Question:

Rick writes: In the past you have suggested putting the Users folder on iDisk. Recently, you have changed your suggestion to Dropbox. Can you please elaborate on how you suggest setting that up for us?

Answer:

Sure, Rick — To be clear, I don’t recommend putting the whole Users folder on either — That should stay where it is and not be mucked with. There’s too much stuff in the Library, Music, Photos, and other folders to manage that way. My suggestion is to put your documents on either your Dropbox or your iDisk so you have (a) cloud-based, syncable access to your docs and (b) yet another level of backup.

What I did was to create a “Dave’s Files” folder within my [Home]/Dropbox folder, and then I just store all my documents in there. There’s other ways to do it, but I think that’s the easiest and cleanest. I used to do this with my iDisk (in the same way), but I moved from iDisk to Dropbox for one reason (in addition to the cost savings): iDisk stores everything on a separate disk image whereas Dropbox makes use of the normal folder structure on your Mac. One of the many benefits of the latter is that Time Machine works seamlessly with your Dropbox, whereas iDisk is kind of a pain in the neck.

By the way, if you haven’t yet signed up for Dropbox, they’re offering their bonus 250MB promo again: if you use this our special link, you get the normal free account with 2GB of storage PLUS both you and I get an additional 250MB, as well. Win, win… and win!