IDrive Review

We live in a time, where the technology progressed so much, that we can do everything using our PCs and smartphones. This is great, because it allowed for some awesome inventions, one of them being cloud storage. So what is cloud storage, and what does IDrive have to do with that…stuff? Well, cloud storage is an internet-based storage, that doesn’t require a fixed hard drives, hardware and is held by various cloud services. The cloud space can be used for free or bought and that depends on features, provider etc. IDrive is here to provide a cloud data backup, but not only that; IDrive is a file-syncing service, an online storage service, and a file-sharing service. More about IDrive in the next section.

What is IDrive?

As I mentioned, IDrive plays a huge role in the cloud computing area, being the leading force when it comes to cloud data backup. Yes, there are numerous cloud services, but if you didn’t know, IDrive is one of the oldest, yet the most reliable services out there. IDrive will offer you some great features, but it all comes at a certain price, which may or may not meet your requirements or needs. In our next section, we’ll review the features of IDrive, so I suggest to keep reading.

Features and Speed of IDrive

Here, we’ll take a look at the features of IDrive as well as some great plans for you. For me, the overall best subscription plan is 2TB of storage for an unlimited number of devices. It works well, and 2TB is generally a lot of space as I didn’t even reach the half of it. IDrive works really, really great, and I was surprised to see that it offers courier recovery and drive seeding, and those features make IDrive so awesome.

File Backup

As file backup is probably the feature you’ll be using the most, you are probably asking about the quality of it. Well, it’s blazing fast, reliable and offers a great user experience. So, I tested the plan that I mentioned above, that one with 2TB of storage. I filled my storage up to 2TB and tried to back it up. I was surprised when the results came. My 2TB of storage was backed up in only a few days… wow! I mean, few days don’t sound that small, but having in mind that I had 2000 Gb of data, tells a lot about IDrive.

When talking about backup, we’ll also need to mention the Ease of Use. In my opinion, it’s ten out of ten. It’s so easy to initiate a backup, with only a few steps needed. Even newbies to IDrive and cloud computing could easily figure out how to back up their files. Overall, IDrive offers great features, so you can do mirror image backup, local backup, share files and sync files. IDrive will also include IDrive Express in your subscription, sending you an external hard drive to back you up. Amazing… amazing!

File restoration

While file backup worked really fast, File Restoration was a little slower, but still pretty fast in my opinion. When I compared my results using the other cloud services and searched a little bit on the internet, IDrive was miles ahead of them. For example, the average restoration speed is more than two weeks, where IDrive could restore 2 TB of data in around 10 days, at least on my network. On top of that, IDrive can send you an external hard drive with all of your backed-up data, with NO FEE.

The “ten out of ten” mark also goes to the Ease of Use when it comes to file restoration. To be honest, I expected the file restoration to be a little more complicated, but I was surprised to see that I can do it with three simple steps. I mean, it’s so simple that even a newbie to cloud computing could initiate restoration of his files within minutes.

Pricing

If you’ve come to this section, you’ve probably read all of the features above, and I’m sure you are amazed, but we’ve come to the Pricing section, and this is what separates the potential users from those who would give up. If you decide for a 2 TB subscription that I’ve mentioned, the pricing will be $69.50 a year, but having in mind that IDrive allows a discount in the first year, you’ll probably be around $52, which is a damn nice offer. IDrive is also tailored to your family’s needs, so there are large-family and small-family levels, allowing you to use the service on every PC in your household.

For a large family, and by that I mean more than four persons, IDrive will cost around $12 per PC, so it’s around $60 or more, which is still a cheap offer. On the other side, a small-family plan offers around $20 per computer, which is in my opinion, on the more expensive side. However, IDrive has more offers, with the highest being 12.5 TB, but if you are a casual user of PC, I don’t recommend it. Also, IDrive doesn’t offer unlimited storage plans, but with all of the aforementioned features, this is a very small downside.

Security

Security-wise, IDrive uses a military-grade 256-bit AES encryption, and the encryption process is done when the file is being uploaded, meaning that the password will not be stored on the server. There is also a possibility of creating your own encryption key, so only you can view your files, but be sure that you always remember the key. Because if you forget it, it won’t be that great.

Verdict

In the beginning, I didn’t believe that IDrive is that great, but once I used it for few months, I was impressed, and I still am. IDrive offers the best features out there, with a great backup and restoration speed, as well as fantastic pricing and offers. The security is also very tight here, so you’ll have zero problems protecting your data. The only downside is that there isn’t an unlimited space plan, but you won’t even need it with all of the features IDrive offers.

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