Anyone who knows me by now knows my near-famous phrase, "if your computer crashed today, would you still be in business tomorrow?" Last year, around this same time, that reality came all to clear for many area business owners. Jackson was hit by one of the worst floods in our city's history, and several found their once thriving businesses buried underwater. Computers were destroyed, property damaged, and files lost. Natural disasters have a way of rendering those copies of important documents stored on flash drives or external hard drives unusable. And unfortunately, many of these same business owners had no offsite data storage plan in place that would allow them to quickly bounce back in the event of a catastrophe that resulted in data loss.

Enter iDrive. Most users have heard of Carbonite, which offers an incredible deal at only $54.95 per year for unlimited data storage. But in our experience, Carbonite seriously lacked in a few areas, namely speed and reliability. This is where iDrive excels. With iDrive, as with most other offsite backup apps, you configure the software to perform automated backups to a secure offsite server. This can be done at scheduled times, or you may select the "Continuous Backup" option that will upload a copy of data to the backup server once a file change is detected. This feature is quite awesome, however, it may not be recommended for certain types of files, particularly databases. While iDrive's pricing cannot compete with Carbonite's flat rate for unlimited storage, it definitely falls into the category of affordable and worthwhile, especially compared to the cost associated with trying to recover data from a waterlogged hard drive. When data needs to be recovered, simply log into your account at www.idrive.com and download the data you need to any computer. If you need to restore a file to a computer that is still working, simply use the iDrive application. Accidentally delete a file? No problem. iDrive also supports revisions and timeline restoration, allowing you to recover a previous version of the same file. 

iDrive also has an app for iPhone users that allows them easy access to their files from the phone or tablet. Unfortunately, they are not currently showing much love to us Android users...

iDrive does offer a free 5GB account to get you started. Needless to say, you won't be able to store your massive music collection or years worth of photos with this size account, but the free account is perfect for the individual or business owner who may just need some peace of mind from know that the most critical files are secure. Its a great way to back up QuickBooks files and office documents.

So there you have it, a quick and dirty review of a couple of free ways to "back that thing up" and sleep better at night knowing that if your computer crashes, that you can quickly get back to doing whatever it is you do :)

thanks, and God bless,

-myk