With faster broadband, the tradition of backing up our data to disc or external drive is somewhat diminishing, in favour of backing up online. There are now various companies fighting that will enable you to install a desktop backup application that will store your content on a remote server. These tools will then enable you to restore backed up files on to other computers or even access your backup data from a web browser, from a temporary host PC.

IDrive is another service provider that is fighting your backup account. The desktop tool is well designed. Install, choose the files or folders you want to put in your remote backup account and the application will make the first initial backup online. IDrive will synchronise your data between computer and remote server. This means that if you update the files you’ve previously backed up online, the IDrive tool will recognise the change and update the remote files, automatically.

IDrive enables you to go further that basic backup. You can create a backup set, where one backup set contains all your most important documents, the other your finances, fonts and so on. This makes restoring data far easier as you just grab the set you want to restore, rather than individual files.

The best part is that this ships for both the Windows and Mac platform. The Mac version is somewhat glossy than the Windows version, too. However, the downside is, unlike a rival tool such as Sugarsync, you don’t seem to be able to synchronise your files across different computers. As example, your My Documents folder on your PC and your Documents folder on your Mac. This is essential if you own multiple computers, such as a Windows desktop and Mac laptop. Indeed, reading through the IDrive specs, you can’t share your backup account between a Windows and Mac. It is an either/or situation.

Note that IDrive ships with a free 2GB account. This is the Windows download. A Mac version is available from their homepage.