How to reclaim the free OneDrive storage Microsoft is about to take away

If you use Microsoft's OneDrive cloud storage with any regularity, chances are that you're still reeling from the news that free users will have their storage cut from 15GB to 5GB on July 27th. Unless you visited a page on Microsoft's website before January 31st, 2015, you're going to lose 10GB of storage this summer.

Thankfully, there are a few ways to counteract the change.

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The only way to restore those 10GB without spending any money is by referring others to the service. As CNET notes, if anyone signs up for OneDrive using your referral link, 500MB of cloud storage will be added to your account. If you can find 20 willing individuals to click your link and sign up, you'll be back in business.

In order to find your referral link, just head to the OneDrive Manage Storage and click the "Earn more" link at the bottom of the page. You will then have the option of copying the link directly, sending it in an email or sharing on social media.

The link will look like this: https://onedrive.live.com?invref=1e2093bd0ae925af&invscr=90

If this sounds like too much work, you can always pay $1.99 for 50GB of storage instead. It's slightly more expensive than "free," but it's not a terrible investment if you spend a majority of your time on Windows devices.

On the other hand, you could also just dump OneDrive altogether and start using Google Drive, which offers 15GB of free cloud storage without any strings attached.

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This article was originally published on BGR.com