How to Store Files Larger than 50megs on Live SkyDrive

Posted on Jun 5, 2010 in Online Storage, Productivity, Tutorials by dee 0 Comments

Currently Live SkyDrive has a limitation of a maximum file size of 50megs per file. This is intentional to avoid abuse of the free 25gigs of space that it offers its users.

Users can use Gladinet Cloud Desktop to get around this limitation through the use of Chunking.

Chunking is a process where Gladinet breaks up a large file into multiple smaller ones (similar to multi-part zips) and uploads this to the SkyDrive account. Read below for advantages, disadvantages and how to enable this technology in Gladinet.

Chunking has the following advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages

• Useful when the storage provider (in this case Live SkyDrive) limits the size of each file that can be stored onto its servers.
• Improves transfer speeds as multiple chunks are uploaded or downloaded simultaneously.
• In the case of a failed transfer, only the affected chunk is retried. This will reduce bandwidth usages and the “oh bugger” moments when you are at 99% of a large file transfer and the network falls over.

Disadvantages

• The files are stored as “chunks” in SkyDrive, hence shown as multiple files within its user interface.
• Once chunked, the only way to restore the original file is through the use of the Gladinet application. Downloading via the Gladinet client will restore the original file.
• Chunking should only be performed on little used files or files that are required for archives etc.

As above, there is a word of warning here. Chunking is not without its risks. Its always advisable to keep an original copy somewhere.

 

Prerequisites

In order to use this, you must firstly have a Live SkyDrive account. Click here if you need a guide to set up your own SkyDrive account which gives you 25 gigs of online storage space for free.

In addition to that, you will need a copy of Gladinet Cloud Desktop installed. There is a free version that you can use. Click here if you need a guide on how to set up Gladinet Cloud Desktop.

Lastly, you’ll need to ensure that you have configured Gladinet Cloud Desktop and mounted your SkyDrive Account.

Step 1

Click on your Gladinet icon on the mini task bar to bring up its menu.

Click on Virtual Directory Manager

Step 2

You will see the Gladinet Management Console with a list of all your online storage drives that you have mounted.

 

Click the little tool icon on the left of Windows Live SkyDrive (circled above).

Step 3

You will see your login details to Live SkyDrive along with an option for Chunking at the bottom:

To turn on Chunking, ensure the checkbox is checked. The default size of each chunk is 20megs. For Live SkyDrive, I would recommend changing this to something like 40megs. This is below the maximum size of 50, but should suffice for most purposes.

Once finished, hit Apply and close all windows.

Uploading Large Files

Once the configuration is complete. Open your SkyDrive folder using My Computer. Navigate to the folder that requires the files and simply drag the file across.

For the purposes of testing, I left my Chunking size to 20megs and uploaded a 30 meg file. Gladinet broke the file into two pieces and started uploading immediately.

Both parts were simultaneously uploaded to the server.

Once completed, the file will appear as a single file when browsing through your Windows explorer:

However, if you look via the Live SkyDrive website, it is shown as multiple files:

Downloading Chunked Files

Downloading a chunked file is as simple as dragging and dropping onto a local folder.

Again, both chunks gets downloaded simultaneously and when complete, Gladinet automatically rejoins the chunks and makes the file available.

Conclusion

Chunking is an interesting technology and Gladinet has had quite a bit of time to ensure that it is robust and safe to use with SkyDrive. I’m not the kind of person who would store large files on my SkyDrive account, so the use of Chunking is limited for me.

I did have a few gotcha’s while testing. One was renaming a chunked file using the Gladinet client does change the name displayed, but not on the Live SkyDrive website itself.

Also, I did have difficulty downloading a previously chunked (at 20meg) file after I changed the chunked size to 30megs.

My advice here would be to pick a chunk size and stick with it :) Changing it may cause unpredictable behaviour.

 

Relevant Links

• Introduction to Live SkyDrive – how to log on and use SkyDrive
• Gladinet Home Page
• Gladinet Blog
• Gladinet Edition Comparisons – between Starter, Professional and Premium editions.

Tags: Gladinet, Online Document Storage, SkyDrive