Oddly sufficient, the most effective methods to again up your knowledge to an exterior arduous drive comes from a cloud storage firm.
I’m referring to iDrive, which presents a free native backup utility within its Windows and Mac apps. While iDrive is better-known for providing cheap cloud storage, its native backup software doesn’t require a subscription and is simply restricted by the quantity of house in your storage drives.
Although I personally nonetheless favor Microsoft OneDrive as my cloud storage service—primarily due to its tighter Windows integration and bundling with Microsoft 365—iDrive’s native backup software is a simple and efficient option to make copies of your vital knowledge onto storage drives that you just management.
Here’s tips on how to use it:
Setting up iDrive
iDrive requires an account to make use of its Windows and Mac apps, however you possibly can simply use iDrive’s free tier (with 10 GB of cloud storage) to entry the native backup instruments. Create your free account first, then use it to log in after installing the iDrive desktop app.
When you first launch the iDrive app, you’ll be wanting on the “Backup” tab, and the default possibility will likely be “Backup files to my iDrive account.” If any of your folders are listed on this part, proper click on and choose “Remove all items” in order that iDrive doesn’t try and retailer your information within the cloud.
Next, click on the button for “Backup files to Local, Wi-Fi, or Express devices.” Directly beneath this button, click on the “…” subsequent to “Backup location,” then select your exterior drive from the listing. (If you don’t have an exterior drive already, PCWorld has some recommendations.)
Jared Newman / Foundry
Now, it’s time to decide on which pc folders you’d wish to again up. Near the underside of the iDrive app, click on “Change,” then examine off all of the storage drives or folders you need to embody. They ought to now seem beneath “Files / folders for local backup.”
Jared Newman / Foundry
Once all the pieces’s prepared, click on “Backup Now” to make your first backup. This can take minutes, hours, and even days relying on how a lot knowledge you’re storing and the velocity of your exterior drive, so be affected person.
Scheduling routine backups
Backing up your knowledge solely works should you do it frequently. To that finish, iDrive additionally presents a scheduler for making routine backups robotically.
From the Backup tab, click on “Schedule,” then examine off the times of the week on which you’d wish to run the backup, together with the time of day to begin. With an always-on desktop PC, you’ll most probably need to schedule the backup for the nighttime. Otherwise, set it for a time when your pc is prone to be up and operating.
Jared Newman / Foundry
You can even arrange electronic mail notifications to substantiate that the backup succeeded (or failed), or get notifications via the desktop app. If your pc’s off in the course of the scheduled backup time, iDrive will resume it by default as soon as the pc again on, however you possibly can disable this if you want. Click “Save Changes” to start the schedule.
If you’re not utilizing iDrive’s on-line backup service, you must also disable scheduled on-line backups from this menu. Select “Default BackupSet” from the dropdown listing on the high, then uncheck the day by day scheduling settings.
One final helpful possibility to notice: Under Settings, you possibly can click on the “Throttle” tab and set a restrict on CPU use in your backups. That could also be useful when you have a light-weight PC and the backup operation is hindering your work.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Restoring your knowledge
Note that iDrive doesn’t merely mirror your information onto an exterior drive. Instead, it creates an encrypted copy of your knowledge, so should you navigate to the backup location in File Explorer, you gained’t discover something usable. To restore your information to their unique, unencrypted kind, you’ll want to make use of the iDrive app’s Restore operate.
This is vital: If you’re restoring knowledge to a special pc than the one which made the backup, you could first head the Backup tab, click on “Backup files to Local, Wi-Fi, or Express device,” then choose your exterior drive beneath “Backup location.” Otherwise, you gained’t be capable of discover your backup knowledge within the steps beneath.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Now, head to the “Restore” tab and choose “Restore files from Local, Wi-Fi, or Express device.” If you’re on a brand new pc, use the “Select Device” field to decide on the pc the place you initially created the backup.
Check off the information you need to restore, and on the backside of the app, select the place you need to restore them. You can both choose the unique location or select one other vacation spot on any drive related to your pc.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Finally, click on “Restore Now” to start the method. As with the unique backup, this may take some time should you’ve saved loads of knowledge.
Other choices
As I discussed earlier, I personally use OneDrive as my important cloud storage service, and have solely been utilizing iDrive for native backups.
But should you aren’t invested in a cloud storage supplier already, iDrive’s on-line service could also be value contemplating as an extra backup supply. The iDrive Photos tier solely prices $10 per yr (and $1 for the primary yr), and along with backing up limitless images out of your cellphone, it may possibly retailer as much as 1 TB of knowledge out of your pc. That needs to be loads except you will have an enormous picture and video library. (The subsequent step up is $80 per yr for 5 TB of cloud storage.) iDrive additionally gives a Sync folder separate from its important backup service, letting you simply entry information throughout all of your units.
Of course, iDrive isn’t the one possibility for native backups. Companies like EaseUS and Paragon additionally provide free native backup utilities, and Windows itself has an exterior drive backup software in-built.
But iDrive’s software program is extra versatile than the built-in Windows possibility, and it doesn’t have a few of the limits that EaseUS and Paragon place on their free variations. (Both of them, as an example, require a paid improve to get standing notifications in your backups, and EaseUS even limits backup speeds without spending a dime customers.) iDrive additionally presents free disk cloning instruments that different firms cost for.
iDrive could also be extra beneficiant with its native backup instruments, maybe as a result of its enterprise mannequin revolves round promoting cloud storage fairly than packaged software program. Still, you should use it to maintain encrypted copies of your knowledge with out ever having to pay for it.
If you loved this story, take a look at my Advisorator newsletter to get extra sensible tech recommendation in your inbox each week.