If you have been following my adventures, you know that my white MacBook died in October 2010. You can read the sad tale of the crash, what I lost, and what data my old backup system saved.
The incident made me finally realize that I need an automatic cloud-based backup system. After a little research (you can read about my backup solution research in the same article), I installed CrashPlan and let it start backing up using a 30 day free trial of CrashPlan+.
The nomenclature is a little confusing, but CrashPlan is the backup software you install on your computer. CrashPlan+ is the cloud-based backup service which CrashPlan can utilize. Alternatively, CrashPlan could be used to backup to a friends computer or an external hard drive.
It took about 15 days over cable modem, but my entire 26 GB user folder finished backing up to the CrashPlan+ cloud. Now I've let it start digesting the 882 GB of data on my Drobo. That will take longer -- several months.
The CrashPlan feature I've been using most is the ability to throttle network bandwidth. While I'm asleep, I let CrashPlan use up to 1 Mbps of bandwidth. During the day, I limit it to 200 kbps so that the internet still feels responsive. I only wish you could schedule the bandwidth throttling rather than having to manually change it.
Overall the program works great. The restore interface looks good, and makes it clear when each file was backed up. I feel a lot more comfortable that I'll be ready if disaster strikes again.
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