INSTALL IDRIVE FOR MAC
INSTALL IDRIVE UPGRADE
INSTALL IDRIVE FULL
INSTALL IDRIVE WINDOWS 10
INSTALL IDRIVE ANDROID

The Timeline feature lets you easily scroll back through previews of the photos and videos from your backed-up mobile device. It breaks from the color scheme, and unless I'm close to my storage limit, I don't want to be prompted to upgrade.

INSTALL IDRIVE UPGRADE

One of my few nitpicks is that I find the persistent button to upgrade to a pricier plan irritating. It's a simple two-column interface for the most part, with six main sections along the left and the information for the current section presented on the right. While it hasn't undergone any major feature changes since, the overall look has been streamlined and is behind only Acronis as the most modern UI among the services I tested. The IDrive desktop app was already one of the best among cloud backup services the last time I tested it. This represents a solid improvement from our previous tests and was the second-best result in this round of testing, behind only Acronis.Дuring regular computer usage, IDrive's background CPU load dropped to below 1 percent.

INSTALL IDRIVE FULL

IDrive used an average of approximately 1.23 percent of CPU cycles during the initial full backup, and the system load varied from less than 1 percent to 3 percent throughout testing. Acronis wasn't far ahead at 15 minutes and 20 seconds, but Backblaze was more than twice as fast and CrashPlan nearly three times faster. This put IDrive in last place for download speed among the services tested. Our connection provided 47 Mbps download at this time, while IDrive transferred the files at 12.4 Mbps. Restoring 1.4GB of video files took approximately 16 minutes and 13 seconds.

Only Backblaze set itself apart, coming out in front with a 36.4Mbps upload. It was close, though CrashPlan, Acronis and IDrive were all had upload-completion times within 7 minutes of one another. The other services we tested also improved on their upload performance from previous tests, however, so IDrive finished behind all but Carbonite Safe. This was nearly identical to the speeds we saw the last time we tested IDrive, so it was encouraging from a consistency standpoint. Our initial upload of 15.6GB of files using IDrive's standard settings took approximately 1 hour and 36 minutes, an average data-transfer speed of 25.1 megabits per second (Mbps). We used the GlassWire network-monitoring application to monitor upload and download speeds and the built-in Windows Resource Monitor to track CPU usage. We uploaded this data to each cloud backup service and then restored a 1.4GB subset of these files to the Lenovo Yoga C940. Our test set of files to back up consisted of 15.6GB of documents, photos, videos and music. Each service's software was uninstalled from both devices before another service's software was installed.

INSTALL IDRIVE ANDROID

Mobile apps were tested on a Google Pixel 3 with Android 10.

INSTALL IDRIVE WINDOWS 10

We tested each cloud-backup service using a Lenovo Yoga C940 14-inch laptop with a 10th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU running Windows 10 Home 64. It also supports Windows Server 2003 through 2019, and there are command-line scripts available to back up Linux systems, but you may have to contact IDrive support to get the script bundle for your particular Linux distribution. IDrive offers support for Windows 7, macOS 10.10 Yosemite, Android 5.0 Lollipop or iOS 11.0 and later versions. Even this tier remains more affordable than Acronis True Image for comparable storage or CrashPlan for Small Business with its unlimited storage but high per-computer costs. Other than the storage cap, it's the same as the 5TB plan.ДЇor those that are taking advantage of NAS support, the 10TB limit may be necessary.

Pricing jumps up to $74.62 for the first year ($99.50 per year thereafter) or $149.25 for the first two years ($199 thereafter). Backblaze offers unlimited storage for $70 per year, but that's for only one computer.ДЇor those with more extensive storage needs, you can bump your IDrive Personal storage up to 10TB. Tom's Guide readers will get an even steeper discount on the first year.ДЇor at least the first year, this makes IDrive a very affordable online-backup option. The 5TB plan is typically $59.12 for the first year ($79.50 per year thereafter), or $119.25 for the first two years ($159 thereafter).

INSTALL IDRIVE FOR MAC

Acronis True Image is the only other service I tested that offers full NAS-backup support, while CrashPlan for Small Business does for Mac and Linux only. IDrive also backs up external hard drives and network-attached-storage (NAS) devices. I like to have unlimited storage, but even 5TB will be enough for most users' storage needs. The IDrive Personal subscription plan comes with 5TB or 10TB of storage, depending on price, and can be used across as many computers, smartphones and tablets as you like.

Install idrive