Outsourcing is not an option

I suspect most folks reading this blog have spent a lot of time preparing for physical threats to their wellbeing.  You realize that YOU are responsible.  Outsourcing is not an option.

I'm sure you all have smoke alarms in your houses (don't forget to replace the batteries :-), fire extinguishers,  emergency kits, and of course many personal protection devices.....

And for those folks running Windows, you probably use anti-virus software to protect your valuable virtual possessions.  Admit it, you are looking forward to viewing your favorite digital snapshots in your old age . . .

But how safe are those photos/videos/documents/music/next great novels that are littering your hard disk(s)?  Oh, so you have backups on CD-Rs?  Great!  But how long will they last?  Some experts say they may last only a few years.  And what happens if there is a house fire?  Or a robbery?

I admit it, I'm a geek.  So I have a multi-layered system to protect our digital assets.  One of these days I'll document the whole system.  But for now I just want to raise awareness by posting a quick review of Backblaze.  Backblaze is great for non-geeks because it just works....no fancy configuration options.  It runs on Windows and Macs.  You don't even need a credit card to start the 15 day trial.  And it's cheap, which will appeal to Jay G.  $5 per month per computer or $50 per year.  Backblaze also provides access to old versions of files, just in case (limited to files changed in the last four weeks).  Four weeks should be good enough for your current working documents.

I tested it on our family computer, an iMac that hosts all our family files.  So far in a bit over two days Backblaze has backed up 100,265 files  with a total size of  76 GB.  Only 150GB more to backup.  Yup, we have a bunch of high-quality stuff littering that computer.  Fortunately, we have FIOS.  Life is good.  For network geeks, here is an RRD graph showing the network traffic during the first two days:

Gray is outbound traffic from our network.  Throughput appears to increase when backing up larger files.  FIOS speed is 20 Mb/s up and down.

I picked a few files to test the web-based restore.  Process was relatively painless and fast.  However, if you need to recover lots of files, they offer the option to recover files via DVDs or a USB drive.

Summary:  recommended.  I'll update this review in a few months and compare it with a few other options.   Then perhaps we can have a rational discussion regarding the best way to backup your computer.  :-)

So please don't outsource data protection to chance.  Do something!

Take care,

Colin

Obligatory Disclosure Statement:  I have no financial interest in Backblaze and they have not given me anything to write this review (mostly because it isn't worth paying for :-).