CrashPlan off site cloud backup

[Sonny]

Interesting article about a great alternative to Carbonite and Mozy.

I went with CrashPlan and it's Finally Done!

Online Data Backup & Storage – CrashPlan – Backup Software, Disaster Recovery

[gcccaldw2]

Man I wish I had seen this post about 2 weeks ago. Just yesterday my 500gb external drive with all my photography, lightroom catalogs, photoshop files, web design files, final cut pro files, and various other files on it decided to bite the dust. And to make it worse, I was careless and never got around to making a backup of the drive. The only copies of most of my photography I have is what I have uploaded to Facebook and Flickr. It's enough to make a grown man cry!

I've only casually looked into cloud based back up but have been turned off by the price per gig (although now that I'm looking into data recovery, that looks like a very small price!). I'm also nervous about all the different cloud based backup companies out there. Which one do you choose, and will they still be in business two years, or even two months from now? What happens to your data when they go out of business or get bought out by a different company?

I notice that Crash plan + will not only back up to the cloud, but can be setup to also back up to other local drives. This is a huge plus.

[d2creative]

That's the one i use. I've mentioned it here before.
I love that they can send you a drive for the first backup. Wayyyyy better.

As far as most of those concerns above... this can NOT be your only backup. I have my own onsite backup as well as a drive i store off site.

[RusticLightPhotography]

I love love love love love Crash Plan.
1. CHEAP
2. Telephone and remote access help FREE
3. Truly unlimited back up
4. External drive back up
5. Droid app to have remote access to files (if you god forbid ever need to use that feature)
6. It's not Mozy or Carbonite
7. Super easy to use
8. Schedule-able back up
9. It's not Mozy or Carbonite
10. They don't throttle your speed of upload - You throttle yourself if you must...
11. RELIABLE

AND, THEY ARE NICE AND DONT TREAT YOU LIKE AN IDIOT WHEN YOU CALL AND ASK FOR HELP TO SET UP INITIALLY!!!

[Abel]

Im looking into this service now... They have a extra option for like $150 where they'll ship u a 1tb drive to backup on locally so the initial back is much faster.

Im wondering if they have larger drives than just 1TB. US photogs have a ton of files.

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by Abel

Im looking into this service now... They have a extra option for like $150 where they'll ship u a 1tb drive to backup on locally so the initial back is much faster.

Im wondering if they have larger drives than just 1TB. US photogs have a ton of files.

I did the drive option. Totally worth it. There was no way I could have done the initial backup online. The customer service has been really good too. Shoot them an email Abel, and ask what size drive they can get you.

[Kalrog]

Originally Posted by Abel

Im wondering if they have larger drives than just 1TB. US photogs have a ton of files.

Swap services with a friend and fellow photographer. Spend a day together on the same network getting everything initially synced and then go home. Use whatever size drives you want!

Of course, that does require that you purchase the hardware instead of using the cloud based solution. But it solves that time and recurring cost issue.

[mercphoto]

Originally Posted by Abel

Im looking into this service now... They have a extra option for like $150 where they'll ship u a 1tb drive to backup on locally so the initial back is much faster.

That is interesting. My big problem with all the cloud services is how long it takes to get the initial disk image uploaded. So I've stuck with using Time Machine on a local disk for most my backups. For photos I have two Aperture vaults defined, on separate drives. One drive I keep off-site at the office 5-6 days a week.

[darktiger]

I am enjoying my service.. I just need to backup more drives now :)

[Rson]

Originally Posted by gcccaldw2

Man I wish I had seen this post about 2 weeks ago. Just yesterday my 500gb external drive with all my photography, lightroom catalogs, photoshop files, web design files, final cut pro files, and various other files on it decided to bite the dust. And to make it worse, I was careless and never got around to making a backup of the drive. The only copies of most of my photography I have is what I have uploaded to Facebook and Flickr. It's enough to make a grown man cry!

I've only casually looked into cloud based back up but have been turned off by the price per gig (although now that I'm looking into data recovery, that looks like a very small price!). I'm also nervous about all the different cloud based backup companies out there. Which one do you choose, and will they still be in business two years, or even two months from now? What happens to your data when they go out of business or get bought out by a different company?

I notice that Crash plan + will not only back up to the cloud, but can be setup to also back up to other local drives. This is a huge plus.

I prob can recover that. :)

[iCe]

I've been using Carbonite since late last year. I'm still not 100% backed up.

Living in the sticks has it's downside and middle range DSL speed is one of them.

[anjy834u]

Its the golden rule, always have a back up of your data. Or else one day or the other you will repent.

[Richard_B]

Originally Posted by gcccaldw2

Man I wish I had seen this post about 2 weeks ago. Just yesterday my 500gb external drive with all my photography, lightroom catalogs, photoshop files, web design files, final cut pro files, and various other files on it decided to bite the dust. And to make it worse, I was careless and never got around to making a backup of the drive. The only copies of most of my photography I have is what I have uploaded to Facebook and Flickr. It's enough to make a grown man cry!

I've only casually looked into cloud based back up but have been turned off by the price per gig (although now that I'm looking into data recovery, that looks like a very small price!). I'm also nervous about all the different cloud based backup companies out there. Which one do you choose, and will they still be in business two years, or even two months from now? What happens to your data when they go out of business or get bought out by a different company?

I notice that Crash plan + will not only back up to the cloud, but can be setup to also back up to other local drives. This is a huge plus.

This is not a criticism of any of these services, but they should not be your only backup. They can have bad things happen, too. Cloud services are a target of cyber attacks as well. Nobody knows if any of them will still be in business in a year or two. (Companies fail all the time.) You asked what happens if the company goes out of business. There might be a rare exception where you are given notice, but you would be safer to assume that everything on the cloud goes to data heaven. That's what extra backups are for. You should still have multiple local backups to be as safe as you can.

Did your drive simply stop working or is there a burned smell to it?

If it just stopped working, there is a trick which might be worth a try, although some people consider controversial, to try to recover your data. It involves removing the drive and putting it in a ziplock baggie and then double bagging it and putting it in the freezer overnight. You must have a working drive to transfer the data to in the event that it works as it may only work once. With the new drive hooked up and ready to go, take the old drive out of the freezer and hook it up and see if it will spin up. If it does, copy the data as quickly as possible.

To some extent the bearing type may be a determining factor in the likelihood of this working. If the drive has a fluid drive bearing which has leaked, the odds are not as good.

You need a new drive anyway so there really is no cost other than some of your time.

The only other route is a professional data recovery service which is usually quite expensive. If you suffered a serious head crash even these services can not be of any real help.

Good Luck

P.S. If you have any images on memory cards that you have not yet formatted in the camera, go ahead and save them.

[Redneck]

My CrashPlan didn't back anything up for 9 days. Sent a support request 5 days ago and just received the first response to it asking more questions.

"Support" seems to be not their strongest side. Just saying.

Maybe you're interested in reading this as well: Crashplan Online Backup LOST MY ENTIRE BACKUP ARCHIVE | Jeffrey Donenfeld