I love Backblaze

DavidTO · April 8, 2012

I just upgraded my computer and storage. It took me hours upon hours to get my photos from my old SATA drives to my new Thunderbolt RAID, and I was concerned that I'd have to re-push the entire library of data to Backblaze since the path had changed (due to the volume name change of my RAID).

It turns out transferring the backup state from the old computer to this one was easy as pie and my concern about the new path b0rking everything was unfounded. A few hours later the changes (mostly from my boot drive) were all synched up and I'm happily back up off site.

Crewd · April 8, 2012

I have to second the recommendation for backblaze. I've used them for years now... I'm up to 6 terrabytes and counting and am still loving their service.

You simply can not beat the price, I really dont know how they do it.

-Patrick

rsquared · April 8, 2012

DavidTO wrote: »

I just upgraded my computer and storage. It took me hours upon hours to get my photos from my old SATA drives to my new Thunderbolt RAID, and I was concerned that I'd have to re-push the entire library of data to Backblaze since the path had changed (due to the volume name change of my RAID).

It turns out transferring the backup state from the old computer to this one was easy as pie and my concern about the new path b0rking everything was unfounded. A few hours later the changes (mostly from my boot drive) were all synched up and I'm happily back up off site.

I'm pretty sure they use a file hash or somesuch instead of path and name. When I upgraded from an old laptop to a fast new desktop I transferred the backup state for exactly this reason, even though I was keeping the laptop.

ZBlack · April 8, 2012

I loved Mozy until they changed their pricing plans. I stuck with them as I didn't want to bother reuploading everything to another service, but just the other day I was looking at my backup, and somehow every single image I have backed up with them was no longer backed up. I only had 11 gigs they said, where as the day before I had over 100. So where did it go? Not a clue.

So after that I just ditched Mozy and started up with Crashplan. May have to consider BackBlaze now too! I like the price of Crashplan and how it can encompass multiple computers and even friends data?

Dan7312 · April 9, 2012

Another difference between crashplan and backblaze is that crashplan keeps all versions of all files forever. Backblaze drops files from their server 30 days after you delete them from your system. That might not matter to you though.

ZBlack wrote: »

I loved Mozy until they changed their pricing plans. I stuck with them as I didn't want to bother reuploading everything to another service, but just the other day I was looking at my backup, and somehow every single image I have backed up with them was no longer backed up. I only had 11 gigs they said, where as the day before I had over 100. So where did it go? Not a clue.

So after that I just ditched Mozy and started up with Crashplan. May have to consider BackBlaze now too! I like the price of Crashplan and how it can encompass multiple computers and even friends data?

cmason · April 9, 2012

+1 on Crashplan. Trouble with BackBlaze, Mozy and Carbonite is that they will delete data from disconnected drives after 30 days of not 'seeing' that drive connected. So, make sure you keep that Thunderbolt drive connected to your Mac at least every 30 days.

The reason this is important to me is that I don't keep all my images online, all the time. Older images, and video are on a separate drive, that is often not even powered on. So even though I haven't powered it on in months, that data is still sitting at Crashplan waiting for the drive to reconnect.

CrashPlan:

Back Up Attached Drives
CrashPlan backup software can back up files and folders on attached drives. You can even remove and later reattach drives without restarting the backup. CrashPlan doesn’t care how long they’ve been disconnected either. (http://www.crashplan.com/consumer/details.html

Backblaze:

Backblaze works best if you leave the external hard drive attached to your computer all the time. However, Backblaze will backup external USB and Firewire hard drives that are detached and re-attached as long as you remember to re-attach the hard drive at least once every 30 days. If the drive is detached for more than 30 days, Backblaze interprets this as data that has been permanently deleted and securely deletes the copy from the Backblaze datacenter. The 30 day countdown is only for drives that have been unplugged. There is no countdown for local files. http://www.backblaze.com/edrive.html

Cowboydoug · April 16, 2012

DavidTO wrote: »

I just upgraded my computer and storage. It took me hours upon hours to get my photos from my old SATA drives to my new Thunderbolt RAID, and I was concerned that I'd have to re-push the entire library of data to Backblaze since the path had changed (due to the volume name change of my RAID).

It turns out transferring the backup state from the old computer to this one was easy as pie and my concern about the new path b0rking everything was unfounded. A few hours later the changes (mostly from my boot drive) were all synched up and I'm happily back up off site.

Thanks for the heads-up on BackBlaze... quite the set-up & deal...

Cowboydoug · April 16, 2012

DavidTO wrote: »

I just upgraded my computer and storage. It took me hours upon hours to get my photos from my old SATA drives to my new Thunderbolt RAID, and I was concerned that I'd have to re-push the entire library of data to Backblaze since the path had changed (due to the volume name change of my RAID).

It turns out transferring the backup state from the old computer to this one was easy as pie and my concern about the new path b0rking everything was unfounded. A few hours later the changes (mostly from my boot drive) were all synched up and I'm happily back up off site.

cmason wrote: »

+1 on Crashplan. Trouble with BackBlaze, Mozy and Carbonite is that they will delete data from disconnected drives after 30 days of not 'seeing' that drive connected. So, make sure you keep that Thunderbolt drive connected to your Mac at least every 30 days.

The reason this is important to me is that I don't keep all my images online, all the time. Older images, and video are on a separate drive, that is often not even powered on. So even though I haven't powered it on in months, that data is still sitting at Crashplan waiting for the drive to reconnect.

CrashPlan:

Back Up Attached Drives
CrashPlan backup software can back up files and folders on attached drives. You can even remove and later reattach drives without restarting the backup. CrashPlan doesn’t care how long they’ve been disconnected either. (http://www.crashplan.com/consumer/details.html

Backblaze:

Backblaze works best if you leave the external hard drive attached to your computer all the time. However, Backblaze will backup external USB and Firewire hard drives that are detached and re-attached as long as you remember to re-attach the hard drive at least once every 30 days. If the drive is detached for more than 30 days, Backblaze interprets this as data that has been permanently deleted and securely deletes the copy from the Backblaze datacenter. The 30 day countdown is only for drives that have been unplugged. There is no countdown for local files. http://www.backblaze.com/edrive.html

Ok Ok... so now i'll check out crash plan too....

gecko0 · April 23, 2012

I'm well into my second year with Backblaze and have been happy with it. Ditto on the ease of switching computers as well...no need to worry about starting from scratch, as their software detects duplicates and just scans through them if they're already online.

The archive capability w/ CrashPlan is indeed nice though...

rich56k · April 24, 2012

gecko0 wrote: »

I'm well into my second year with Backblaze and have been happy with it. Ditto on the ease of switching computers as well...no need to worry about starting from scratch, as their software detects duplicates and just scans through them if they're already online.

The archive capability w/ CrashPlan is indeed nice though...

I also was with BackBlaze for about 4 years - I just switched to CrashPlan solely becuase they do NOT delete after 30 days like BB (so yes it is in effect an archive-like service) - once you delete/remove from your comp BB deletes after 30 days- so it's only good if you have a major prob with your comp. say fire, theft, etc.

-rich56k

DavidTO · April 24, 2012

rich56k wrote: »

I also was with BackBlaze for about 4 years - I just switched to CrashPlan solely becuase they do NOT delete after 30 days like BB (so yes it is in effect an archive-like service) - once you delete/remove from your comp BB deletes after 30 days- so it's only good if you have a major prob with your comp. say fire, theft, etc.

-rich56k

That is a great feature, but not one that I need, so there's no need for me to migrate. I am very glad that this limitation (feature?) of Backblaze was brought to my attention, though!

rich56k · April 25, 2012

DavidTO wrote: »

That is a great feature, but not one that I need, so there's no need for me to migrate. I am very glad that this limitation (feature?) of Backblaze was brought to my attention, though!

I agree ... for what it's worth a good friend that had just returned from a trip to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam had all 3000 pics she shot on her Mac Air and it was stolen before she had done any other backups - luckily she HAD signed up with Back Blaze a few months earlier so she recovered ALL the images - again as long as one is aware of the situation, both services offer a real value for the cost!

Pupator · April 25, 2012

I have/use Backblaze, but Steve Gibson (of GRC) recently pointed out another problem with them via Twitter:

BackBlaze Cloud Storage uses a badly broken encryption model: They HAVE and STORE the user's private key, used to decrypt storage == FAIL.

Backblaze: It's confusing, yes. But THEY perform the encryption/decryption using the user's private key, even with optional user password.

Backblaze Clarification: I know of NO REASON to mistrust them. But their broken security model means that we MUST trust them. Thus NOT TNO.

More specific information will be available on the TWIT Podcast Security Now (which I think is recorded today - Wednesday).

gecko0 · April 26, 2012

Pupator wrote: »

I have/use Backblaze, but Steve Gibson (of GRC) recently pointed out another problem with them via Twitter:

More specific information will be available on the TWIT Podcast Security Now (which I think is recorded today - Wednesday).

That's good to know...thanks for sharing. I'm checking out the podcasts now. It sounds like Google Drive is also on its way...

Dan7312 · April 26, 2012

His main point is that backblaze does not offer "TNO", trust no one security. In other words you don't have the option of storing the private key only on your machine and backblaze doesn't make that clear.

A lot of the other cloud providers offer TNO as an option, but in fact it's more convenient to not use it.

He recently, since after the Podcast, mentioned CloudFogger as a way to get TNO with providers who don't offer it. Looks interesting.

gecko0 wrote: »

That's good to know...thanks for sharing. I'm checking out the podcasts now. It sounds like Google Drive is also on its way...

Pupator · April 26, 2012

Convenient and security rarely go hand in hand.

cmason · April 26, 2012

Pupator wrote: »

Convenient and security rarely go hand in hand.

The downside to any service that supports TNO: if you forget your password or key, no one can help you, and your backed up data is useless. FWIW, Crashplan supports this 'TNO'.

Pupator · April 27, 2012

That's the way it has to be for legitimate security though. My lastpass master password is that way. My wife knows that, if I die, it's written down and stored in the safe-deposit box anyway.

cmason · April 27, 2012

Pupator wrote: »

That's the way it has to be for legitimate security though. My lastpass master password is that way. My wife knows that, if I die, it's written down and stored in the safe-deposit box anyway.

Yeah me too. BTW, check out KeyPass, or KeyPassX (Mac). cool open source password vault. (this way me and the wife only need to remember one password)

http://keepass.info/

Dan7312 · April 27, 2012

+1 on Keypass. It does a good job on synchronizing between password files and even does versioning on the data it holds.

cmason wrote: »

Yeah me too. BTW, check out KeyPass, or KeyPassX (Mac). cool open source password vault. (this way me and the wife only need to remember one password)

http://keepass.info/

DJFriar · May 2, 2012

cmason wrote: »

Yeah me too. BTW, check out KeyPass, or KeyPassX (Mac). cool open source password vault. (this way me and the wife only need to remember one password)

http://keepass.info/

Also check out 1Password (www.1password.com). Cross platform password management, iOS support, you can sync via Dropbox, and the file format can even run as its own mini server if needed. They also have absolutely fabulous support, and the ability to log in to all my webpages with a single hotkey is fantastic.

Pupator · May 2, 2012

1password is very good but I slightly prefer lastpass.

ZBlack · May 2, 2012

I'm a big fan of Lastpass as well, but to be fair I have never used any other service and have always heard good things.

cmason · May 3, 2012

Pupator wrote: »

1password is very good but I slightly prefer lastpass.

I am with Pupator: 1password is too 'figit-y'...just too much going on and too many popups etc. Having to click a button to login to a website, etc was just not what I wanted. Or perhaps I wasn't using it right, who knows.

Websites are with Lastpass, and I copy all passwords to my password vault:Keypassx. The Keypassx file sync's over Dropbox, and Lastpass is tied into all my browsers and all computers. Anyway, it works for me.

DavidTO · May 3, 2012

You don't need to click with 1P, you can type "cmd-\".

mercphoto · May 3, 2012

+1 on Crashplan. My biggest thing is time to get the initial image up, and time to get a catastrophic restore back. With CrashPlan you can do your initial image to hard disk (for a fee they ship you a drive, their software populates it, then you send it back), and later if you need you can request a hard disk with your data. I got nearly 1TB of data up and running in under 7 days this way, including shipping both directions. ANd if I ever need a full restore I can get a disk in 2 to 3 days back from them. EIther would take FOREVER if had to be done purely over the net.

I love Backblaze

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