Online Storage Site Fails Amid Lost Files

The Internet "cloud" offers a great option for storing digital stuff. We can reach our files from anywhere, and usually reliably. But it's good to remember that the cloud can be wispy and fleeting.

The failure of a popular online storage site is giving the idea of storing data on the Web a black eye. Untold numbers of files have been lost, presumably forever, amid the collapse earlier this month of the Linkup.

The service was the latest incarnation of a service known earlier as Streamload and then as MediaMax.

The Linkup finally gave up the ghost earlier this month, saying: "It was not possible to satisfactorily complete the move of files from MediaMax to the Linkup as we had expected, and as a result [we] cannot offer a service that meets your expectations and our business requirements."

It's apparently worse than that sounds, as TechCrunch and other sites report that MediaMax permanently lost large swaths of files. That's pretty much the ultimate mistake in online storage, eh?

In the past, I've recommended Streamload and MediaMax among others as an option for online backup. I've used them myself.

I've also pointed out that online storage is good only for sharing files or as secondary crash protection. It's not reliable enough as primary storage. Thank goodness that, this time at least, I followed my own advice.