January 7, 2007
Technology Review: Xdrive
After reading Pogue’s Post about free online storage, I had to try out one of the services. Xdrive is an AOL subsidiary and provides 5 gigs of free online storage. It has a fairly sophisticated web interface that allows most uploading. The real ease of use comes with downloading the desktop software. This software makes the storage space seem like one of the drives on your computer.
Overall, there are not many better deals than free. I had a few problems uploading folders with large numbers of files (namely family photos). First I tried just using the web interface because I did not have time to install software the first night. It was intuitive for the simple task of uploading folders. One small usability note: I really wanted to drag folders onto the interface and my mouse icon seemed to indicated that I could but you must use the “Add” button then use a traditional Windows Browse function to select folders.
I selected two folders with about 237 MB of photo files. The upload started and all seemed fine. After about 10 files, however, I got a message that said, “an error has occurred that does not have a scripted message.” Score two points for an honest system. It could have given some strange hex code that no one on earth could interpret. The interface would then start a 30 second count to attempt to reconnect to the server and then the same process would repeat. I thought it might be a firewall issue but every few minutes it would give a fairly long sustained burst of uploading. Finally those files were up but I decided to see if the desktop software fared any better.
The desktop software was easy to install and set up. Instructions for navigating my Norton firewall were simple enough. It seemed to work right off the bat with a couple of small test uploads. Then I loaded up about 300 megs and the same server error occurred. Only this time it cause my Windows Explorer (not IE) to crash and , as all you Windows folks know, when Windows Explorer hangs, you might recover but you might lose some other processes at the same time. The first time I recovered, the second time required a system reboot.
It is quite possible that the service was getting hammered due to the publicity from the NY Times article. The software itself seems solid and the features are easy to use. There are some nice auto-backup features I have not explored yet. I am going to give it a bit of time to get through the subscriber boost and then try again. If you want to try smaller uploads, it will probably work fine. I am impressed with the quality of the applications and the price for 5 gigs is reasonable!
Posted by Rovy at January 7, 2007 10:26 PM
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