Virtual hard disks are great tools for storing documents, videos, pictures and more. Unfortunately, the online storage you start with is not very impressive, that’s not cool if you have a reasonable amount of data to store. However, there are some free ways to increase the basic available storage. Here's a list of handy little tips to triple your storage without paying anything.
Dropbox has skillfully left a trail of storage-increasing tasks. While the free package offers up to 2GB, which isn’t always enough to sync music, we can increase it to 20GB easily. Just follow the instructions in the guide below.
The first step is to complete five of the steps under the ‘Getting Started’ tab, simply take the Dropbox tour. This will give you a handy 250MB of space for free.
Another easy way is to connect your Dropbox account to Facebook and Twitter. For every social media-related task you will get 125MB. Some of these tasks include: following Dropbox on Twitter or sending a feedback message for Dropbox. By performing such tasks you get can up to 500 MB boost to your cloud storage.
The next easy method to add up to 3 GB (500 MB for every 500 MB of photos and videos you upload) is to install a simple feature called Camera Upload. We can do this from the mobile application on your smartphone or tablet running iOS or Android, or simply by connecting the device to your computer and using the desktop program options.
Once you install the app, all your photos will be uploaded into a new ‘Camera Upload’ folder. Of course, you can revert them back to the original location and enjoy additional lumps of free space.
Attention: all photos will disappear from the mobile! From this point, you can’t access them, but on the other hand, you free up your phone memory.
The last way of getting more Dropbox space is to invite friends. To do this, go to the Referrals Section and start inviting your friends to Dropbox. For each person you successfully make using Dropbox you get 500MB. This way you can get up to 16MB.
Unfortunately, SkyDrive by Microsoft offers less expanded options when it comes to increasing available storage for free. Those who has signed up for SkyDrive before April 2012, can upgrade from 7 GB to 25 GB.
In the past, 25 GB was available for everyone for free. After the major overhaul Microsoft reduced storage limits for new users. Existing users either retain their parameters, or were transferred to the new offer. Users can claim to be grandfathered into the 25GB storage plan. To increase your storage limit click the ‘Free Upgrade’ button.
Regarding Google Drive, it gives users 5 GB for free, by default. The bad news is that there is no option for increasing available storage. However, there are some tricks and tweaks that can help you get the most out of Google Drive. First of all, store the documents in Google Docs format. Thanks to this, they are not included to the limit.
The same with images. Google claims that "files with sufficiently small in size graphic content” will not be included in the disk limit. They did not mention the exact size required, what gives users a free rein to experiment while uploading, for example JPG images at a resolution of 800x 600 or even lower.
Box.net enthusiasts can increase their disk space relatively easily. Simply, they need to keep track of promotions organized by the developers of the application. For instance, in the past, Box.net users could get up to 50 GB ( to free 5 GB ) for only mere installation of the application on their tablet or mobile. Unfortunately, we do not know when exactly this opportunity will repeat.
