Need a Crashplan plan.
July 19, 2013 7:54 AM
I’m finally signing up for an unlimited Crashplan package this weekend. This is my first time using web storage for any of my backup needs. Can you let me know if I’m thinking correctly about 1) what I back up online and 2) what makes sense for backing up in the future?
I have a Mac Pro jammed to the gills with hard drives, as well as a collection of external hard drives (mostly backups).
The Main HD is about 500GB (on a 640GB drive). It’s cloned to an external drive, and is also backed up to an internal Time Machine.
There are two drives of photos and other media (one is 900GB on a 1TB drive, and the other is about 1 TB on a 2 TB drive). Each of these is backed up to an external clone. Time Machine does not copy them.
(There’s also an internal SSD in the second optical bay that I will start to use as my main drive.)
I also have about 500GB of media on an external drive that is not backed up. It's only connected to the computer periodically--it's not always on (to the extent that matters for Crashplan).
If you have an unlimited Crashplan account, are you really pushing out your multiple terabytes of data on multiple drives (I realize you only push out the whole thing once and then it’s just incremental)? If so, how long does that take, and is Comcast going to flip out over the amount of data and think I’m seeding torrents or something? Did you add drives incrementally? If you’ve ever had a data issue, can you just download the specific files or drives you need to replace? Any concerns about Security (i.e., is the NSA now going to snoop through my precious backups of my 9th grade English homework)?
Also, once you started using Crashplan, did that replace your other backups? I’m sure I’d continue using Time Machine, but can Crashplan replace my clones?
Thanks in advance--I derive great peace of mind from my backups and I'm all flustered by the prospect of changing a backup regimen that I've had for years (but which is admittedly risky, given than all the drives are located in the same place).
I have a Mac Pro jammed to the gills with hard drives, as well as a collection of external hard drives (mostly backups).
The Main HD is about 500GB (on a 640GB drive). It’s cloned to an external drive, and is also backed up to an internal Time Machine.
There are two drives of photos and other media (one is 900GB on a 1TB drive, and the other is about 1 TB on a 2 TB drive). Each of these is backed up to an external clone. Time Machine does not copy them.
(There’s also an internal SSD in the second optical bay that I will start to use as my main drive.)
I also have about 500GB of media on an external drive that is not backed up. It's only connected to the computer periodically--it's not always on (to the extent that matters for Crashplan).
If you have an unlimited Crashplan account, are you really pushing out your multiple terabytes of data on multiple drives (I realize you only push out the whole thing once and then it’s just incremental)? If so, how long does that take, and is Comcast going to flip out over the amount of data and think I’m seeding torrents or something? Did you add drives incrementally? If you’ve ever had a data issue, can you just download the specific files or drives you need to replace? Any concerns about Security (i.e., is the NSA now going to snoop through my precious backups of my 9th grade English homework)?
Also, once you started using Crashplan, did that replace your other backups? I’m sure I’d continue using Time Machine, but can Crashplan replace my clones?
Thanks in advance--I derive great peace of mind from my backups and I'm all flustered by the prospect of changing a backup regimen that I've had for years (but which is admittedly risky, given than all the drives are located in the same place).
Don't worry about the bandwidth suck. It's time-consuming because the process self-throttles. They want it to be able to run concurrently with your other network apps, without you noticing. If you don't notice it, neither will Comcast.
In all seriousness, I did basically the same thing, and I haven't heard a peep from my provider (Verizon).
You do want to keep the external drive connected for a while, though. At least until you can confirm that it's all backed up the first time.
posted by Citrus at 8:34 AM on July 19, 2013
In all seriousness, I did basically the same thing, and I haven't heard a peep from my provider (Verizon).
You do want to keep the external drive connected for a while, though. At least until you can confirm that it's all backed up the first time.
posted by Citrus at 8:34 AM on July 19, 2013
BTW if you pay CrashPlan $125 they will ship you a 1TB drive that you can use to start off the backup.
posted by katrielalex at 8:35 AM on July 19, 2013
posted by katrielalex at 8:35 AM on July 19, 2013
I've been a Crashplan subscriber for awhile now. (I think it's great, personally.)
If the data is truly important to you, an onsite backup is still a good idea, since restoring from a crash would take forever over the internet, of course.
I do a lot of uploading via Comcast, I don't think they really care. I don't think it counts towards your bandwidth limit either (when they decide to care about such things).
One thing to be aware of when doing your initial backup: You can create backup "sets" in Crashplan. I recommend chunking your backup into logical sets (one for each drive or data type) and then prioritizing them appropriately. Since it's going to take awhile (weeks?) to do initial backup, it's going to take awhile to get around to the last-priority files, so prioritize the important stuff first.
posted by neckro23 at 9:02 AM on July 19, 2013
If the data is truly important to you, an onsite backup is still a good idea, since restoring from a crash would take forever over the internet, of course.
I do a lot of uploading via Comcast, I don't think they really care. I don't think it counts towards your bandwidth limit either (when they decide to care about such things).
One thing to be aware of when doing your initial backup: You can create backup "sets" in Crashplan. I recommend chunking your backup into logical sets (one for each drive or data type) and then prioritizing them appropriately. Since it's going to take awhile (weeks?) to do initial backup, it's going to take awhile to get around to the last-priority files, so prioritize the important stuff first.
posted by neckro23 at 9:02 AM on July 19, 2013
What neckro23 says. Make various logical set and prioritize them. The neatest thing to keep in mind is that they have this smart backup thingy, you will upload a piece of data only once, even if you have it in various places on your hard drive or start moving stuff around. You can also dig into the settings and tune the upload speed. But sending in a hd might be a good deal for you?
posted by nostrada at 9:34 AM on July 19, 2013
posted by nostrada at 9:34 AM on July 19, 2013
kalessin: Backup wonks will tell you that aside from Crashplan you should ALSO have a local backup on external media. [...] Extreme backup wonks will tell you that you should have multiple redundant backups beyond the one physical copy [...]
By no means a backup wonk, but I do recommend stashing a static copy of your hard drive contents offsite. Just take one of your current backups from home and put it in a desk drawer at work with a neat post-it label. That way, if the worst happens (house fire, flood, tornado that takes your computer and the backup disks, lightning strike while backup drive is plugged in), at least you've got a starting point for recovery.
Crashplan is an excellent option too. I should really do that for my wife's computer. (= not a backup wonk.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 10:22 AM on July 19, 2013
By no means a backup wonk, but I do recommend stashing a static copy of your hard drive contents offsite. Just take one of your current backups from home and put it in a desk drawer at work with a neat post-it label. That way, if the worst happens (house fire, flood, tornado that takes your computer and the backup disks, lightning strike while backup drive is plugged in), at least you've got a starting point for recovery.
Crashplan is an excellent option too. I should really do that for my wife's computer. (= not a backup wonk.)
posted by RedOrGreen at 10:22 AM on July 19, 2013
Since no one above has addressed the security question yet: everything you upload to Crashplan (and almost every other online backup system, SpiderOak and Tahoe-LAFS being the only exceptions I know of) is visible to 1. some people at Crashplan, 2. anyone who can compel Crashplan to share it, and 3. anyone who can hack their system. If you're willing to live with that, they seem to be a well-liked service. If you have critical documents which absolutely need to stay private, back them up another way or somewhere else.
Online backups shouldn't replace your local backups. They may give you a little more flexibility, but you're backing up your data this way because it is important: do you trust that Crashplan won't suffer some DDoS or get bought out or your Internet won't go wonky due to a hurricane, etc.? Some people are comfortable with having a single point of failure capable of pulling down the whole regime; some people aren't. All things considered, it's pretty trivial to keep a local backup.
I can't speak to Crashplan's recovery system, but I would be very surprised if you couldn't just pull individual files or directories if you needed just that much.
posted by introp at 11:31 AM on July 19, 2013
Online backups shouldn't replace your local backups. They may give you a little more flexibility, but you're backing up your data this way because it is important: do you trust that Crashplan won't suffer some DDoS or get bought out or your Internet won't go wonky due to a hurricane, etc.? Some people are comfortable with having a single point of failure capable of pulling down the whole regime; some people aren't. All things considered, it's pretty trivial to keep a local backup.
I can't speak to Crashplan's recovery system, but I would be very surprised if you couldn't just pull individual files or directories if you needed just that much.
posted by introp at 11:31 AM on July 19, 2013
I have a very similar setup as you describe. I was a BackBlaze customer until I had issues with them and started a CrashPlan account approx 46 months ago.
At first I was concerned that the throttling was affecting my ability to work smoothly on my desktop, but now that the initial back ups are done I love it. Iwas suspicious that it actually had completed backups of all my external drives and randomly picked an mp3 form my library of 57.000 tracks, low and behold there it was.
I still keep redundant local back ups and a time machine for safe keeping, I look at the Crashplan as being a last resort actually.
Henry
posted by silsurf at 12:35 PM on July 19, 2013
At first I was concerned that the throttling was affecting my ability to work smoothly on my desktop, but now that the initial back ups are done I love it. Iwas suspicious that it actually had completed backups of all my external drives and randomly picked an mp3 form my library of 57.000 tracks, low and behold there it was.
I still keep redundant local back ups and a time machine for safe keeping, I look at the Crashplan as being a last resort actually.
Henry
posted by silsurf at 12:35 PM on July 19, 2013
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I would advise to keep an additional backup of critical files onsite; restoring is very slow. Otherwise, I love Crashplan!
posted by bluejayway at 8:16 AM on July 19, 2013