Crashplan
I have two questions for you: 1. Do you back up your data? 2. Why not?
Most of us have the best intentions when it comes to backing up our data. Yes, we are told that it’s not a matter of if a drive fails, it’s a matter of when. And when you start hearing that whining noise on a hard drive or your system just does not want to boot, you’re going to wish you had your data backed up already.
So why aren’t we as diligent in backing up our data as we should be? It’s either inconvenient (time consuming) or too expensive and like saving money, it needs to be automatic or we won’t do it.
There’s a lot of great backup software available but there’s one package that caught my attention at Macworld a couple of years ago. Crashplan.
Crashplan gave me three things that made backups simpler:
- Automation
- No monthly fees
- Off-site backup
That last point is pretty important. You can have all the backups you want but if you don’t keep a copy of your data at some other physical location, then you run the risk of losing it all in a(n) <you-fill-in-your-potential-disaster-here>. Crashplan lets you automatically backup your encrypted data to a friend’s computer or another computer that you own (ideally, one that is offsite).
Crashplan runs in Windows, Mac, or Linux.
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Comments
Jeff… As far as I know, Crashplan should be able to handle initial backup interruptions as it is designed to work with connections that can go offline. It will continue backing up where it left off. The result is that you may have to wait several days to get a complete remote backup if you have a lot of data.
Mike… have you found that CrashPlan has similar issues with the initial back up that TimeCapsule has?