Your files will be online in a few days, and depending on the size of your initial backup, this could be much faster than trying to upload the files from your PC. They ship you a hard drive, you back up to it, and mail it to them. If you have a particularly large backup, though, you might consider using IDrive’s courier service, known as IDrive Express. You can then schedule your backup or click “Backup Now” to begin. However, you can click the “Change” button to add any other files and folders to your backup, giving you lots of flexibility. “After you make that decision, IDrive will open the Backup tab, ready to upload your documents, music, and other user folders. A private encryption key secures your data under a second layer of encryption so that even the IDrive service cannot access your data (with caveats, which I’ll talk about in a moment). You’ll want to make this decision now, since if you change your mind later, you’d have to re-upload your entire backup.
#IDRIVE REVIEW 2018 INSTALL#
iDrive - Backup and RecoveryWhen you sign up for IDrive and install the program, you’ll be asked whether you want to use a private encryption key to secure your backups. IDrive just doesn’t have a very polished design like some of its competitors (Acronis and SpiderOak, for example). (This is common all over IDrive, from the program to the website to the customer support-English doesn’t seem to be the first language of its creators.) Thankfully, most options have a little “?” icon that you can hover over to get more information about what the feature does. During Disk Image backup, you’re prompted to “select the drive you wish to create Disk Image,” which-besides not being a complete sentence-is a little confusing at first. For example, to restore files from a certain date, you click the “Snapshots” button. Everything is where you’d expect it to be, but some options are confusingly worded. All that comes in a neat desktop package that’s pretty easy to navigate. Oh, and it has loads of settings to customize your backups, most of which are accessible from the web, so you can manage your backups remotely. You can schedule backups as you like, including “continuous” backups that upload files as they’re changed.
#IDRIVE REVIEW 2018 FULL#
You can even create full disk image backups and restore them using a boot disk if anything ever goes wrong with your system. On top of that, IDrive contains a file syncing and sharing service through a folder on your PC, à la Dropbox. This is a huge bonus, and while those files take up space, it means you’ll never ask yourself “Hey, where’d that file go?” like you would with more limited services. IDrive keeps up to 10 versions of your old files, but doesn’t remove deleted files from your backup, ever, until you manually click the “Archive” button. “Even at its “normal” price of $70 per year, you get a lot for your money. Most backup tools lack at least one of those, and having the ability to “do it all” is rare and refreshing. With a paid cloud plan, you can back up unlimited devices, including external drives, network drives, tablets, phones, and even social media accounts.
IDrive’s base feature set one-ups a lot of its competitors, especially for the price.
#IDRIVE REVIEW 2018 WINDOWS#
It may look like a program from the Windows XP days, but looks can be deceiving: it’s chock full of options that power users will love, and easy to use as well.
Take one look at IDrive, and you might want to write it off based on its appearance. I thoroughly evaluated IDrive along with several other leading packages based on three main criteria: pricing, features, and performance. IDrive bucks that trend by offering a ton of features in a very affordable package ( See pricing and options on the IDrive website), making it the best cloud backup service I've tested out of all of them.Ĭloud backup options vary wildly in price and functionality, and are increasingly necessary for peace of mind and data security. But the more feature-filled a backup program is, the more expensive it is.usually.
If you’re a power user, you’re probably very particular about the way your backup program works. Note that if you click on one of these links to buy the product, IGN may get a share of the sale. Be sure to visit IGN Tech for all the latest comprehensive hands-on reviews and best-of roundups.
0 kommentar(er)
