My iDrive Back Office Following Backup
(Click any image to see the full-sized copy)
I thought it would be worthwhile to take some time to set up my free 5GB iDrive account, so I could properly review the system I’ve been recommending for several months. I have beed looking for a cloud backup system ever since I made the mistake of signing up with JustCloud‘s horrid system.
I am an iDrive Affiliate and will benefit financially from sales generated through this site.
The signup process is straightforward, and simple – click on this link, provide a bit of basic contact information, and enable an encryption key – you can use the iDrive key or provide your own. I selected iDrive’s key and then found myself in the iDrive back office. I used the link provided to download the client software, which took all of 8 seconds, even though I was running through a VPN at the time (which can slow things down).
The client requested my iDrive login data, and then presented me with a backup option form. I elected to back up my images directory. I have over 300 gigs of images stored on my system, and I knew that it would not take long to reach the 5GB limit on the free account.
I want to point out that iDrive offers several ways you can score extra space by promoting the service. You can sign up friends and gain a gigabyte every time; you can “like” iDrive on Facebook, follow iDrive on Twitter, install the iDrive Client on your PC, and/or install the Client on your Android phone and gain another 1/2 GB with each action.
The best part of the bonuses is that iDrive works – and works well – which makes recommending it a no brainer.
iDrive Client
I really appreciated the fact that I could select the percentage of my bandwidth the client would use for the upload – I let it ride at 100%. In retrospect, that was a mistake, and my system was bogged down for a couple of days while the backup proceded.
iDrive Backup Progress Screen
On thing I noticed immediately was that the system estimated the time for an entire backup of all my images, even though my free account was limited to 5.5GB. This information was useful, though, because it underscored the value of the iDrive Express, the service which provides you with a 1TB external drive, free of charge, so you can back up your files quickly, saving oodles of time and bandwidth, and then return the drive to iDrive, where it will be used to create a fact local backup.
iDrive Express is a welcome and effective response to the time, system resources and bandwidth needed to backup modern computer systems. JustCloud’s abysmal default bandwidth and their ceaseless upsell attempts come to mind…after trying to backup and restore files on JustCloud, iDrive Express offers a welcome breath of fresh air.
I shut my system down nightly, so my 5.5 GB backup took longer than it needed to, but the job was done without the failures I experienced with JustCloud. The log recorded failure to back up a photograph when my 5.5 GB quota was reached, and the system sent me an warning email — and, of course, the expected pitch to upgrade:
Dear IDriveUser,
Ref : Username - kmcvay@kenmcvay.com.
Computer Name : KENMCVAY-PC
Backup scheduled at time : 08/23/2013 05:04:03 PM could not
be completed.
Reason : Operation canceled by user.
Backup Start Time : 8/26/2013 7:40:38 AM
Backup End Time : 8/26/2013 7:45:17 AM
One or more files could not be transferred. Reason: You have
exceeded the allocated quota limit. For further backups you
have to upgrade your account.
Regards,
IDrive Support.
[ERROR ][08/26/2013 07:45:15][Unable to backup file c:\
users\ken\pictures\2008_10_25-fallcolour\img_4739.jpg,
reason: Quota exceeded: for further backups, upgrade your
account.]
Restoring files was a nightmare with JustCloud (read my review); file corruption, lousy bandwidth and my inability to put the files where I wanted to put them drove me nuts.
Restoring my iDrive files was a piece of cake. Bandwidth was adequate, no corruption was evident, and I could restore the files to any directory I chose. What’s not to like?
Pick a Folder – ANY Folder
Conclusion? iDrive works seamlessly, right out of the box, and gets the job done. It warned me (see the Backup Progress screen above) that it would take more than a month just to backup all of my photographs – something which underscored the immense value of iDrive Express.
- iDrive provides adequate bandwith and iDrive Express, which allows you to backup your system locally to an iDrive-supplied 1 TB External Drive. Mail the external drive back to iDrive, and they will upload your files to their servers locally, saving an enormous amount of time and bandwidth.
- iDrive lets you restore your files to any directory you designate.
iDrive Online Backup Service - A Review
