Gladinet is one of the best application to connect you from your desktop to the cloud. Last year about this time, we talked about how you can use it to backup and sync your Google Documents. A year later, which is now, they have released a new version of their Gladinet Cloud Desktop which brings better and seamless desktop integration with your system. And yes, thanks to Gladinet, we have a free giveaway for this great software. Read on for more details.
Update: This giveaway contest has ended.
What’s new
The overall feel of Gladinet has changed – it is a lot easier to navigate through now. There is now a desktop console for you to manage everything. The shiny new interface takes the place of using Windows Explorer to navigate through your documents.
I like the addition of the tabs at the top of the desktop application window. Coupled with the onscreen instructions, the setup for everything went a lot smoother than with the previous version.
There are 3 main sections: Cloud Storage Drive, Cloud Sync Folder and Cloud Backup.
Cloud Storage Drive
When you connect Gladinet with the various cloud services (Amazon S3, Skydrive, Box.net, Google Docs and many more), it will mount the cloud storage as a network drive in your system. You can then drag and drop files to the cloud storage just like how you do it in local drive.
Cloud Backups
With Gladinet 3.0 Desktop, you can easily schedule backups. There is an easy to follow backup wizard that walks you through the steps. What’s nice about the setup wizard is there are a few easy steps and not a lot of choices in the drop downs, making it a fast process to create several custom backups.
You have a mirrored backup option. This acts in much the same way as if you use Mozy or Dropbox. When you save a copy of a file, the file is replaced with the new version. This means, no matter where you access the file from, you will see the most recent version.
What is nice about these backups is you have a choice of how you choose what you want to back up. You can either choose a folder to backup or you can choose a particular file type (like pictures or documents). Within the segment of pictures, you can choose the file types you want Gladinet to scan for (e.g. jpg, bmp, png…)
There is also a Snapshot backup (requires additional Cloud Backup license) that can run scheduled backup and create multiple snapshots with version control.
Cloud Sync
A Cloud Sync Folder allows you to automatically sync files across multiple computers. This is a great replacement for your “My Documents” folder.
Files placed in the designated folder are synchronized to your other computers you use with the same Cloud Sync folders enabled.
Free Giveaway
Thanks to Gladinet, we have 5 copies of Gladinet Cloud Desktop to give away to our readers, and that is all of you. To participate:
Step 1
Be our Facebook fan or follow us in Twitter :
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(If you have already done this, skip to step 2)
STEP 2
Fill up the form below. This is to make sure that we can contact you when you win the license. We promise that we won’t spam you.
Update: This giveaway contest has ended.
STEP 3
Share this post either in Facebook or Twitter, or leave a comment below.
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This giveaway begins now and ends Wednesday, 2nd Mar at 2359hrs Eastern Time. The winners will be selected at random and announced via email.
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Hello form Poland! Thanks for interesting review ;)
Hi! I have the following question: does Gladinet automatically replicate the folders’ organization from the hard drive into Google Docs? ie are Google Docs “collections” created with the exact same logic that the folders have in the hard drive (including sub-folders)?
Yes it did. When I created my first backup with Gladinet, it transferred my folders, sub-folders and files of all kinds (pictures, PDF files, mind map .mm files to name a few). I created a Collection in Google Docs for my backups, but everything went in that Collection just like I had it on my computer.
Thanks! Downloaded and testing!
Let us know what you think.
Hello,
I have been using Gladinet for approximately 3 years. I
started with the basic free edition and moved on to the Pro, fully paid
edition.
It is used primarily for documents and the odd large business
presentation. No pictures, movies, or anything more than 5mb.
Whilst it works fine for smaller files (less than 1mb), the
software is severely restricted for files over 1mb. It downloads them two or
three times before it manages to open them, it is abysmally slow ( one or two
minutes to opening), and sometimes it simply does not open them at all.
Numerous email exchanges with the support team later, having gone through
debates on internet speed, firewall connections, settings, etc, etc, and having
found out they were all ok, the concluding remark is “uninstall and reinstall”!!!
Even so, problems persist. The software is basically good but is not designed
to handle large files.
In summary, if you have small files and want quick access
via a “drive”, it works. But do not expect to manage a large file portfolio via
gladinet. You will simply end up back using the web portal like you always did
before gladinet…
Thanks for your summary. It is definitely helpful for us who have not tested it to such detail.