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IDrive Review: Online Backup |
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| Solid backup with a lot of configurability; no mobile app access or file sharing | |
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[Editor's note: IDrive offers a 17% discount for subscribers to its annual plans. Customers must pay for a year's worth of service, in order to receive the discount.]
IDrive is a good, no-frills backup solution for Macs and PCs which fulfills expectations, but doesn't go much beyond. Perhaps it's unfair to expect the service to wow us; after all, the purpose of online backup is to keep your data safe and secure in case of a hard drive crash. There's no question that it does the job; by default IDrive keeps you informed of all its actions. And it's pretty smart about them too, optimizing bandwidth usage based on your level of online activity (this is probably why our initial backup of 8GB took over five hours). IDrive backs up your important data: preferences, photos, documents, music. Those are just the defaults, however. You can have it back up anything, including your applications. In fact, IDrive is full of options. If other programs have left you wanting more control over your backups, IDrive might be a good alternative for you. The PC version has a couple of options the Mac version doesn't. If you choose, you can use your own personal encryption key for added security. It also adds the option of using the IDrive Explorer, which maps IDrive into your system just as if it were an external hard drive. Like many other online backup services, you'll have access to your data anywhere you can connect to the web. Sadly the web interface is clunky, and it can take a while to navigate to your file if it's buried down in your file structure. We were also disappointed at the lack of access through dedicated smartphone apps. Though we could access the site through our iPhone's web browser, we could not do anything with the files. Unfortunately there's also no support for sharing files or public storage areas. One useful aspect of many other backup services is the ability to set permissions for folder access, or send one-time access permissions to a friend or colleague. If this is an important feature for you, you'll want to look elsewhere. For pure online backup, IDrive is a solid option. $4.95 per month gets you 150GB of space. While some other online backup providers offer unlimited data storage, IDrive does allow you to keep two computers backed up, as long as they fall within the 150GB limit. You can try out the service with their offer of 2GB of free storage that you can use for as long as you want. |
Search our blog archives and frequently asked questions for more information about Online Backup Service Reviews
| Discount / Free Trial: | Unlimited use of 2GB of storage for free; 17% off annual plans |
| Paid Storage Fees: | Single user: $4.95/mo; $49.50/yr (discounted) Family Pack: $14.95/mo; $149.50/yr (discounted) |
| Gigabytes (GB) of Storage Included: | 150GB |
| File Access Options: | Access from any computer's web browser |
| System Compatibility: | Windows 7, Vista, XP, Mac OS X 10.4 or above |
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