for, I would have to shell out $100 a month, or $1200 a year.
Gee, it's nice they give the backup software for free!
Yup. Big savings there...
Edouin said 10:17PM on 3-27-2009
Sounds to me like you are all hung up on the "Beta" or "Testing" version of LiveDrive. Of course they were not going to give out all the best toys with the free version, not all the best tools and options.
Has anyone taken a look at the Commercial version now out? No? I have. Let me enlighten you a bit (no, I'm not being condescending, just trying to be helpful here)
1. Each subscription comes with licenses for 10 devices - be it computer, netbook, laptop, smartphone, or whatever.
2. Backup software? Why? With unlimited space, just back up the whole bloody computer to your LiveDrive! That's kind of extreme, so why not keep it for data and other important stuff (emails,downloads, drivers, stuff like that)
3. No need to set backup times, or worry about incremental backups. LiveDrive makes a backup copy the instant you add/remove/change/amend/start/close/edit/whatever any document or file.
4. No need to have access to one of your own computers when on the road. If you know your password, the Web Portal is enough to access any of your documents, and with built-in "add-ons", LiveDrive allows you to open and edit about a dozen common document types online, save them and close them. As soon you have saved the file on the Web Portal, the same document will be updated on your computer.
6. If you really feel the need to do a whole computer "back-up", then use the one that comes with Windows (Windows Backup and Restore) and save a few bucks. What do you care how much space it uses?
7. Speed. Because LiveDrive does not use Internet software, but its own proprietary software, uploads and downloads are blazingly fast! I was amazed how fast my first 30GB folder was uploaded!
8. I could go on, but I think you may be interested enough to go back and look at LiveDrive's website again, eh?
http://livedrive.com
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BLatSD said 3:27PM on 3-28-2009
As a LiveDrive user, I am rather amazed at some of the negative comments here. I've been checking out Online Storage sites now for some time. The differences are vast. Service satisfaction in an online storage solution have more to do with personal needs and features offered.
Sure, some of the services mentioned here are cheaper but my finding is that their feature sets are quite dismal for the price paid in comparison to LiveDrive . When you compaire apples to apples, the only service that's fair to compare with - feature set-wise - is FilesAnywhere, and their prices are just plain outrageous.
The features I needed were Online Storage, FTP access, Public & Private Sharing, Transfer Security, a nice Web interface with online features such as direct audio & video file playing, and finally, a decent mobile site or application. None of the other sites mentioned here come close.
LiveDrive excels in all of these areas. Their site and software is solid & reliable. Plus, you can't beat the price for what you get. The "One Computer" issue is easily overcome by just using their web portal. You can upload/download files from/to as many computers as you want. Only their local virutal drive software has the one computer limitation on the cheaper priced account.
Also, their support is awesome. I get answers to support issues within 24 hours. I'm still wating for support replies from many of the other services I've tried.
Is LiveDrive perfect? No, the local LiveDrive cache eats up drive space. It maintains a separate cache/copy of every file you upload. So if you were to backup your entire computer, you would need an equivalent amount of drive space to store the cache. Also, their FTP service only has a date timestamp (all file timestamps show 12:00am) which they were aware of and intend to address once other priorities are addressed.
My most recent trial was ADrive. They have a lot of space at a fair price, but it doesn't stack up feature set wise. Plus their response to support issues were unsatisfactory, and their unannounced periodic maintenance was always taking the site/service offline when I needed it the most.
And I want to get a warning in here. Never use a site called "Online Storage Solution". They are a total rip-off. Lots of space, but no trial, and once they get your credit card info, forget about invoking their 30-day money back guarantee. Say goodbye to your money and get ready to go to your bank to void out your credit card to keep them from charging you month-to-month for a service you've already canceled.
No, I'm not an employee of LiveDrive. Just a happy customer who has FINALLY found a service that meets my needs for an affordable price. It may not be right for you, and it's obviously not right for some of the people here, but for me, it's great.
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Ben Lovejoy said 7:33AM on 4-29-2009
Does anyone know where the Livedrive cache is stored? Ie. the full path to the cache directory? Because it seems Livedrive 'Support' doesn't ...
I tried to backup a drive that was 2/3rds full and it crashed because it was duplicating every file locally first for some bizarre reason known only to Livedrive.
I've uninstalled Livedrive, but the crappy uninstaller hasn't deleted the cache and I can't find it.
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Bryan Price said 9:44PM on 5-02-2009
~LD is the hidden directory that you need to blow away.
Ben Lovejoy said 9:44PM on 5-02-2009
Thanks, Bryan. I eventually extracted that info from Livedrive. The 'support' people still don't seem to understand their own product, and I gave up trying to explain to them that, no, I didn't want online-only storage, I wanted my files left where they were, I just didn't want a second copy of my entire hard drive on my hard drive ...
Rob said 9:44PM on 5-02-2009
Wow, that is a crappy deal. Windows Live Mesh has a MUCH nicer client and is free, plus is unlikely to disappear as it's from Microsoft. It also works on Macs and will work on as many computers as you want, and can sync files to multuple computers; eg. I add a photo on my laptop, it is syncronized to a Microsoft server, and from there my Imac downloads the file. It's simple, elegant, and free. There is a 5gb limit, but if you are backing up documents, that really isn't much of a limit. And at 57$, I could get a very nice drive that's quite a bit larger than 100gb (eg. 320gb) for larger files such as photos or videos.
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