Notice
HP Upline has been discontinued. You might want to take a look at Backblaze, Carbonite, SpiderOak, CrashPlan or Mozy for your online backup needs.
At a Glance
Price:
- 30 Day Free Trial: $Free
- Home Account: $59.00/year.
- Family Plan: $149.00/year
- Professional Plan: $299.00/year.
Pros:
- Nice interface.
- Easy to use.
- Smooth background operation.
- File sharing.
- Search.
- The ability to have three computers on one account.
Cons:
- No Mac versions at this time.
- Will not back up open files.
- No file versioning.
- Will not integrate with Windows Explorer.
- Must have .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual C++ 2005 SP1.
- Not available in all countries.
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Full Review
HP Upline online backup service is quite easy to use with several features that many people want included in this service. Therefore, they are offering a bit more than some services.
Three different versions of HP Upline are available. The Home & Home Office version costs $59 per year with unlimited storage, the Family Plan is $149 year with unlimited storage and provides backup for up to three computers, and the Professional version is $299 per year with three accounts, but it is expandable to 100 accounts for $79 each. Along with the additional accounts the Professional version also adds priority support.
Downloading and setting up HP Upline for the first time is not as hard as one might think, but it does take some time. You will first need to download the installer. The installer will test your computer and ensure that you have .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual C++ 2005 SP1, which are necessary for HP Upline to work on your computer.
If the installer knows all is okay, Upline will then be installed once you accept the user agreement.
HP Upline has a configuration wizard, which is pretty simple to use. You can choose the type of files you wish to backup such as your desktop, documents, pictures, etc… The program will show a folder tree with various directories similar to an Explorer interface. All files that have backed up will be in green. Red files indicate you have not backed up these files.
You will have to add any subfolders as you choose the files to backup. You do not have the option to choose the dates or times for backing up files, but you can choose by minutes or hours up to every 24 hours. HP Upline runs in the background compressing files and sending only the new parts of the files that you have created, therefore it will not be spending all those hours backing up every file every time, only the new portions. If you do not change the option, HP Upline will backup your files every 15 minutes. Even though it is running in the background, it does not slow your computer down at all.
Most individuals enjoy the file sharing option that is not seen with other online backup services. 24/7 phone support and local media backup is also a great plus. Support is available at any time, which is more than can be said about other online services except for the professional versions. The good news is that no mater what version or service you decide, you will have support available.
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