I’ve been looking for an online backup solution for some time, and decided to try out IDrive-E. IDrive-E is an online backup service that offers both a free 2GB and $49.50/yr. “Pro” service with unlimited storage.
Among many features, the bandwidth throttling feature is among the important ones to me. It allows a user to set the upload speed, using a percentage of your connection speed. For example if you have a 1mb uplink speed, setting it to 25% would use (up to) 256kb of that bandwidth. A nice feature for shared connections where you may have a Voice over IP phone that needs to use most of your uplink bandwidth to maintain voice call quality.
You do need to install a client-side software tool that communicates with the online service. I was able to test this software package on Windows Vista, though it also supports previous versions of Windows. After a short download and a quick install, it did need to reboot the computer to install a Windows Explorer plugin.
Once everything was installed, I quickly selected files using IDrive-E Classic, the default view for selecting files and/or folders for backup. Here’s a quick screen shot:
The interface would be familiar to anyone who has used the Windows Backup tool for performing local system backups to CD or tape. Find your folders on the left, and place a checkbox next to the ones you want backed up. Or expand the folders, and select individual files on the right pane of the window. Once you’ve picked all the items you want backed up, simply click “Backup Now” and you’ll get to see the system in action:
You also have the option of setting a schedule for a backup as well, as an email notification option to let you know the status of your scheduled backups.
Overall, IDrive-E Online Backup provides a easy to use, and rather quick backup service that is accessible to pretty much anyone.
Link: IDrive-E Online Backup
I’ve tried both Carbonite and Mozy, and didn’t like either too much. This one looks good, but the company behind it doesn’t seem to have much history. There’s generally a lack of reviews about this service (as opposed to Carbonite and Mozy, where there’s lots), and the fact that they seem to have used paid blog advertising to market the service doesn’t bode well either, so I’m a little skeptical about the quality of their offering compared to the others. Would be good to hear an update on your experience if you’re still using it. Thanks.