Disclaimer: I’m being paid to write this review.

A couple years ago, on our weekly web radio show, we designated the last Friday of the year as the Official Annual Backup Day. On this day we encourage others to make sure to create and peform regular backups, preferably offsite in case of fire or other local damage. With December 29 a week away it’s timely to review various external backup options. There are basically three remote backup options:

1. backup and sync with an external server (like a webhost) using free or commercial software
2. backup and sync with your own server in another location using free or commercial software
3. use a third party service that offers a complete solution

Data Deposit Box (DDB) fits the third category and offers a trial for 14 days, but in order to tap that you have to give them your credit card information. They call this ‘free’ but that’s not ‘free’ in my book if you have to provide credit card information and permission to charge.

DDB offer a flat price of $2 per GB and this can be used for either business or personal use. One of the services this site is advertising Mozy.com just started offering a $4.95/month unlimited backup plan but it’s only for personal, non-commerical use. Mozypro.com offers service to businesses for $3.95/month + .50/GB. Using this as a straight basis of comparison, DDB seems comparable for smaller amounts of storage but is more expensive with larger storage options, however price alone is only one important factor. Interestingly enough Mozy doesn’t list DDB in their comparison table (includes competing services: Carbonite, xDrive, SOS Backup, Spare- Backup, iBackup in case you want to run your own comparison of services) and doesn’t advertise very well that their most popular plan is not for business use. This is promotional opportunity that DDB should be highlighting more because it’s a significant benefit for their service for business owners.

Signup process
The first step requires filling out a form with a bunch of personal and, if applicable, business information.

Next, you enter in a password and a security question.

The confirmation screen.

The activiation email arrived right away in my email box. I clicked the link and was then required to read the Terms of Service. Seems a little late in the process (after offering the credit card info) to see the TOS?

Analyzing the Terms of Service
Using EULAlyzer I checked out the DDB terms. While this freeware tool is primarily intended for checking EULA in software it also works ok for spotting potential problematic phrases in Terms of Service and privacy policies too. The overall report: “… has a fairly low calculated Interest ID. It’s a healthy read and there were some detected ‘interesting’ words and phrases.”

Looking through, these ‘interesting’ words and phrases included only one item that stuck out to me: Only 30 days allowed for disputing discrepencies:

END USER has thirty (30) days from the date that any discrepancy appears in END USER’s statement or any invoice to notify ACPANA in order to receive an adjustment or credit, after which time, all Fees will be deemed correct.

So check your statements carefully and don’t delay contacting DDB to get these discrepencies, if any, adjusted/credited.

Problems downloading the program
After agreeing to the terms and pressing the submit button it was finally time to download the software.

Wish I could say this part was error-free, but it wasn’t. Had trouble downloading the setupddb.exe file from DDB at the link indicated. It would stop and ultimately timeout around 70-85% of completion. Three times I’d cancel and restart and it didn’t work.

The fourth time I gave up on this link, logged in through the DDB website.

I used the link in the navbar inside the DDB admin area shown below.

Downloaded without incident the first time with this link. They might want to look into the difference between these two download locations or if it’s alias from one location to the other doublecheck the file.

Software installation
When you first install it asks what language you want to use (English is default) with the only other option being French. The next step you need to enter in your DDB username and password. Then it’s onto the screen to choose what files to backup with the following defaut checked:

After a few seconds the software completed installation and asked me to click finish. Next, the application started without error. Flawless installation.

Running the desktop program: BACKUP
The desktop program pauses whenever it detects mouse or keyboard activity by default. It’s a one minute suspend. To disable go to OPTIONS -> settings and disable “suspend.”

With the OPTIONS->Folders settings you can add/remove customer directories to backup. I chose my custom Xbox folder to backup the games I’ve been working on for the Xbox 360 as a test. By clicking on the boxes next to the directory name you can select a check or a check with a plus.

The plus, I assumed, meant to also copy the subdirectories? There wasn’t an explanation. I tried with the plus to see what happened. Data uploaded is encrypted.

It took over an hour to backup the 71.25MB of data. Not an outlandish amount of time, but considering our cable connection is pretty snappy, this seemed a bit slow. Compared to the other service we’ve used, Mozy, DDB seemed a little faster actually. Still, can you imagine backing up many GB of data? It would be an all day affair in the beginning. I’m sure it’s incremental backups after that, but the first backup is going to suck. It is this way with most of the systems so there isn’t much DDB can do about this. It’s too bad we all didn’t have more bandwidth at our disposal. Just wait until the day we have the equivalent of an OC-3 in our homes and offices.

Web interface
From inside the admin area you can download files in your Data Deposit Box. The web menu works similarly to Windows Explorer in that you click to expand the folders. Deleting files is as easy as selecting the directory or file by checking a box and clicking the delete button.

I tested the built-in search function and was disappointed. For example, I tried to locate the file “falling” — which was part of one of the game titles and the search returned results. Then I tried “TD” and it found that because that was a folder name. I tried “Xbox 360″ and it returned a folder but when I tried “Xbox” no results were returned. This feature needs more baking.

You can also share files with other authorized computers. This could be handy for sharing backed up files with both office and home and act as centralized file server, although I think something like Orb (free) would be better. An authorized computer must have the backup software running. Any machine that doesn’t sync up with the DDB server in five days is considered “inactive” and can be removed.

Running the desktop program: RESTORE
After backing up I intentionally removed one of the game directories (I kept a backup elsewhere, just in case of course) so I could test the restore function. Clicking on RESTORE in the desktop client will launch another program. You need to login again and then choose the directory and/or files you want to restore.

Right click on the directory to bring up a “restore” opton and then click. This will launch another window (too many windows), where you can then choose where to restore the files.

This process since it was dealing with download instead of upload speed was dramatically faster. The restore process took less than 10 minutes and the files were back safe and sound. No problems.

A “Clean up” function exists — again it launches a separate window which requires login first. This will let you to deal with files that are stored online but not on your computer.

Customer support
In the admin area there is a self help area with answers a bunch of Q&A. The contact page indicates you can call during normal business hours which were listed at the time of this review as:

+1 (866) 430-2406 – Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Eastern Time
+1 (416) 203-2406

I ran out a test call after after office hours to see what the answering system was like. It was an automated voice. Extension 270 for customer support and ‘0′ for operator, should anybody reading need to call them.

Also didn’t see any sort of real time live online help through the web. No IM, ICQ, Skype, etc. That would be worth adding as a service for those who find it more convenient. Also didn’t see a link to this page inside the admin area. Shouldn’t these customer support numbers be listed somewhere clearly so customers can call if they have any questions?

As common with many online businesses they list email as the way to receive “a faster response.” At least it’s not a contact form, it’s an actual email address.

Summary and grade
From my testing Data Deposit Box is an ok backup and restore option for home or businesses. Read the fine print of other backup services to be sure they allow business files because many have buried clauses that say it’s only for “personal and non-commercial use” which is a big plus in DDB’s corner. The ability to manage from the web is nice, but some features seemed sparse and one important one — search — didn’t work as expected.

I didn’t like at all that in order to use their advertised 14 day “free trial” I needed to sign up and give Data Deposit Box my credit card info, but fortunately they made the cancellation process as easy as clicking a link in the DDB admin area, providing a text reason for leaving (a form you can fill in whatever) and didn’t make me call them like some services. It is too often easier to sign up for stuff than it is to cancel which both processes should be easy. AOL will be a better company when it learns this valuable customer lesson.

The software uninstallation process was smooth and required an uneventful reboot.

For personal, non-commercial use don’t bother with Data Deposit Box, especially when an unlimited plan through Mozy exists for under five bones a month now and they give away 2GB of storage for free. No credit card required to take advantage of that either.

Neither of our businesses would pay for a third party service like Data Deposit Box because we have plenty of private web space on our dedicated servers, but for businesses who don’t have dedicated servers with extra hard disk space and don’t want to use a hosting company (note: hard disk space is cheap these days) and want a slightly less complicated solution, DDB is ok. I might recommend DDB to businesses on a budget, but I’d still recommend comparing against the other solutions before getting into a long relationship. Fortunately it’s a month to month deal, so a comparison for your business won’t be too costly. Grade: C-