If you delete files from your local drive, iDrive will keep copies so you can restore them later if you have a change of heart. The service is even free if you send the hard drive back within a certain time frame. Flipping that around, they'll also send you a copy of all your files on a hard drive if your PC explodes, so you can quickly and easily copy them back. You can send the company a hard drive containing the files you want to upload and they'll copy them over directly, saving you hours or days of upload time. IDrive offers its users plenty of other perks. When it came time to restore my files, the app offered to put them back in their original locations, or divert them to another location of my choosing. Looking past the surface, I was pleased to find that it uploaded my files very quickly and was able to retrieve them entirely within the app-something its primary rival Backblaze can't claim. The iDrive app was easy to install and dead simple to use, even if it looks a little outdated. IDrive Backup details: iDrive’s Personal backup plan costs $69.50 per year (or less, if you catch a sale) and provides 2TB of storage, which will be more than enough for most users' personal documents and media. The bottom line: For the average user, iDrive provides the best blend of features, speed, and value you can find today. Most importantly, the best of the best will provide all of these features at a low monthly or yearly price, as iDrive does. They also allow for “seeding,” letting you send them files from an external hard drive and copying your initial backup directly to the cloud server. Great services go even further, providing courier service to you a hard drive containing all your files when you need to bulk-restore quickly. And they employ state-of-the-art encryption to ensure no one else has access to your data. They'll keep old files you've deleted, and hang on to old versions of files you've updated. They allow you to backup all kinds of files from whichever drive you like, including external and network drives. In general, good online backup services provide user-friendly apps that securely store your files and work on any operating system you want. There are better choices for security nuts and power users, though, so I’ll detail those as well. Provides by far the best blend of features and performance at a great price-about $5.79 a month, or cheaper if you get in on one of iDrive’s frequent sales. In the end, my choice was clear: iDrive Personal I spent more than a month testing eight of the most popular cloud backup solutions to find out which one is best for most users. But when disaster strikes, you’ll thank your lucky stars that someone else is looking out for you. When nothing goes wrong, they feel like a waste of money. Cloud backup services are like any other kind of insurance.

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