7 Reasons IDrive Is The Best Cloud Backup Service To Protect Data

Why We Trust IDrive Online Backup With Our Data

7 reasons why idrive is the best cloud backup service

Protect All Of Your Data With IDrive

With new cloud backup vendors launching every month, you need to know which is the BEST cloud backup service to protect your data and give you instant access to it wherever you might be. Oh, and without it costing you an arm and a leg.

Since we have been not only evaluating but also using cloud backup for home and business protection for many years now, we know which features are critical to have and which features are simply marketing fluff – and can help you sort through the hype.

IDrive Online Backup has risen about the rest during our testing and evaluation and thus become are #1 pick as the best cloud backup service for most people, and this likely includes you (but keep reading to make sure).

We have compiled a long list of benefits to using IDrive and have most of them highlighted in our full review; but for this article we wanted to spotlight just 5 key reasons that you should take a look at using IDrive to safeguard your data and provide peace of mind.

Best Cloud Backup Service Benefits

Every cloud backup/storage service has as trendy website showing a few key features they want you to know about. Few, though, really tell you WHY that feature is important or explain how their service actually works (that takes digging – what we do for you!). In marketing, that difference is what separates a “feature” from a “benefit”.

The vendor who wants your money is interested in “features” they can promote, but what you need are “benefits”.

One benefit we will not include as part of the 7 key reasons to trust IDrive with your data in the cloud is that IDrive actually WORKS. There are lots of services out there that have just too many complaints of the backup not working or the RESTORE not bringing someone’s data back when NEEDED.

Here Is What Makes IDrive Best

  1. IDrive is easy to use (Windows or Mac), and works automatically
  2. IDrive is not only secure, but offers you the option of a private encryption key
  3. IDrive will backup your external hard drive and mapped network drives
  4. IDrive NEVER DELETES YOUR FILES
  5. IDrive even backs up open and locked files, like Outlook PST files
  6. IDrive offers FREE mass initial upload of your data via USB drive
  7. IDrive is one of the LEAST expensive cloud backup services out there.

BONUS: IDrive offers a completely free 5GB cloud backup account, for LIFE. This is NOT a free trial, but a fully working account with a capacity of 5GB. Get your free IDrive account here.

Breaking Down The 5 Key Benefits

First, IDrive is easy to use and it does not matter whether you have a Windows PC or Mac. In all my years as an IT consultant I saw multitudes of system crashes that users THOUGHT were protected by backup but for one reason or another, the backup had not been protecting the data.

For a service to be the BEST cloud backup service, it has to be so easy to install and configure that it’s all but certain to be in place and operating when needed. There cannot be the need for intimate computer knowledge or constant intervention on the part of the user to make it happen; otherwise – it won’t be there when you need it.

Once installed, IDrive just keeps working, and it’s easy to check up on it to make sure, so you know your data is protected and available to you whether you need it elsewhere or you suffer a hard drive crash or malware on your local device.

idrive is secure cloud backup

IDrive Offers Greater Security For Your Data

Second, your data is secured by encryption BEFORE it ever leaves your computer and touches the internet or cloud. Some cloud backup services talk about how your data is encrypted on their servers but never mention that your data travels across the globe on the internet in “clear text” for any number of ill intentioned individuals or agencies to intercept.

And with IDrive, you have the option of a private encryption key that ONLY YOU KNOW. Most cloud services do NOT offer this option. Read more on this here.

Third, many if not most cloud backup services charge extra to backup your external hard drives and network drives or simply don’t support it! With IDrive, it’s just part of the deal. Since we store all of our data this way, it’s one reason we initially found IDrive years ago.

Fourth, only YOU delete files in your IDrive cloud account. Often times a file will get accidentally deleted – in fact, I just did that the other day with an entire subdirectory of Coldplay mp3’s. It happens. What if you don’t notice it, like I almost didn’t? Other cloud backup services delete those files from your cloud account PERMANENTLY after 30 days. Not IDrive!

Fifth, somewhat self explanatory, but if you have files that are open and or locked – like Outlook PST data files, many online backup software programs are unable to back those up. IDrive can and does.

Sixth, and this is REALLY HOT and very unique to IDrive. If you have 50GB of data you want to protect in the cloud, do you know how long that takes to UPLOAD to your account? Remember, almost all internet providers advertise DOWNLOAD speeds, not upload. Uploading is often 1/10 the speed of downloading or ever LESS. So that initial copying of your data to the cloud can potentially take a long time – especially if you choose to throttle the upload to keep from dragging down your internet performance for everthing else you do.

IDrive offers IDrive Express – at THEIR EXPENSE – and you can read all about it here. A few others might offer a similar service but who does it for free?

Seventh, your wallet! IDrive is one of the least expensive cloud backup services. We would not compromise our data to save a few dollars a year, don’t get me wrong. With IDrive, you don’t have to.

Just a reminder here, these are not the ONLY reasons to use IDrive for cloud backup and storage, just 7 reasons we thought would grab your attention.

Summary

So looking at this list, and reading a little more about each item, is it any wonder why we find IDrive online backup to be the best cloud backup service currently available?

Whether Windows or Mac, home or office, IDrive makes sense to protect your data from natural disasters, hard drive crashes, fire, theft or even crypto malware.

Get started today, test drive the service with a free, lifetime 5GB account if you are still skeptical. And if they ask you to confirm that OnlineBackupSpot recommended them, please respond in the affirmative. It will not in any way connect you with us or give us any access to your data; it’s just part of their marketing feedback.

Get Protected With IDrive Now

try best cloud backup service for free

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Start Protecting Holiday Photos Now – Don’t Lose A Single Picture!

Store Your Holiday Memories In The Cloud

backup holiday photos in the cloud

Cloud Storage of Holiday Memories

Every year we see the same cries for help from people who have lost holiday photos, video and those special Christmas memories with their kids, families, loved ones. Or just good friends having a good time.

Hard drives fail, files get accidentally deleted, computers get infected with malware like Cryptolocker.

With cloud storage services like IDrive, our #1 pick (and currently 50% OFF!), you can backup unlimited devices to one account, including the pics on those mobile devices – both Apple & Android.

Other cameras and video devices you might upload to your hard drive or possibly an external hard drive or storage unit of some kind. When it fails, though, the photos and video are gone for good unless MAYBE you are willing to spend hundreds or even thousands with a data recovery service.

Cloud Storage Is CHEAP!

Cloud storage has never been cheaper or easier to use, nor more versatile in what devices it is compatible with. That’s one reason we love IDrive so much is that it works with all your devices and will backup external hard drives and network drives too! All for less than $50 per year (under $25 today!).

We have insisted for years that computer backup just does not happen unless it happens automatically, without having to think about it.

If you sign up for IDrive right now, take advantage of the 50% OFF promotion, and get your initial backup out of the way – tested – and ready for those holiday memories.

Again, it doesn’t matter if your primary computer is a Windows PC or a Mac – or even both. IDrive will backup all of your devices to one inexpensive account. If you need more storage than the basic account, upgrades are insanely reasonable.

Please don’t risk losing video or pictures of Christmas morning or other irreplaceable times with your family and others you care for.

Check out IDrive right now – and tell them OnlineBackupSpot sent you!

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Pre-Encryption Makes DropBox, Google Drive, SkyDrive More Secure

Free Version Of Boxcryptor Secures Free Cloud Storage

boxcryptor-pre-encryption-for-free-cloud-storage

Boxcryptor Makes Free Cloud Storage Secure

We have long been sounding the warning about free cloud storage services lacking security for your data. Sure, most people – especially the younger generation – do not care about security. They will eventually.

Hopefully the catalyst to make them care will not cost or hurt too much.

Many users start out using free cloud storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox for inane stuff that needs no security. But once they get used to it, the next thing they know they are uploading – maybe without even realizing it – data that should be protected.

And SkyDrive? Well maybe it was an unknown before but with the advent of Windows 8 where Microsoft all but REQUIRES you to have a SkyDrive account and then – God help us – DEFAULTS to storing your data on SkyDrive (we have so many laws why is not one of them to prevent stupidity such as this?).

Secure Data On Free Cloud Storage Services For Free

Boxcryptor has both free and paid versions, we’ll talk about the free version because that will probably cover most people. Businesses obviously should opt for one of the (inexpensive) paid plans.

What Boxcryptor does is seemlessly work between your PC or mobile device to encrypt your data BEFORE sending it over the wire (or air) to your free cloud storage service – or even a paid service like SugarSync.

The installation of Boxcryptor is pretty straightforward, with only one small glitch on the Windows 8.1 update that asks you to export some keys for the Windows EFS service; just do it and it should not nag you again.

A service like this is all the more important as the free cloud services become more widespread – both by user demand and vendor insistence, like Microsoft is doing and even Google does to an extent. And we expect this vendor insistence to increase.

Pre-Encryption For All Your Devices

Pre-encryption for cloud storage would not be worth much if it only worked on Windows PCs. Fortunately, Boxcryptor works on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.

Naturally, if you install pre-encryption on your PC and want to view those files on your phone or tablet you will have to install the same software, in the appropriate version, on your other devices too in order to decrypt it.

The nice thing is that all this works in the background, you can still open a file as you normally would. It’s not like having a file in a TruCrypt vault or password protected zip file which takes other cumbersome steps to use.

Another Problem With Free Cloud Storage Services

While it sounds good to have your data in the cloud, available from anywhere, remember the risks. Free cloud services owe you nothing, and have you read their terms of service, which they can change at any time? Thought not.

And, the internet can – and does – go down. That’s why the PRIMARY copy of all important data should be LOCAL with cloud storage as an OFF-SITE BACKUP.

Remember, no one cares about your data as much as YOU do, so use free cloud services with that in mind and take advantage of free pre-encryption from a company like Boxcryptor to keep your data secure.

Learn more about Boxcryptor here

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The Fastest Way To Backup Your Data To The Cloud

USB Hard Drive Gets Data To The Cloud FAST

idrive express usb data cloud backup

Fastest Cloud Backup - IDrive Express

The fastest way to backup your data to the cloud is not fiber optic internet service, though that’s really nice to have. No, IDrive Express is going to beat the fastest internet connection AND it will not cause you any problems with an ISP quota on data transfers – though I think those are rare.

IDrive Express is a FREE service (1 per year for personal accounts) from IDrive whereby you request the 1TB USB hard drive to make your initial data backup. IDrive ships you the drive at their expense, you backup your data onto it (with IDrive software) and then ship it back to them at their expense.

They take the IDrive Express hard disk and upload your data – securely, start to finish – to their cloud servers. All within 7 days (provided you do your part in a timely manner!)

Secure Data Transfer To The Cloud

Is your data secure with the IDrive Express USB hard drive? Absolutely. Your data is encrypted at your PC before ever leaving it. With IDrive you have the option of using a private key that only you know, if you prefer. Otherwise it uses a secure key provided by IDrive.

Should the USB drive fall into the wrong hands there is little chance anyone could decrypt it and make use of it, especially with the private key option.

We know that many people, especially younger ones, are not worried about data security but we take it VERY seriously. That’s one reason IDrive is our TOP PICK for cloud backup.

Reasons To Use IDrive Express For Initial Backup

There are several reasons you may want to take IDrive up on the IDrive Express USB drive backup to the cloud option.

  • It’s free for you initial backup (Free once per year for IDrive Pro accounts, three times for business accounts)
  • Reasonable $59.95 charge for ADDITIONAL drives over and above the included
  • It’s FAST, no internet connection will beat it
  • Does not SLOW your internet for potentially weeks while you do the initial upload like other services
  • Gets your data protected quicker; subsequent data is uploaded efficiently with file CHANGES only
  • No quota issues with your ISP, company, whomever

How About Fast Restore?

Should you need your data restored in a hurry, IDrive Express is the fastest way to do that too. Again, 1 per year is free (3 for a company account).

A USB hard drive is going to be the fastest way to get ALL of your data, securely, should you have to recover from disaster. Naturally, if you are in a hurry for select files you can restore them from any computer or device in the world with an internet connection.

Why IDrive Is Different

A few other companies offer a service like this but:

  • Others charge, sometimes over $100 for this service
  • Others use smaller hard drives, IDrive Express uses 1TB capacity drives
  • Others do not all offer private key encryption to secure your files so ONLY YOU can decrypt them

All in all, we love IDrive and it’s our #1 pick for online backup/cloud storage.

Learn more about IDrive here

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Cloud Storage Black Friday Cyber Monday Coupons 2013

Biggest Cloud Storage Coupon Codes Of The Year!

We have updated our Online Backup Coupon Codes page with the latest deals from Mozy, SugarSync and Zoolz for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2013.

With SugarSync there is an amazing 50% off deal.

Mozy and Zoolz have coupons now and then but Mozy is usually no more than 10% or maybe 20%, but this deal is for 25% off.

Similarly, Zoolz is offering 25% off when they normally only go 20% at the most on a coupon deal.

With so many people losing access to all of their files – just as if their hard drive had died – to ransomware like CryptoLocker there is no better time to get protected with a quality cloud backup software.

Check out all of the Black Friday – Cyber Monday cloud backup coupon deals on our Coupon Page

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How To Protect Against CryptoLocker Malware

Online Backup With Versioning Your Best Antidote

cryptolocker-bogus-email-message

CryptoLocker Infection Can Start With Infecte Email Attachment

The CryptoLocker virus/malware/ransomware is one of the worst infections your PC can endure. And while the infection often is effected by a bogus email with an attachment the threat they follow up with is real.

CryptoLocker really does encrypt your files and you will NOT be able to decrypt them without paying the ransom. But paying the ransom is NOT recommended, even though some seem to have gotten their files back this way since further infection of a worse kind is not only possible but probable with the solution they sell you.

Does An AntiVirus Program Protect Me?

In a word, no, an antivirus program will not protect you from CryptoLocker. The malware comes in just too many constantly mutating forms to expect absolute protection from any of the top antivirus software programs. Behavioral monitoring by some of the more advance A/V programs can stop it, but no guarantees.

Does that mean you should not bother with and antivirus program? NO, please DO install a quality antivirus, antimalware solution and make sure they are keeping themselves updated (sometimes a bug will cause an antivirus program to stop updating itself – which is a bad thing.

I Backup To A Local USB Drive, Am I Safe From CryptoLocker?

The only way your backups to a local USB drive would help you recover from CryptoLocker is if you DISCONNECT the USB drive AFTER the last backup BEFORE CryptoLocker hit. Otherwise, the files on your USB drive or even a network drive would likely be encrypted for ransom as well.

The CryptLocker Warning Banner

Usually, once infected, CryptoLocker will work in the background and quietly encrypt all of your files without placing too noticeable of a load on your PC. Then, once it is too late for you to do anything about it, they will display this red warning banner:

crptolocker-message-your-personal-files-are-encrypted

CryptoLocker Announces That Your Personal Files Are Encrypted - It's Too Late!

How CryptoLocker and Similar Ransomware Work

In most cases, CryptoLocker and for that matter, all viruses and malware can be avoided with wise user practices like not opening email attachments unless you know who they are from AND ARE EXPECTING THEM. You cannot open an attachment just because it’s from someone you know because it could be that their computer is compromised and sending malware to everyone in their address book.

Also avoid suspicious websites or those associated with ‘questionable’ content like porn, free downloads, etc. Always avoid those free holiday screensavers.

Below is a diagram courtesy of Trend Micro Security, makers of Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security

how cryptolocker worksThe Only True Protection Against CryptoLocker Ransomware

Unfortunately the only true way to protect your data against ransomware is to have a quality Online Backup software like IDrive protecting your files by backing them up to your cloud storage account AND having multiple versions (30 in the case of IDrive) such that once your files are encrypted by CryptoLocker, yes they will get backed up to the cloud – though it will take a while before they all are – and that could be a warning sign too!, but you can restore to your PC AFTER it’s been cleaned, a previous version that has NOT been encrypted by the ransomware.

Prevention Of Ransomware Like CryptoLocker

Here are some tips for PREVENTING ransomware from taking your files hostage:

  • When a computer in your home or office becomes infected, isolate it IMMEDIATELY by pulling the network plug and disconnecting any USB devices to help further infections or encryptions
  • Avoid opening any email attachments that are not expected
  • Avoid visiting un-trusted sites that may redirect or download this malware into the system

Above all, though, make sure you have unencrypted backups out of reach from the malware in a secure cloud backup solution.

IDrive is our #1 pick and what I have installed on the computer I am writing this post on.

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Is Your Online Backup HIPAA Compliant?

IDrive Can Provide You With A Business Associate Agreement For Cloud Storage

IDrive online backup is hipaa compliant

IDrive Is Secure, Easy To Use & HIPAA Compliant

HIPAA compliant online backup and cloud storage is a big deal. Very few businesses can afford the fines, penalties, legal costs, and business interruption if they get caught storing data in non-compliant format. IDrive is our #1 preferred online backup vendor for a reason.

Not only can you have simplified private key encryption (READ THIS FIRST!), but IDrive is ready and willing to provide you with the necessary Business Associate Agreement that you had better have on file should you get asked to produce it. God only knows how some cloud backup providers will pass the buck, ignore your request or finally fess up to the fact that they really are NOT HIPAA compliant and you should have chosen someone like IDrive instead!

New HIPAA Regulations In Effect

HIPAA regulations are making headlines as businesses ensure they meet the new requirements that took effect on September 23, 2013, and IDrive has a clean bill of health.

IDrive Online Backup has been preparing for the implementation of these new HIPAA business associate regulations and has already taken the necessary steps to assist current and future users with setting up business associate agreements. When businesses needing agreements create their accounts, they should contact [email protected] and include their username, legal company name, and address to begin the process.

Private Key Encryption

IDrive is one of the few top tier cloud vendors offering true private key encryption, where data becomes totally inaccessible to unauthorized users not in possession of that private key.

Even if IDrive as your storage provider is forced to hand over data to officials, that data is useless without the private key to decrypt the data. IDrive requires all users who fall under HIPAA compliance to utilize a private key to ensure the full protection of their data.

READ THIS before signing up for IDrive if you intend to use a Private Key.

Moreover, IDrive still offers private key encryption users complete, anywhere access to their data, whereas other providers are unable to provide anywhere access for private key accounts such as those containing HIPAA regulated data.

Trust Your Data To A HIPAA Compliant Cloud Storage Leader

Hopefully you know the value of “getting it right the first time”. Fortunately, with IDrive you are not paying through the nose to “get it right”. Your data is secure with IDrive, even more so with a private key account, yet it is one of the most affordable business online backup solutions.

IDrive is an extremely secure online backup and storage service that uses 256-bit AES encryption. It has passed Standard Occupational Classifications (SOC) audits to ensure that adequate safeguards are implemented to ensure the best security and data protection.

Click here to learn more about IDrive online backup for HIPAA compliant data

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News In The World Of Online Backup

Do We Write Too Much On IDrive and Not Enough On Mozy?

mozy-online-backup-store-photographs

Same Mozy Gal With Same Box Of Photographs

The other day we had an unfriendly comment on a post about IDrive. The comment said he suspects that OnlineBackupSpot is owned by IDrive because many of our recent posts were about IDrive.

(Must not have read our About page)

Well, we suspect that the commenter is either from a competing website or an online backup vendor competing with IDrive; and struggling to compete with IDrive at that.

Our response was that we write most about the online backup software that:

  • We like so much we use on our own computers
  • We are currently working with to review or otherwise have daily contact with it
  • Are making improvements in their service and rolling out new features

What would you expect? That we write more about companies that:

  • We don’t think are worthy of mention
  • We have not used in a while
  • Have not made any changes in their service in many months

What kind of news happens in the online backup world? Yet ANOTHER new, undistinguished service that uses the same server cloud (Amazon) as half of the others. Oh, boy. THAT’s what I want to spend my week on, evaluating how non-different they are from everyone else. And trying to figure out their feature set from some basically blank web pages that say “we’re new, we’re cool, so buy from us”.

Online backup is somewhat like your utility company. You just want them to always be there, working. Backup is backup. Mobile apps are really the only game changer of late and not everyone cares much about that. Can you really open up an Excel file on your iPhone anyway?

Mobile devices are more about music and pics. Most of the pics aren’t REALLY worth saving and the music may have been purchased from Amazon or iTunes and they are “backing it up” for you anyway. It’s only true oddballs like me who have a collection of music, much converted from vinyl, that was purchased LONG BEFORE iTunes or Amazon MP3 came along.

Let’s Look At Mozy

Take for instance an industry leader, Mozy online backup. From what we can tell by reading their blog, nothing much has changed since Mozy Stash which we wrote about at the time. Sure, their blog has some interesting content, but not about anything really to do with their cloud backup service and what it can do for you.

Let’s make it clear, we LIKE MOZY. Mozy Pro especially is a top notch service for businesses. But, it can get a little pricey and they have had complaints too, just like everyone else.

But not only does Mozy still have the same image (see upper right) of the same gal with the same box of photographs they must have had now for a couple of years, but not much has changed in the service or mobile apps. OK, the gal is fairly attractive even if she does have a kind of frumpy grin going on.

And yes, Mozy will do a great job of protecting your photos. Is that something we can write about every week?

Mozy’s 2GB Free Account

When Mozy home first came out with their free for life 2GB online backup account it was a game changer. They were leading the industry. But at that time 2GB was worth something.

Today?

Even the 5GB free accounts are starting to become a novelty and truly only a “free trial account”. 5GB just isn’t enough for much data, let alone 2GB.

Mozy has not even ante upped in the game.

Contrast IDrive

IDrive, by contrast, has been making lots of changes recently. We no sooner realized an attribute of their programming methodology we did not like (and wrote about) that they changed it (not because of us).

Then they improved their apps. And their website. And they are still the same low price.

That was something to write about, and we have. Plus, I have IDrive on this very PC that I am writing this post on. And I installed the IDrive App on my Android phone and experimented with copying and pasting my long, complex private encryption key from Password Safe to the IDrive App.

And I tested (again) the tech support.

What To Do? Who To Trust?

So based on the facts above, what do you think I should be writing about? IDrive, or maybe Mozy?

Our commenter ended his troll with “buyer beware” attempting to indicate that our site was not to be trusted because we have written too much about the company we recommend as our #1 pick – and use ourselves.

Really?

My response to that was that buyers should beware review sites where the person “reviewing” the software never even installs it on a computer but simply looks at the sales page, reads a few comments, maybe checks out some other review sites and then pays a designer to make it look really cool.

We dig deep. We call the company to find out answers they don’t post on their sales page.

Ever notice how LITTLE information is really listed on the “features” pages of some of these online backup services?

Yep, that’s what we are for – to fill in the monstrous gaps.

Leave a comment, we would love to hear from someone who is not just a troll. 🙂

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Do You Have Network Drives To Backup?

Online Backup Supports Network Drives

online backulp services with network drive support

Your Data, Your Cloud, No Restrictions

Should it matter where you store your data to determine if an online backup service will support protecting it for you? I mean, really, there are very few “true” cloud backup providers, most everyone else sells you a certain amount of space and maybe some syncing features.

Note: A Network drive and a mapped drive are essentially the same thing as far as the data is concerned. However, some online backup software will backup a network drive based on a UNC (Universal Naming Convention) path, such as “\\{servername}\{sharename}”. Other online backup services require the network drive be “mapped” to a drive letter, such as “F:”.

So why do so many online backup services refuse to allow you to secure data from your external hard drive or a network drive in your cloud backup account? What justification do they have? Or is there software just that marginal and they don’t want to hire better programmers?

Maybe it should be no surprise that our #1 pick for online backup works fantastic for someone with nothing but a laptop to protect as it does for someone with a laptop, desktop, external hard drive and a home NAS – even one of those funky Android phones – to protect.

IDrive Supports Network Drives and Everything Else Too

IDrive knows you want to protect your data. Period. And you don’t want to juggle it on and off your PC so that you can somehow get it stuffed up into the cloud. So IDrive supports network drives, external drives, desktop drives, even your phone. And yes, the limit how much space – kind of. By that I mean that the “true” archiving they offer does not count against your quota.

You might guess that because they do all of that they are more expensive than everyone else. Nope. In fact they are one of the least expensive, another reason they are in the #1 spot.

LiveDrive Is Another Service That Supports Network Drives

One of the most popular articles on our site is this one about supporting network drives. From that we found that a great number of visitors took the LiveDrive trial and decided that, yes, it worked very well for them. We have less experience with LiveDrive than IDrive but we have never had anyone get back to us with negative feedback on it.

LiveDrive is just a bit more expensive because they charge extra for network drive support – but their customers are quite happy with the service at the price.

The Bottom Line For You

If you are at all like me, you just want your data to be protected by being backed up to the cloud, securely, reliably, and be able to access it when you need it. The last thing you want to have to think about when determining where to store your data or what piece of computer hardware you might buy is “will my cloud backup service provider support it?”

Unless you buy something totally off-the-wall, there should be no question about it.

Why not pick up a free lifetime 5GB account at IDrive and give them a try,

or,

Go for a test drive of LiveDrive.

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Other Articles You May Be Interested In

Our Full IDrive Review

Our Full LiveDrive Review

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4 Reasons Everyone Loves IDrive Computer Backup

Why IDrive Backup Service Rates #1

idrive-computer-backup-rates-number-oneWe are more aware than anyone how many choices you have for cloud storage, so why should IDrive computer backup be the one you pick?

While we may have originally been attracted to IDrive because of their encryption protection, external hard drive backup and mapped drive support, there are other reasons why it has become so popular with everyone else.

IDrive computer backup service has been our #1 pick for a long time and whenever someone else gets close to unseating them, an upgrade to IDrive locks them securely in the top notch.

Top 4 Features That Sets IDrive Apart

IDrive clearly is a leader in the cloud backup industry, they have been at it a long time and they spend more time and money on development of a better product than they do marketing. So many other companies have that backward.

Four of the features that IDrive users really seem to love are:

  1. Remote Management Feature – If you are away from home and need a file? Edit your backup set remotely to grab that file or folder so it’s backed up to the cloud where it is accessible to you anywhere, even from your mobile device with one of IDrives great mobile apps (Apple, Android).
  2. True Archiving – This feature is one of our favorites as well. We know from experience working with business clients and individuals that you do not always realize that a file has been deleted accidentally within a 30 day time window that other computer backup services may provide file retention for. With IDrive computer backup, the only files deleted from your cloud account are those that you specifically tell it to delete.
  3. No Bandwidth Throttling – Some online backup services offer “unlimited backup” but after a certain amount of uploading you find they have throttled your account to the point that it is practically worthless. While the IDrive backup software allows YOU to set throttling and bandwidth scheduling for your benefit, IDrive does not slow you down in getting your data to their protected servers.
  4. IDrive Express – We just wrote about IDrive Express service to let you know about this relatively new offering by IDrive to provide hard drive upload and retrieval at NO COST to you! No one else in the industry is offering this (although IDrive may end up leading them to do it!) All new paid signups – business and personal! – can receive a 1TB IDrive Express hard drive, at no cost to them, to speed up their initial upload. You can backup your critical data and mail back the drive, getting your initial upload done in days instead of weeks. With competitors, this feature can costs hundreds of dollars, IDrive now offers it for FREE!

Hopefully you are starting to see the difference between IDrive computer backup where backing up your computer is of the utmost importance versus some of the competitors that are big on glitz, big on coupons and emails offering you a better and better deal until you succumb – but low on features.

Perhaps This Feature Tops Them All

The one idea I don’t want you to walk away with is the idea that a cloud based computer backup service that offers all this must be hard to use or expensive; IDrive is neither.

IDrive offers a LIFETIME free account of 5GB (IDrive Express not included, though, obviously) which is more than most others. But the PAID accounts are so inexpensive it becomes a no-brainer to signup. No fancy tricks, sometimes a simple coupon code and that’s it. No high pressure “today only” sales techniques.

AND, IDrive computer backup software is easy to download, install and setup to get your data protected quickly.

Want to learn more or get started right away? Click here to head over to IDrive.

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