XDrive

Now, Monica is brilliant, and a techie. Between the two of us, it took us 1/2 an hour of concentrated effort to locate where the hell the Outlook Express option was stored. I cannot imagine a dumb user with no technical background finding that option. And, if she weren't on the phone with me, mumbling and grumbling along with me, I would have ended the relationship with XDrive right then and there. But the worst is yet to come, folks.

I dutifully did what I was told, and started the upload process to transfer data. It was 8:00 p.m. I left my office and went out to dinner. I came back, a few hours later, and there were about 3 files transfered out of 2 gigs (I know, I know, I obviously need to clean out my email. But I have a brilliant filing system there...). I jokingly said to Monica that at that rate it would take a week to get my files uploaded. Little did I know.

The next morning, it wasn't much better. That little blue slide was about 5% over. I had to pull out my laptop and use that all day for my email, and had to copy addresses, walk back and forth, etc. all day. By the end of the day, and maybe 10% of the file was copied, I wrote XDrive a note telling them I thought there was a problem. I tried to call, left a message -- and you know the deal, I never got a return contact. I then called Dell, Microsoft, Outlook people (around the world in 50 minutes) and no one would help me find out if there was something I could do to speed up the system. One man in India told me that it might take 3-4 days to upload one gig. Was that true? And if so, why didn't XDrive tell me? And, somewhere in there, Monica also tried to call them with no result because every single time (every single time) she ran the software it crashed her browser. So she cancelled sooner than I.. I turned off the lights at 11 pm (27 hours in).

On morning 2, I awoke to find nothing. Nothing at all. At some point, after 27 hours with no easily available email files, it was dead. Gone. No where to be found. Dead.

I told Monica. She went onto the net to call them on my behlf, and while searching for a number found many complaint notes, with the same problem. Indeed, she found notes with XDrive themselves saying they were having problems. REALLY?! And why not tell us???? I could maybe even have hung in, or tried later, or SOMETHING other than writing a blog to tell the world that they suck.

I wrote them a nasty note and unsubscribed. Monica did the same. But on mine, I mentioned I'd be blogging about this. Obviously, they ignored Monica's unsubscribe, and put a call into me while I was on a conference call with a client. 'I can't talk to you now' I said. The woman on the phone with the soothing voice said, "Let me give you this 800 number so you can call us back". Right. 'Can't take down a number I'm on a conference call (Why did she think I was sitting and waiting for her call with nothing better to do??). Call me back in 1/2 an hour when I'm off.'

And, of course, I never heard from them again.

Anyone have any other good ideas for an external backup system that's EASY to use?

-Sharon Drew Morgen