Travis and I were talking about online backup solutions for cheap. We both realized, for our own personal use, that file versioning, SSL data transfers, automated backups and email notifications were a must. I has looked at Omnidrive.com and ElephantDrive.com as possible solutions. Today, Travis pointed me at IDrive.
The IDrive application, once downloaded is pretty slick. It’s easy to use and has a wizard if you’re not technologically empowered. You can exclude certain files and directories as well as schedule your backup windows. IDrive also lets you determine how much bandwidth you want to use. An added feature is the “continuous” backup, which allows your backups to run all of the time.
The first full backup will take a while. I’ve fine-tuned mine and it will take a few hours for a couple of Gigs of data. After that, it will only pull the changed files and be much smaller. Remember, this is to recover your CRITICAL files, so don’t go crazy on what you want to keep off-site. I am moving some computer game save files off at the moment and then one night I’ll move my iTunes music.
The IDrive offers a 2GB free plan. For $49.95 a year, or 4.95 a month, they offer a personal use, unlimited data plan for those who just want to make sure their critical data is backed up. IDrive also offers plans for businesses, small and large, to protect data offsite.
If you don’t have a lot you want to backup, try it out for free.
