Thousands of i-drive customers may be scrambling to retrieve their files from their free online storage accounts this weekend.

The San Francisco-based company is imposing a June 18 deadline for its customers to remove their mp3's, jpgs and other assorted files. After that, the account will be shut down with no way retrieve files. i-drive says it has more than one petabyte of file storage in its users' online accounts.

Last week, i-drive announced it is abandoning its free service - available since its launch in 1999 - in favor of focusing exclusively on its growing software business. For example, i-drive says it is licensing its software to telecommunications carriers and ISPs so that they can provide their customers with storage services.

As an online file storage alternative, i-drive is recommending its new subscription-based Xdrive Plus online file storage service.

The letter says: "You can take advantage of Xdrive's 15-day free trial offer by downloading your files from i-drive, signing up for your free 15-day trial and then uploading your files to your new Xdrive Plus account."

After the first 15 days, i-drive's Xdrive will bill your credit card for $4.95 per month.

i-drive says it will continue to support the 25 University customers that license its online storage for students, faculty and staff. In addition, the i-drive University Consortium is expected to maintain its collaborative relationship with i-drive to test ideas and applications for the i-drive product.

But for the rest of i-drive's customer base, they'll have to contact their mobile phone carrier or Internet Service Provider to find out when they will make i-drive-powered online storage a part of their service.

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