Slow file transfer speeds (especially compared to the competition).No file sharing if you use the most secure mode.Browser interface exposes your Private Encryption Key.Based in the United States (a bad privacy jurisdiction).
I'd recommend the IDrive Portable as a faster, local alternative to users of IDrive's online backup service: It will work without an Internet connection or if you need that file restored sooner rather than later.ĬOMPARISON TABLE Compare the Buffalo MiniStation Cobalt USB 3.0 with several other hard drive side by side. Aside from clicking on an OK button, the Clickfree is totally hands-off backup and easiest to setup. The Clickfree HD325 is closer to $100 street price now, but I think the extra cash is worth it if you're going for local backup. However, I believe the IDrive's closest competitor in spirit is the Clickfree HD325 ($180 list, 4.5 stars). The HP is a better buy if all you need is the hard drive space. The HP is about 17 cents per GB, while the IDrive is a little more expensive at about 22 cents per GB. The IDrive Portable is pretty good, but the HP Portable is a little more future-proofed with its USB 3.0 interface. The takeaway is that the IDrive Portable will be fast enough backing up your data, particularly during subsequent updates after the initial base backup. Of course, the HP drive was much faster when connected to a USB 3.0 interface. To put this into perspective, our Editors' Choice HP Portable External Hard Drive (1TB) ($169.99 direct, 4 stars) took 46 seconds for drag and drop on USB 2.0, while garnering 2,916 points on PCMark05.
It took 41 seconds to copy our 1.22GB test file using drag and drop, and got a decent 3,053 points on the PCMark05 HDD test. The IDrive Portable has decent performance, at least when compared with other drives using the USB 2.0 interface.
#Idrive reviews pcmag update#
If 5GB isn't enough, you can update to one of IDrive's plans, from $4.95 per month for 150GB on a personal plan up to 1TB (1000GB) for $79.95 per month on a business plan. The drive comes with 5GB of cloud storage space for free: All you have to do is sign up with IDrive. Since IDrive made its name as an online backup service, it's not surprising that the IDrive software has an option for using online backup in addition to the local backup to the hard drive. You'll have to format the drive as FAT32 manually if you want to use the drive on both platforms, since the IDrive is formatted NTFS.
#Idrive reviews pcmag install#
You can back up multiple systems to the same IDrive portable-you'll just have to install IDrive on each PC or Mac.
#Idrive reviews pcmag .exe#
exe files and shortcuts One plus is that IDrive can backup files that are open, like the OST and PST files used by Microsoft Outlook, something more basic backup software may have trouble with. It doesn't have disaster recovery functionality, so it can't back up up.
The hard drive software concentrates on document backup. You can also specify other folders to back up in the IDrive program.
The IDrive software is fairly easy to install it's set up to automatically back up the two spots people normally leave their personal files: the Documents folder and Desktop folder. The drive has 320GB of storage onboard, which is enough for hundreds of thousands of JPEG images, myriad MP3 files, or about 75 DVD-quality movies.