Crash Plan, Good Online Backup?
I heard on Security Now about Crash Plan. It looks like it might be an excellent online backup tool. I had been fiddling with the idea of using BoxBackup (local mention). But it was too much of a bother to set up (and limited to <2 GB files).
Right now I use Mozy and I’m very happy with it. I needed it a few days ago when AVG Antivirus thought it would delete some files it thought were viruses. One of them was an .mbox file of a mailing list I ran several years ago that did indeed have a virus. The trouble is, it DELETED the file instead of putting it in the virus vault or the “Recycle bin”. It would have been GONE forever, fuckers.
And if you want to get Mozy, I will split the referral fee I get from them if you follow these instructions.
That said, Crash Plan looks very interesting. The demo shows a very pretty interface. You can backup files to your friends’ computers securely (so there’s no ongoing monthly payments). The $60 Pro version allows versioning. When my subscription is coming up, I’ll seriously think about using it. I know that if I had a total crash, I’d be grumbling at the time it takes to download the 90+ GB I have on the Mozy servers. They have a $30/DVD plan where you can burn copies of your data. That’d be quicker but still a bother. If the files were on a relative’s computer, I’d have them mail it to me.
Hmm, and with a linux install, maybe I could put my Dreamhost disk space to good use.
AVG just sucks generally – although they have recently backtracked on an earlier sucky decision – which makes them indecisive and sucky.
Quick question.
I have a dreamhost account as well. How does CrashPlan let you use that space to backup with? Don’t you need to install the program on the computer you’re backing up too? And doesn’t dreamhost balk at the idea of you using their web space to backup personal files?
Chandler, sorry, I don’t think you can use Crashplan on Dreamhost. The backup target needs to be running the Crashplan software. Dreamhost offers 2 possible places to back up to, a 50 Gig FTP backup folder but that’s FTP only, no shell or running processes :-(. And Dreamhost also has all the regular server space but they don’t allow that to be for backups, only “web content”.