It gets the job done
November 04, 2024

It gets the job done

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

IDrive Personal

Overall Satisfaction with IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2

I use IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2 as my cloud backup for my (Apple Silicon) MacBook Pro. I am a firm believer in having offsite/cloud as well as onsite backup for redundancy and speed of restores from archive.

My use case covers my individual machine which has my open source projects as well as my personal data.

Pros

  • Easy to setup
  • Initial upload was quick enough and not throttled for around 1TB
  • After initial scan and backup, low cpu utilization
  • Test restore was easy to configure and worked

Cons

  • DropBox-protected folders were not initially backed up as IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2 did not follow the symbolic links created
  • I experienced some UX confusion in adding new folders to backup; it's a different interface than setting up exclusions, and they should follow the same workflow and page buttons
  • After a reboot, it appears like a full disk scan is performed which can take quite a long time on a disk which has many files and lots of space
  • Works better than other cloud backup software I've used
  • Less resource usage once the initial scan (or after-reboot scan) is complete
  • Perfectly fine price point
Some UX polishing could be done with respect to standardizing the inclusion/exclusion of directories.

2FA is great (and I enabled it); however requiring 2FA every time you start the application is a pain. If someone already compromised my machine and is logged in, accessing my backups doesn't give them anything they don't already have. I would prefer a feature to at least have it remember the 2FA login for a configurable day/week/month/whatever.

On balance, a good choice for cost, usability, and resource utilization on my machine.
Carbonite for MacOS is still Intel, not Apple Silicon, so it runs under Rosetta.... 4 years later. Yuck!

Carbonite burns cpu resources for days on end, rarely seeming to find a quiescent point.

Carbonite lost track of all of my files - it kept telling me I wasn't backing up, and yet everything was configured to do so. I'd been using it for > 5 years, and decided it was time to move on.

Do you think IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2 delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2's feature set?

Yes

Did IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2 live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2 go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2 again?

Yes

As part of a 3-2-1 backup strategy on MacOS - (3 forms of backup, at least 2 different technologies, and at least 1 offsite), IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2 works great in tandem with my TimeMachine and DropBox backups. It backs up any mounted volumes. Archiving (for history vs. just the most recent copy) is, like TimeMachine, invaluable, as often you don't need the most recent copy (which might be bad) but a previous one. The interaction with DropBox wasn't perfect: my Documents and Downloads are DropBox monitored, which means that they are symbolic links to my DropBox folder. After the initial install, those links were NOT followed and so IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2 was not backing up those areas, which was not what I expected. Luckily I scrutinized the backup areas, and what was stored in the online web interface, and did a sample restore.

Also, I use Quicken for MacOS which stores my datafiles in my '~/Library/Application Support' directory; by default that area is NOT monitored by IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2 either. So my advice is: after the install configures its defaults, review it very carefully to make sure your data is covered properly.

Easy to install, easy to setup (other than my earlier gripes about the UX), easy to test. The shortcomings in monitored folders just requires diligence.

IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2 Feature Ratings

Versioning
Not Rated
Video files
10
Audio files
10
File search
7
Device sync
8
User and role management
10
File organization
10
Device management
9
Performance
8
Reliability
10
Storage Reports
Not Rated

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