Review: IDrive online backup serviceDan's review of IDrive is pretty positive, though he only does XP stuff.
... The reason why I find IDrive particularly interesting, though, is that they're paying me via ReviewMe.com to write this review.
ReviewMe isn't one of those scummy services that allow payment to be conditional upon a favourable review, though. Whether I say IDrive is humankind's finest creation, or that it took both of my legs off at the knee, I get paid the same....
I've been looking for a good online backup solution for a while, to supplement my current Retrospect Pro USB disk solution. Apple's MobileMe might produce something, but it will be costly. I've about given up on Google -- they could deliver a service next week or next century.
DD says both IDrive and Mozy support XP and OS X. IDrive is setup for multiple accounts sharing the same space, that would work for me.
Incidentally, the primary reason to have offsite backup in Saint Paul MN is not fire, flood and quake, it's theft. True, smart thieves won't bother to steal hard drives, but most thieves are stone stupid. Elsewhere, fire and flood are right up there.
I wouldn't use these services as my primary backup solution, but as a supplementary solution they do interest me.
Update 4/11/09: Great comment below. At least some services (iDrive) don't back up OS X shortcuts/favorites -- which breaks some app data stores including some iPhoto and Aperture configurations. It's a good reminder to check how well security attributes are managed.
Idrive is so promising, but they can't help but disappoint. The support is really subpar. The first e-mail they always send is download and install the latest, even when you have said you have downloaded and installed the latest already. They increment builds without indicating what, if anything, was fixed and then send another e-mail a week later saying download and install the latest (not sure they care what the issue is, just telling you to do it again in the hopes that it will work).
ReplyDeleteBut that aside, if they could get the client code issues resolved, and backup without a hitch (some builds you have to make sure are really backing up certain files), it would be brilliant.
The rsync backup on
ReplyDeleteOnline Storage Solution is the best I have found for the money.
It lets you use Delta Copy on Windows or Rsync on the Mac.
At $10 a year it is next to free.
I also just found out through experimentation and by confirmation from iDrive support that they do not support the backup / restoration of Mac OS X aliases. Given iPhoto uses aliases when importing photograph collections in "reference mode" (as does Aperture, I believe), this effectively makes iDrive useless for iPhoto backups.
ReplyDeleteGreat observation. Thanks so much for contributing this.
ReplyDeleteusing idrive, very good program.
ReplyDeleteBUT, question
WHO can verify that indeed, data is not viewable on their servers, unless your code is entered?
I realize this is said in the ads/promo's, but is there any independent board that verifies that indeed, data is not visible on the server, to ANYONE, and only to me with my code?
thanks