Alternatives to Crashplan
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Crashplan has announced that it is exiting the home backup market. https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/consumer/nextsteps/ They are trying to transition their customer base to Carbonite. I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend. (I looked back on the forum and Crashplan seemed the prior favorite.)
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Crashplan has announced that it is exiting the home backup market. https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/consumer/nextsteps/ They are trying to transition their customer base to Carbonite. I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend. (I looked back on the forum and Crashplan seemed the prior favorite.)
David Carta wrote:
I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend
I whole-heartedly recommend not giving your data to third-party entities. There's a good example as to why not, right [here](https://www.codeproject.com/Messages/5428159/Alternatives-to-Crashplan.aspx). I also whole-heartedly recommend buying hard drives in sets of 4: One live, one offline backup, one offsite backup, one spare ready to go at a moment's notice. Once you figure the drives are too small for your regular backups, congratulations--you now have enough drives to recycle them into a RAID5 setup.
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David Carta wrote:
I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend
I whole-heartedly recommend not giving your data to third-party entities. There's a good example as to why not, right [here](https://www.codeproject.com/Messages/5428159/Alternatives-to-Crashplan.aspx). I also whole-heartedly recommend buying hard drives in sets of 4: One live, one offline backup, one offsite backup, one spare ready to go at a moment's notice. Once you figure the drives are too small for your regular backups, congratulations--you now have enough drives to recycle them into a RAID5 setup.
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Crashplan has announced that it is exiting the home backup market. https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/consumer/nextsteps/ They are trying to transition their customer base to Carbonite. I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend. (I looked back on the forum and Crashplan seemed the prior favorite.)
It is only CrashPlan Home that they are phasing out. I already use CrashPlan Pro, and they say that they will be encouraging Home users to transition to the Pro product, which (at its lower end) is not ridiculously expensive.
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David Carta wrote:
I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend
I whole-heartedly recommend not giving your data to third-party entities. There's a good example as to why not, right [here](https://www.codeproject.com/Messages/5428159/Alternatives-to-Crashplan.aspx). I also whole-heartedly recommend buying hard drives in sets of 4: One live, one offline backup, one offsite backup, one spare ready to go at a moment's notice. Once you figure the drives are too small for your regular backups, congratulations--you now have enough drives to recycle them into a RAID5 setup.
To each his own, but I wholeheartedly disagree with this advice. Drives easily fail, are lost, or get stolen, and few people take the necessary steps to ensure those scenarios aren't disastrous through proper security and encryption practices. It's also, frankly, horribly inefficient and pretty easy to screw yourself over ... as I believe someone described here in the past few days. Companies come and go (always have, always will) and I don't consider it a reason to live like a luddite. I'm currently in this boat as well; I've been relying on CrashPlan for many years to back up multiple machines here and for members of my family. I've also been wanting to switch from CrashPlan for a while anyway thanks to their horrific speeds and bad UI. From the limited research I've done so far, we're pretty screwed. Most of the better cloud backup providers all offer good encryption and unlimited storage, but they box you into a single PC (or, worse, a single drive!) without having to pay through the teeth for a small business plan. Tom's updated their comparison yesterday thanks to CrashPlan's announcement here[^]. I'm intending to take a more serious look at Backblaze this week. I'm starting to resign myself to the likely fact that I'm going to end up paying more money than I would prefer. I'm hoping others can share their own experiences with these providers ... Jon
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Crashplan has announced that it is exiting the home backup market. https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/consumer/nextsteps/ They are trying to transition their customer base to Carbonite. I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend. (I looked back on the forum and Crashplan seemed the prior favorite.)
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Crashplan has announced that it is exiting the home backup market. https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/consumer/nextsteps/ They are trying to transition their customer base to Carbonite. I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend. (I looked back on the forum and Crashplan seemed the prior favorite.)
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It is only CrashPlan Home that they are phasing out. I already use CrashPlan Pro, and they say that they will be encouraging Home users to transition to the Pro product, which (at its lower end) is not ridiculously expensive.
Actually, it is significantly more expensive. The current home plan is $199 for 10 computers for the year The new plan is $10 per device each month - translates to $1200 per year. I count a 600% increase as ridiculously more expensive. ------------------------- "Qulatiy is Job #1"
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I use BackBlaze and they are cheap, fast and just plain work. Backs up my Windows and Mac machines and is only $5 per month per computer. Can't beat it.
justahack wrote:
I use BackBlaze and they are cheap, fast and just plain work. Backs up my Windows and Mac machines and is only $5 per month per computer. Can't beat it.
CrashPlan did beat it, though. For $150/year I'm backing up 5 computers (I think the Home plan was 10 max?) with unlimited storage and unlimited file versions -- it's that last bit that was the real winner, and the only reason I put up with their otherwise horrible software and speeds. I'm hoping to do more comparisons in the next few days and will post with what I find.
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justahack wrote:
I use BackBlaze and they are cheap, fast and just plain work. Backs up my Windows and Mac machines and is only $5 per month per computer. Can't beat it.
CrashPlan did beat it, though. For $150/year I'm backing up 5 computers (I think the Home plan was 10 max?) with unlimited storage and unlimited file versions -- it's that last bit that was the real winner, and the only reason I put up with their otherwise horrible software and speeds. I'm hoping to do more comparisons in the next few days and will post with what I find.
Depends on the use case, for sure. BackBlaze costs me $50 per year (if I pay up front) instead of $5 per month. I've only got 2 computers to back up, so in my case, that's cheaper. And the speeds and software are amazing. I can't speak to versioning but I have had to go back and restore files that I screwed up or deleted and am able to select by date backed up. So, probably not versioning perse but good enough for my needs. Not sure if BB offers any sort of discount for more computers that are backed up... perhaps there is. I do know they offer other solutions if you have a NAS to back up.
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Crashplan has announced that it is exiting the home backup market. https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/consumer/nextsteps/ They are trying to transition their customer base to Carbonite. I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend. (I looked back on the forum and Crashplan seemed the prior favorite.)
I thought I'd give Carbonite a try once. Slow as watching grass grow. In retrospect I don't know why I even bothered (just bored I guess), I know better. I have never felt good about the idea of keeping my content in the cloud. I prefer local storage. I use cloud as backup for a handful of things that I want to synchronize between different machines but that aside, no thanks.
If you think hiring a professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur! - Red Adair
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dandy72 wrote:
you now have enough drives to recycle them into a RAID5 setup.
Which is not an offline back-up nor an offsite back-up - congratulations you now need to buy a bunch more hardware and/or services! ;P
It was inferred that yes, once your drives are too small for your ever-increasing backup, you do have to buy a new set. And I wasn't suggesting to use the RAID for a backup. I was suggesting the spare drives can now be used for a RAID. In my case, that means more storage for my NAS, or for my VM host.
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Crashplan has announced that it is exiting the home backup market. https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/consumer/nextsteps/ They are trying to transition their customer base to Carbonite. I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend. (I looked back on the forum and Crashplan seemed the prior favorite.)
I use iDrive because their software allows network shares as well as external hard drives and NAS. When I started online backup 2 years ago, they were the only ones I found that did. They have a free plan, but their 2TB plan is only $55/mo for 1 user unlimited computers and $75/mo for 5TB
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Actually, it is significantly more expensive. The current home plan is $199 for 10 computers for the year The new plan is $10 per device each month - translates to $1200 per year. I count a 600% increase as ridiculously more expensive. ------------------------- "Qulatiy is Job #1"
How many 'homes' have 10 computers? I admit that I haven't looked at CrashPlan's pricing since two or three years ago when I dumped Carbonite after experiencing a number of glacially slow restores (of relatively small amounts of data), but for my three systems (rather more typical for a home setup), I think that the Home pricing was then something like half that of the Pro contract I selected, and the latter included additional features that I thought worth the extra price.
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David Carta wrote:
I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend
I whole-heartedly recommend not giving your data to third-party entities. There's a good example as to why not, right [here](https://www.codeproject.com/Messages/5428159/Alternatives-to-Crashplan.aspx). I also whole-heartedly recommend buying hard drives in sets of 4: One live, one offline backup, one offsite backup, one spare ready to go at a moment's notice. Once you figure the drives are too small for your regular backups, congratulations--you now have enough drives to recycle them into a RAID5 setup.
I agree. I have over 40 TB of hard disks at home with thousands and thousands of photo, audio, home video and miscellaneous other files on them. Although I lose on average about 2 TB per year due to disk failure (and one of my file servers crashed irredeemably), I have not yet permanently lost a single file and I can retrieve any file within seconds. I was going to start having off-line disks to save power but they now all shut down between actual usage anyway so that is no longer necessary. I do still make (multiple) CD copies of critical files and scans of important documents just in case of flooding. A fire could still brook disaster so I am putting some of those CDs in a safety deposit box.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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To each his own, but I wholeheartedly disagree with this advice. Drives easily fail, are lost, or get stolen, and few people take the necessary steps to ensure those scenarios aren't disastrous through proper security and encryption practices. It's also, frankly, horribly inefficient and pretty easy to screw yourself over ... as I believe someone described here in the past few days. Companies come and go (always have, always will) and I don't consider it a reason to live like a luddite. I'm currently in this boat as well; I've been relying on CrashPlan for many years to back up multiple machines here and for members of my family. I've also been wanting to switch from CrashPlan for a while anyway thanks to their horrific speeds and bad UI. From the limited research I've done so far, we're pretty screwed. Most of the better cloud backup providers all offer good encryption and unlimited storage, but they box you into a single PC (or, worse, a single drive!) without having to pay through the teeth for a small business plan. Tom's updated their comparison yesterday thanks to CrashPlan's announcement here[^]. I'm intending to take a more serious look at Backblaze this week. I'm starting to resign myself to the likely fact that I'm going to end up paying more money than I would prefer. I'm hoping others can share their own experiences with these providers ... Jon
jonmbutler wrote:
To each his own, but I wholeheartedly disagree with this advice.
Great! I was simply relating what works for me, and I'm aware there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Feel free to adopt something else.
jonmbutler wrote:
Drives easily fail
That's why I get that extra one, ready to go at a moment's notice.
jonmbutler wrote:
are lost
That's a user problem. If a user can't keep track of a few drives, he's probably got bigger problems in his life anyway.
jonmbutler wrote:
or get stolen
All my drives using whole-disk encryption. I don't consider a drive's monetary value to be a concern, at least compared with the data that's on it.
jonmbutler wrote:
few people take the necessary steps to ensure those scenarios aren't disastrous
What those people do is their choice. Not doing something is also a choice. I make mine based on the value I put on my data.
jonmbutler wrote:
a reason to live like a luddite.
Well, this luddite has a pretty slow internet connection, so if I need complete recovery from a bad enough disaster, an online backup is simply impractical. My strategy hasn't failed me since I've adopted it, and short of a large enough meteorite hitting somewhere between my house and my off-site location (in which case I probably won't care about any backup), I feel I've got most scenarios covered. For the drives still sitting next to me, being physically disconnected means no hacker can get to it, no virus can encrypt it, and the backup drives themselves are all encrypted, so good luck to thieves. Meanwhile, the only thing protecting you from a hacker logging into your cloud provider account and deleting your backup and its entire history is the strength of your password and--worse--how much effort your provider puts into securing its entire credentials database. Past history doesn't inspire confidence. You may feel differently. Frankly, boiling it down to the essentials, I see this as little more than a choice between convenience, and taking things into your own hands. I have nobody to blame but myself for my own failings--I see this as a good thing. Not so with a third party.
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I agree. I have over 40 TB of hard disks at home with thousands and thousands of photo, audio, home video and miscellaneous other files on them. Although I lose on average about 2 TB per year due to disk failure (and one of my file servers crashed irredeemably), I have not yet permanently lost a single file and I can retrieve any file within seconds. I was going to start having off-line disks to save power but they now all shut down between actual usage anyway so that is no longer necessary. I do still make (multiple) CD copies of critical files and scans of important documents just in case of flooding. A fire could still brook disaster so I am putting some of those CDs in a safety deposit box.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
Forogar wrote:
I was going to start having off-line disks to save power but they now all shut down between actual usage anyway so that is no longer necessary
My only concern with that is ransomware. If it's connected, it can be accessed and thus encrypted before you realize it.
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jonmbutler wrote:
To each his own, but I wholeheartedly disagree with this advice.
Great! I was simply relating what works for me, and I'm aware there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Feel free to adopt something else.
jonmbutler wrote:
Drives easily fail
That's why I get that extra one, ready to go at a moment's notice.
jonmbutler wrote:
are lost
That's a user problem. If a user can't keep track of a few drives, he's probably got bigger problems in his life anyway.
jonmbutler wrote:
or get stolen
All my drives using whole-disk encryption. I don't consider a drive's monetary value to be a concern, at least compared with the data that's on it.
jonmbutler wrote:
few people take the necessary steps to ensure those scenarios aren't disastrous
What those people do is their choice. Not doing something is also a choice. I make mine based on the value I put on my data.
jonmbutler wrote:
a reason to live like a luddite.
Well, this luddite has a pretty slow internet connection, so if I need complete recovery from a bad enough disaster, an online backup is simply impractical. My strategy hasn't failed me since I've adopted it, and short of a large enough meteorite hitting somewhere between my house and my off-site location (in which case I probably won't care about any backup), I feel I've got most scenarios covered. For the drives still sitting next to me, being physically disconnected means no hacker can get to it, no virus can encrypt it, and the backup drives themselves are all encrypted, so good luck to thieves. Meanwhile, the only thing protecting you from a hacker logging into your cloud provider account and deleting your backup and its entire history is the strength of your password and--worse--how much effort your provider puts into securing its entire credentials database. Past history doesn't inspire confidence. You may feel differently. Frankly, boiling it down to the essentials, I see this as little more than a choice between convenience, and taking things into your own hands. I have nobody to blame but myself for my own failings--I see this as a good thing. Not so with a third party.
dandy72 wrote:
In the end, all suggestions are valid. We're here to exchange ideas, which is what the original poster what soliciting. I'm just pointing out what I think are the pros and cons of your response, which I assume is fair game.
Fair enough -- and my apologies for coming across as a jerk. Definitely wasn't my intention! I should drink more coffee before jumping on here :doh:
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dandy72 wrote:
In the end, all suggestions are valid. We're here to exchange ideas, which is what the original poster what soliciting. I'm just pointing out what I think are the pros and cons of your response, which I assume is fair game.
Fair enough -- and my apologies for coming across as a jerk. Definitely wasn't my intention! I should drink more coffee before jumping on here :doh:
S'all good Jon. I didn't really read it this way. If I sound like I'm very much on the defensive, it's probably because it took me a long time to come up with what works best for me. I actually wished I had the trust in some of the online solutions--I just feel they're not there yet.
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David Carta wrote:
I wanted to see if there were other solutions that people out there use and whole-heartedly recommend
I whole-heartedly recommend not giving your data to third-party entities. There's a good example as to why not, right [here](https://www.codeproject.com/Messages/5428159/Alternatives-to-Crashplan.aspx). I also whole-heartedly recommend buying hard drives in sets of 4: One live, one offline backup, one offsite backup, one spare ready to go at a moment's notice. Once you figure the drives are too small for your regular backups, congratulations--you now have enough drives to recycle them into a RAID5 setup.
I used to use multiple identical hard drives and did a complete image of the drive to a couple of them. Worked well too - no need to spend hours uploading files and everything was local.
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." -- Marcus Brigstocke, British Comedian