IDrive Review Rating PCMag. If youre in the market for an online backup service, there are many variables to consider, including storage size, pricing, advanced backup features, and ease of use. IDrive hits high marks across all these categories, and it offers a good price to storage ratio, too. Popular reviews Acronis True Image 2018 vs 2017 Version Comparison and Coupon Code The Best Coupon Sites 2017 for Online Shopping Acronis True Image 2017 Upgrade. I am attempting to restore Windows 7 Backup and Restore after having uninstalled Acronis True Image Home 2012. I am able to complete the first 6 steps without a. Acronis True Image lets you back up your PC thoroughly, preserving a complete image of your entire system in the cloud or on a local drive. With this. It also delivers a consistent experience across its desktop, mobile, and web platforms. Business Click Installation Manager Microsoft Office Outlook Program Update. It could be a bit faster, but its an otherwise excellent choice for consumers and worthy of our Editors Choice distinction, alongside SOS Online Backup and Acronis True Image 2. Price Plans and Getting Started. IDrive offers one of the best value propositions among the many online backup providers we tested. None of its plans limit the number of devices you can use or restrict you from performing backups of external or network drives. IDrive does offer a free 5. GB account, but most users should spring for the Personal tiers 2. TBs of data for 6. The business level subscription adds sub account management features, priority support, server backup, and an unlimited number of users per account for 9. For comparison, Carbonite and Backblaze respectively charge 6. However, competing top notch services such as SOS Online Backup 4. GB and Acronis True Image 5. GB charge considerably more per gigabyte of storage. Desktop Interface. Screenshot%202017-07-18%2012.24.39.png' alt='New Acronis True Image 2010 Home 2017 - Full Version' title='New Acronis True Image 2010 Home 2017 - Full Version' />To use the service, you first need to create an account and choose to either use a private encryption key or the default IDrive managed key. As with SOS Online Backup, the private encryption key option means you alone can access your backed up filesand that not even the company can help you if you lose the key. The Default option, in which IDrive maintains your encryption key, works better for those who tend to forget a password every now and then. These are good options, though we are disappointed that there isnt an option for two factor authentication. After you make that initial choice, a download of the local application automatically starts on the next page. The actual installation is quick and it prompts you to enter your just created login shortly thereafter. IDrives installer places an icon in the notification area of your Taskbar, from which you can launch the full application, access settings, and manage the backup schedule. New Acronis True Image 2010 Home 2017 - Full Version' title='New Acronis True Image 2010 Home 2017 - Full Version' />It also integrates with the File Explorer in Windows by implementing a right click option for adding items to your backup set. We like the clear organization and relatively attractive design of IDrives desktop application, but arent huge fans of its bright mix of colors, primarily since theres no consistency to these choices. Still, its a nice change of pace from the drab look of most other services. In the top right, theres a section with an account panel, but most links redirect you to the web portal. Below that, theres a universal search bar on the right and a module that shows the remaining storage for your account on the right. Down the right side, there are tabs for Backup, Restore, Scheduler, Sync, Server Backup, and Settings, with a Disk Image Backup button towards the bottom. Navigating the interface is generally quick, though we noticed slight delays when waiting for the folders to populate in the Backup and Restore sections. Backup Options. From the Backup tab, IDrive lets you select files and folders from a file explorer pop up window. It prepopulates the section with a folder tree of your user foldersDocuments, Pictures, Music, and so on. Checkboxes next to each make it easy to specify individual items for a backup set. By default, the service selects the IDrive cloud as your backup destination, but you can change that to Local, Wi Fi and Express Device options. With this selection, you can use an external hard drive or the IDrive One, an external encrypted drive in 1. TB or 2. TB capacities that offers wireless access via Wi Fi for local encrypted backup as well as media streaming. The Express Device refers to the IDrive Express service for bulk uploads and restores. This is also particularly helpful in the case a disaster leaves you without any other way to get to your data. Like Acronis True Image, IDrive also lets you back up your entire disk image. If you ever find your hard drive beyond repair, this option could be invaluable, as you can restore a previously working version of your system with the structure and OS intact. Apps for backing up NAS devices are also now available for Asustor, Netgear, QNAP, and Synology hardware. IDrive backs up your data using the Continuous Data Protection option by default. Under this setting, which is similar to what youll find in Carbonite, IDrive looks for updates to your files and uploads the changes after a specified amount of time. Unfortunately, the smallest amount of time you can select is 1. Otherwise, you can set up hourly or daily backups with the Schedule option from the main interface. If you need to free up some space, the Archive cleanup tool checks for and deletes files stored in the cloud that you have removed from your local computer. The Sync tab lets IDrive work similarly to file syncing services like Dropbox and One. Drive. You set a location for this folder to which you can append any number of subfolders for instant backup and syncing treatment. Youll see file changes reflected on any other computers on which youve installed IDrive and logged into your account. During file processing and uploading, you can click a down arrow next to the words Backup is underway, to see which particular files it is currently processing and an estimate of how long the whole backup will take. This panel also lets you pause the backup. We wish you could also do that from the system tray menu. You can also use a slider to control bandwidth usage in case the upload is slowing other work. A backup log shows how long it took, and IDrive can send an email when its finished. Backup Speed. For performance and bandwidth testing, we timed how long it took IDrive to back up two 1. Peachtree Accounting 2003 Download. MB folders of mixed file and content types. We used PCMags fast 1. Mbps upload speed corporate Internet connection so that the Internet connection wouldnt be the limiting speed factor. IDrives backup performance is only average. Its time of 1 5. Acronis True Images 0 5. SOS Online Backups 1 1. It was, however, well ahead of Mozy. Homes 2 4. 3 and Sugar. Syncs 3 3. 7. Take a look at how the rest of the online backup services fared in the chart below. Restoring Data. As with everything else in IDrive, the Restore tab is chock full of capabilities. You can search for files, drag and drop them to the desktop, or restore them to place in your folder structure using checkboxes. Or you can just restore everything in place at once. Right clicking a file here offers the View Previous Versions option, which opens a panel below, from which you can select from all saved file versions. Indeed, with continuous backup turned on, new file versions were accessible right after we saved updates. But you only get 1. SOSs unlimited versions. A new feature called Snapshots aims to address ransomware concerns. It shows you a historical timeline of your backup set and lets you recover files at any point along the timeline, should anything nefarious occur to your hard drive. This historical backup of data does not count towards your total backup limit. Like SOS, IDrive keeps all backed up files, meaning if you delete them from the PC drive, youll still have a copy onlineforever.