Travel Technology - Microsoft SkyDrive: get your 25GB if you have a Hotmail account

Microsoft updated its SkyDrive cloud storage service to more closely mirror Dropbox. As a result they downgraded the free storage to 7GB for new users.

However, Hotmail users can for a limited time continue to use the original 25GB allotment, but you have to sign up through your Hotmail ID. From what I read elsewhere, MSN and Live IDs don't qualify, but edu addresses do.

If you sign in with your Hotmail ID here, it should give you the option for 25GB. If you don't qualify, you're stuck with 7GB.
https://skydrive.live.com/

It seems to work well. The file size limit is 2GB but only through the desktop client. Web browser upload is limited to 300MB. Additional GB pricing beats everyone else. No Android app yet and desktop app does not work easily with XP.

This is definitely Microsoft using its financial clout to copy the best of competitors then undercut with their deeper pockets. At this time though, consumers are the winner.

And yet - who has ever heard of Microsoft SkyDrive.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/18048451-post9.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/911386-skydrive-folders-versus-files-workaround-post11093757.html?highlight=skydrive#post11093757

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/1181874-cloud-computing-os-post15833574.html?highlight=skydrive#post15833574

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/1093332-recommendations-portable-hard-drive-post14108483.html?highlight=skydrive#post14108483

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/1051645-moving-large-files-post13384031.html?highlight=skydrive#post13384031

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/979793-windows-live-hotmail-help-photo-attatch-post12149173.html?highlight=skydrive#post12149173

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/933195-help-evaluating-nas-solution-post11442959.html?highlight=skydrive#post11442959

If you sign in with your Hotmail ID here, it should give you the option for 25GB. If you don't qualify, you're stuck with 7GB.
https://skydrive.live.com/


thanks for the link.

logged in with my MSN Live ID. It gave me the option of a free upgrade to 25GB as an existing "loyal" skydrive user. I guess I must have signed up for it at some point. I didn't have any files there.

i guess it's worth checking, they said something about it being a limited time offer.

-David

I thought I already had 25GB with my Hotmail account, but I didn't. Thanks for this reminder.

My school (.edu) uses Microsoft Online to administer their e-mails now, and I have a 25GB SkyDrive account associated with that, too.

Thanks also. I signed in with my hot mail account and got the free 25Gb. Now I just need to start using it. I am a dropbox user.

Wonderful, now I got additional free cloud storage (25GB) for backup purposes - 7GB was nice then with my "old" MSN email account, it was created back in the old Verizon DSL days bundled with once grandfathered MSN (since converted to free account) - definitely not linked to *.edu although I could've gotten one with my alumni status ...

I guess now I will have to come up with my scheme on how to optimize where I store files & folders between Google, Dropbox & SkyDrive. Up till now, I've used it mostly to sync. my mobile devices & tablets and store certain encrypted files it - but 20+G is good as long as it remained free.

We have another live account but had trouble logging into SkyDrive, oh well ... ** (Edit: updated, see below)

Yup, it's being offered to current SkyDrive users for a limited time, sign in and upgrade for free, while it last :D

Postscript (update): - Working password as used on 2nd. *@live.com didn't work & finally did a password "Reset" and it's good - SkyDrive was active and 7GB storage space, and, the free option to upgrade to 25GB was offered. Click on the link & it's been up-sized, activated for "cloud" use. Now, with up to 50GB in total available cloud space, this is going to be great - especially since our Fios 25/25 speed will make good use of those extra upstream speed to move files back & forth as needed ...

Interesting... but I think I still prefer a combination on Dropbox and Google Docs (supposedly being rebranded "GDrive" soon). The advantage of DropBox is that is cross-platform and works on iOS, Blackberry and Android devices too and is an easy way of moving data between devices.

If you think you had to be an existing SkyDrive user to take advantage of the offer for additional space, that doesn't seem to be the case. I know I never signed up for anything but a Hotmail account (which, actually, I never use).

When I signed in just now, I noticed a SkyDrive link at the top of the page. Clicking on it and selecting "Storage Management" allowed me to upgrade to 25GB, even though I had never used the service (or asked for/enabled/subscribed to it).

I was sad b/c both my .edu and hotmail were at 7GB, but you have to "manage storage" to see the free upgrade option. It wasn't automatically offered or anything when i accessed my sky drive. But now I've upgraded both to 25GB. Good deal!

I have an hotmail account for ages. Did the SkyDrive yesterday, no option to get 25GB for free. Am I missing something?

I was sad b/c both my .edu and hotmail were at 7GB, but you have to "manage storage" to see the free upgrade option. It wasn't automatically offered or anything when i accessed my sky drive. But now I've upgraded both to 25GB. Good deal!

How do you get to the 'manage storage' option?

Hmmm, I just tried it and was invited to pay for anything over 7GB.

Also tried this for the first time, no option to upgrade to 25, anything over 7 is at a charge.

I have an hotmail account for ages. Did the SkyDrive yesterday, no option to get 25GB for free. Am I missing something?Had you used SkyDrive before? It's possible it was targeted at existing users.

I have an hotmail account for ages. Did the SkyDrive yesterday, no option to get 25GB for free. Am I missing something?

did you login with your hotmail credentials?

-David

did you login with your hotmail credentials?

-David

Yes, I did.

When going to "manage storage" it only offers me to purchase.
And no, I didn`t use SkyDrive before.

Got the 25GB for free, thanks for the tip.

The loyalty offer was given to those who have had active SkyDrive accounts prior to April 23, 2012; having a Windows Live account does not mean that you’ve had an active SkyDrive all along. You become eligible for this free 25GB upgrade only if you have uploaded files to SkyDrive in the past.
If there has been no data uploaded, then you are not eligible.
To verify if you are eligible for the Loyalty Offer, please log into http://skydrive.live.com and the on the left-hand menu click Manage Storage. On this page you will see an invitation to take part in the Loyalty Offer if you meet the eligibility requirements. If you still require assistance after verifying yourself, here is a link to billing support page where they can research your account and provide further assistance. Please go to this link: https://support.live.com/default.aspx?productKey=skydrivebilling and fill out the information.

I don't recall using SkyDrive before, but I was still able to go to "Manage storage" and select the 25 GB option as FREE.

Could I have used SkyDrive before without even noticing it? Under the "date modified" header I'm seeing the dates 6/4/2012 listed...

I don't recall using SkyDrive before, but I was still able to go to "Manage storage" and select the 25 GB option as FREE.

Could I have used SkyDrive before without even noticing it? Under the "date modified" header I'm seeing the dates 6/4/2012 listed...

Maybe you just got lucky?!

Maybe you just got lucky?!

Or maybe because I've been with them for a very, very, very long time. :)

Just upgraded too. The Sky Drive thing is pretty nifty actually, Microsoft have upped their game recently.

Although I did the upgrade just because I found this thread here, I have yet to use SkyDrive and find a reason to do so. :)

I don't exactly need to share a file between multiple computers, it won't fit all my photos either, as a Mac user I'm fine syncing everything as it is, hmm...

The loyalty offer was given to those who have had active SkyDrive accounts prior to April 23, 2012; having a Windows Live account does not mean that you’ve had an active SkyDrive all along. You become eligible for this free 25GB upgrade only if you have uploaded files to SkyDrive in the past.
If there has been no data uploaded, then you are not eligible.
To verify if you are eligible for the Loyalty Offer, please log into http://skydrive.live.com and the on the left-hand menu click Manage Storage. On this page you will see an invitation to take part in the Loyalty Offer if you meet the eligibility requirements. If you still require assistance after verifying yourself, here is a link to billing support page where they can research your account and provide further assistance. Please go to this link: https://support.live.com/default.aspx?productKey=skydrivebilling and fill out the information.

I do not recall ever activating the service, and when I selected SkyDrive from the links at the top of my Hotmail window, it showed 0 bytes of storage in use (and I'm quite sure I've never uploaded anything to it). Nevertheless, I had the option to upgrade to 25GB for free.

If you have an existing @live.com and/or @msn.com email address(es) or accounts previously established, chances are good that you have at least 7GB free storage - perhaps unaware of it? When spouse & I were using Windows mobile devices, our nightly automated account backups were linked to these 2 accounts - and one of tied to an expired/grandfathered MSN subscription bundle with Verizonwireless - which in any event, auto-converted into a free account. I had stored some documents & several folders worth of vacation photos on it a few years back, mostly for backup/archive purposes & nearly forgotten about it while doing pc upgrades, etc.

Over the weekend, I've managed to "revive" an old Dell Latitude notebook PC by slipping Win7 on it, tweaked it & put SkyDrive on it (instead of spending $$ for a bigger & new HDD) so it's great to "stream" MP4 videos from it - just barely meeting SD's hardware requirements ... LOL

Now that most of us got additional iOS (ipads) and Android tablets running, there's no question that DropBox are often preferred, and Google Drive's 5GB free cloud storage is another welcome resources - it's a win-win situation for end users. Certain information, however, remained offline and stored on a "local" device ...

The loyalty offer was given to those who have had active SkyDrive accounts prior to April 23, 2012; having a Windows Live account does not mean that you’ve had an active SkyDrive all along. You become eligible for this free 25GB upgrade only if you have uploaded files to SkyDrive in the past.


holy cow... I logged in... apparently I signed up back in 2008(!) and uploaded one test file(a 200k phone ringtone mp3 file)... I have not used it after all these year... but since I had a file uploaded there, it meant I was eligible for free upgrade to 25GB. Cool! :)

Could I have used SkyDrive before without even noticing it? Under the "date modified" header I'm seeing the dates 6/4/2012 listed...

Is this something that Hotmail/Microsoft could have done on their end, because I don't recall ever using SkyDrive?

doesn't google drive also give 20gb for free?

doesn't google drive also give 20gb for free?

I was wondering the same thing... but after searching up and down my Google Drive account, I only see 5GB of free storage. :(

Dropbox appears to be significantly faster than Drive or Spideroak, at least at the smartphone interface. I put some jpegs into each and then tried to view them on my phone. Both Drive and SO displayed a spinning icon for quite a while before displaying (uploading) the pic, and never offered a preview, even after the full pic was uploaded. Dropbox was much faster in displaying the pics, and also offered a small preview of all the pics when in the pic directory, even before selecting a pic for viewing.

Dropbox lets me scroll from pic to pic in the same directory, Drive and SO force me to go back to the directory and select the next pic file.

Kind of surprised at Google's lack of "coolness" with Drive.

Is there a way to download files from the SkyDrive app to my iPad? For instance, I uploaded a couple of pdfs to skydrive and want to download into ibooks. I know I can do this in safari, but wondering if there is a way to download out of SkyDrive.

EDIT: I'm dumb. Completely missed the option at the bottom to open in another app. :p
SkyDrive is now super-useful for me. And in my unscientific tests, speed between SD and DB seem close enough. And I get more storage with SD. Haven't tried SpiderOak or Google Drive yet.

Dropbox appears to be significantly faster than Drive or Spideroak, at least at the smartphone interface. I put some jpegs into each and then tried to view them on my phone. Both Drive and SO displayed a spinning icon for quite a while before displaying (uploading) the pic, and never offered a preview, even after the full pic was uploaded. Dropbox was much faster in displaying the pics, and also offered a small preview of all the pics when in the pic directory, even before selecting a pic for viewing.

Dropbox lets me scroll from pic to pic in the same directory, Drive and SO force me to go back to the directory and select the next pic file.

Kind of surprised at Google's lack of "coolness" with Drive.

Could this have been caused by the number of hops or distance between
the smartphone and the Dropbox/Box/SkyDrive server?

I love Dropbox and it's always very fast when I access it at home, using my
tablet, PC, or smartphone. However, I can't get such speeds when I'm at
work.(20 miles away in a different state) However, SkyDrive works much
faster when I'm at the office... I just never figured out the reason for this
difference between the two at two different locations.

I forgot the name I used on Hotmail so signed up for a new account just now and only got 7GB storage.....

Better than the 2GB or so at dropbox but I need to try and remember my old Hotmail log in :)

Soarer

I thought I had 25gb originally. When I went there it was 7gb but a free upgrade to 25gb showed up.

Microsoft updated its SkyDrive cloud storage service to more closely mirror Dropbox. As a result they downgraded the free storage to 7GB for new users.

However, Hotmail users can for a limited time continue to use the original 25GB allotment, but you have to sign up through your Hotmail ID. From what I read elsewhere, MSN and Live IDs don't qualify, but edu addresses do.

If you sign in with your Hotmail ID here, it should give you the option for 25GB. If you don't qualify, you're stuck with 7GB.
https://skydrive.live.com/

It seems to work well. The file size limit is 2GB but only through the desktop client. Web browser upload is limited to 300MB. Additional GB pricing beats everyone else. No Android app yet and desktop app does not work easily with XP.

This is definitely Microsoft using its financial clout to copy the best of competitors then undercut with their deeper pockets. At this time though, consumers are the winner.

Thanks!
SkyDrive Free
Free
25 GB total storage

Could this have been caused by the number of hops or distance between
the smartphone and the Dropbox/Box/SkyDrive server?
Don't know and don't care. Not my business to debug their network performance problems. All I know is that Dropbox kicks a@@, both in terms of speed and in terms of interpreting the file types it is holding.

my SkyDrive is now full of junk.

my SkyDrive is now full of junk.

Thanks for sharing...

Didn't you put the junk there? Or are you saying that SkyDrive autonomously placed junk into your file space?

Thanks for sharing...

Didn't you put the junk there? Or are you saying that SkyDrive autonomously placed junk into your file space?

I have the SkyDrive as a backup to my backup (portable HardDrive) , I've uploaded a copy of all my important applications, files from my laptop when I travel.

If you are using a PC and install the skydrive client, you can then tweak the hard drive location of the regular "My" folders i.e. music, pictures, documents, videos, favorites.

I did this on my laptop and my wife's laptop at the weekend - this will move all your data to skydrive, meaning you never need to do any backups, all new content is automatically stored in skydrive and you can access your data from any machine/phone with a browser or skydrive app installed. I went for the extra 100GB @ $50 per year option so I could move all of my content up there.

See the below paragraph from http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/04/23/the-next-chapter-for-skydrive-personal-cloud-storage-for-windows-available-anywhere.aspx:
"Alternatively, you could change the target location for special folders like Documents or Pictures (or others) to folders in your SkyDrive, basically treating your SkyDrive as your primary drive (right-click the Documents folder, click Properties, and then Location). "

I wish the client worked XP, but I know MS wants people to move away from it ASAP. My company still issues laptops with XP Pro on it! Aargh.

I wish the client worked XP, but I know MS wants people to move away from it ASAP. My company still issues laptops with XP Pro on it! Aargh.

My company just began a W7 pilot program. Full-scale deployment won't happen for another 12-18 months.

The Sky Drive thing is pretty nifty actually, Microsoft have upped their game recently.

Even as a Mac user I have nothing against Microsoft and actually use their products much more than Google's. I mean Hotmail and Skype are what I use most to keep connected on an everyday basis, and I've even stopped using Google for searches (though I don't use Bing either).

If you want to put some pics to share with everyone, should you still upload them to the Pictures folder or to the Public one?

If you want to put some pics to share with everyone, should you still upload them to the Pictures folder or to the Public one?

Public folder is for sharing with everyone

I noticed the default public one is a document folder, so I should probably create a new folder for pics (SkyDrive seems to distinguish between pic and doc folders) and make it public if I want to share it with everyone...

On a side note, can you have folders within folders?

Sheepishly asks...: why is this better than just using your own domain and multi-gig hosting via ftp?

I noticed the default public one is a document folder, so I should probably create a new folder for pics (SkyDrive seems to distinguish between pic and doc folders) and make it public if I want to share it with everyone...

The folder name doesn't matter, there's no difference between pic and doc folders. But having another folder and then setting sharing directly on it gives you more control, e.g. you can choose to share only with contacts as opposed to the whole world

On a side note, can you have folders within folders?

Yes. Think of skydrive as a USB drive. exact same concept in terms of how you use it

Sheepishly asks...: why is this better than just using your own domain and multi-gig hosting via ftp?

For a start, you need to set up and manage your own domain, and probably pay a small fee to keep it active.

But, more relevantly, the Skydrive client means you can "explore" the content same as you do your local folders, you don't need to have the extra nuances of moving things to/from FTP. Skydrive means you can open, create, save documents directly from the applications. for example you can open and save an Excel spreadsheet to/from Skydrive directly. FTP is clunky in this regard, it wasn't designed for accessing files from apps, which is how most people do these days

For a start, you need to set up and manage your own domain, and probably pay a small fee to keep it active.

But, more relevantly, the Skydrive client means you can "explore" the content same as you do your local folders, you don't need to have the extra nuances of moving things to/from FTP. Skydrive means you can open, create, save documents directly from the applications. for example you can open and save an Excel spreadsheet to/from Skydrive directly. FTP is clunky in this regard, it wasn't designed for accessing files from apps, which is how most people do these days

Thanks. Yea, I guess that makes sense. I have it ingrained in my mind that "remote" means ftp, and that's just how I treat it. I guess the whole new "cloud" thing makes it so that even an average idiot can use these services... it honestly kind of annoys me, to be honest, because I liked it when you needed to have a base know-how to do these sorts of things, but I guess I can't really sneer at progress.

Anyway, I upgraded to the 25 gigs. I already had a document in there, so now I only have 24,999,997 KBs left! ;) :D

Sheepishly asks...: why is this better than just using your own domain and multi-gig hosting via ftp?

Maybe better to count on MS doing secure backups than worrying about someone breaking into your own server and wiping stuff clean for instance (incl. backups)?

Sheepishly asks...: why is this better than just using your own domain and multi-gig hosting via ftp?

Many web hosting companies actually state in the TOS that they do not allow for file storage (simply for the sake of storage).


it’s a reference to our policy of allowing 50GB of space for backups use free, with extra at only 10 cents a GB / month. (The rest of your disk space may only be used by files needed for your websites directly.)

Here are some specific examples of things not allowed:

Copyrighted content to which you do not hold usage or distribution rights.
File upload / sharing / archive / backup / mirroring / distribution sites.
A site created primarily to drive traffic to another site.
Making your account resources available (whether for free or pay) to the general public.