Review: iDrive Express

Everybody^* knows this: backing up your computer will save your ass (and your data) if your system crashes. Lesser known is the concept of offsite backup. IT pros — or anyone who's done their research — will tell you to save your data in a cloud-based service that's located somewhere other than your home. That way, you're protected in the case of a disaster, like your house burning down.

Here's what they don't tell you: backing up a PC hard drive full of data to a cloud-based storage service is a glacial bandwidth time-suck that ties up your computer for many hours, even days. That's exactly what I experienced when I tried to be a good digerato and initiated my own cloud-based backups.

So I welcomed the opportunity to try the why-didn't-they-think-of-this-before solution offered by cloud backup company IDrive.com. It's called IDrive Express: after opening a storage account, the company sends (at no cost) a 1TB external loaner hard drive. Hook the drive up to a Mac or Windows PC and run a backup using the pre-installed software, then ship the hard drive back in a prepaid USPS Priority Mail box. The full-disk backup took about 3.5 hours — a walk in the park compared to the Arctic winter of a cloud-based upload over home broadband connection.

Less than a week after shipping the hard drive back to IDrive, my data was available in my online account, ready to accept the much less time-consuming incremental data backups. IDrive has apps for Windows and Macs, as well as iOS and Android mobile devices. The PC and Mac apps let you set up how incremental backups are conducted; either manually or automatically.

Manual uploads took only a few minutes to transfer any new or changed data to my cloud vault. But they by their very nature require your proactivity. IDrive has a setting you can use for automatic updates that watches for any changes made to files and folders up to 2GB in size. These changes are automatically recognized, and the changed or added files are backed up in real-time in the background. Although this file-and-forget method is more convenient, it does require that there's always an open Internet connection to your computer. The automatic backups put a persistent, if minor, load on your computer and on your broadband connection. And while all data is protected with military strength AES 256 encryption, any open connection, particularly on Windows PCs, is worrisome.

Restoring files from the IDrive account is brain-dead simple, and download speeds are much faster than uploads. If you back up your various iOS or Android devices' photos, they appear in a separate, easy-to-find folder.

Of course, for a full computer backup (and later incremental additions to your data) you need to have an equal or larger amount of storage capacity available in your IDrive.com account. The company offers a free account with a minimal 5GB. But to get the IDrive Express backup service where they ship you the drive, you have to enroll in a Personal or Business Pro account. The lowest entry point is the 150GB Personal account, which costs $34.65 yearly. Since most hard drives these days sport at least 500GB, most users will have to opt in at this level for $104.65 a year. That's about $8.72 per month. If you buy a plan that gives you the Express service, IDrive will ship you a hard drive for free once a year. But if during the year you want to get Express again, the cost is $60. That includes two-way shipping.

But having tried my share of cloud-based backup services, I see the IDrive Express service as something that's certainly worth the price. It's convenient and easy, and it provides peace of mind. That you can backup multiple computers and devices adds to its appeal.

^* Not everybody.