Is it possible to use Skydrive instead of a external HD for TimeLine (on WinXP)?

Question

I am trying to create an inexpensive, transparent backup solution for a older guy who is not tech savvy, and insists in using XP.

My current idea is to install Genie Timeline on his PC, but I would feel more confident if I could make this totally transparent (I am pretty sure he will soon forget plugging in the external drive, and anyway he is on a very tight budget).

So the best thing would be to point Genie Timeline to an external service. 25 GB (the current MS Skydrive limit) would be enough for him, I think.

Would this work? Anyone can share advice or point to a link on how to do this?

Answer 1

I'm a lead developer on Genie Timeline, and I'm excited to say that we're really, really close to our own cloud-based backup solution! We've been working with several big names in cloud storage, and should have a version of Timeline with online support by the end of the year.

If you like, I'll post an update as soon as we have a beta or initial release available.

We appreciate that no matter how easy we make Genie Timeline to use, so long as people need to first buy an external drive then remember to plug it in each and every time they want to back up their system, backup will remain a real pain in the you-know-where. We hope that a cloud-based Genie Timeline solution will make being too busy to back up a thing of the past.

Now, in response to your initial query, Timeline will theoretically work if you use a cloud-backed storage instead of an external USB disk or network share. Performance will be sub-optimal, seeing as Timeline won't actually know it's writing to the internet instead of a local disk, but you can use a method such as the one described here to get your SkyDrive to be seen by Windows as a mapped network drive; after which a Timeline backup is only a click away!

Answer 2

The maximum file size on SkyDrive is quite low (50MB I think), as it's mainly intended for Office files, documents and photographs. I think Microsoft may also be trying to discourage piracy.

You can get around it to some extent by using SDExplorer, which transparently cuts the file up into chunks, and is a very useful thing to have when using SkyDrive in any case.

I think it would be better for you to use Dropbox, which allows very large files. It is also easier to use with scripting and other programs, as the Dropbox folder has a proper address, while SDExplorer PRO makes itself a network drive, which does not work very fast.

If your client has not got a lot of important data, or would not mind paying for storage, I also recommend Jungle Disk, which backs data up on Amazon S3 servers.