Author Topic: For those with a CrashPlan... (Read 84,351 times)

Shades · « **on:** August 23, 2017, 04:25 AM »

Apparently you do not have such a plan after all.

The company behind the CrashPlan cloud service, just announced that they stop with their services for consumers and only focus on companies. That is until 23 of October 2018, after which the whole service wont be available anymore (for consumers).

Perhaps solutions like Borg backup prove to be the best action plan for online backups. Well, you can host all of your backup needs yourself, but it also allows for (partial) hosting at family, friends or others.

On a personal note: because of this sudden turn in business plans I don't have much faith in cloud based backups, especially for the consumer market.

*edit*
Looks like arqbackup is a decent enough alternative for those that do not wish to host any form of cloud themselves.

Jibz · « **Reply #1 on:** August 23, 2017, 10:11 AM »

Came here to post about this as well. Sad to see CrashPlan stop their consumer service, for my needs they have worked really well. I have an "unlimited" SpiderOak backup running as well, so I will probably just use that when CrashPlan stops working.

They point users to Carbonite, but that looks somewhat too much geared towards people who have no idea what they want and just need their Documents folder saved. Also the Basic tier seems to require you to manually add every video file you wish to backup

.

I also have Arq, which I use for small backup sets, it works quite well

.

mouser · « **Reply #2 on:** August 23, 2017, 04:42 PM »

That sucks.. CrashPlan has been my backup plan of choice.
CrashPlan was *not* cheap, even as a home user, so I wonder what the reasoning was behind the decision to stop offering the service to home users.

4wd · « **Reply #3 on:** August 24, 2017, 01:33 AM »

FWIW, iDrive is now doing 2TB and 5TB personal plans that allow you to HDD seed and HDD recover, another possible choice.

* Not recommending them one way or the other, do the research.

Jibz · « **Reply #4 on:** August 24, 2017, 10:47 AM »

Some of the other services also appear to smell fresh meat:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/crashplan-alternative-backup-solution/

https://spideroak.com/lifeboat-one-crashplan-rescue/

4wd · « **Reply #5 on:** August 24, 2017, 12:18 PM »

Quote from: Jibz on August 24, 2017, 10:47 AM

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/crashplan-alternative-backup-solution/

Re. BackBlaze, unless they've substantially changed the way the backup works then by default it does a backup of everything.

You have to deselect what you don't want it to backup ... and you can't deselect the OS drive, which in my case is the easiest to restore. Having to deselect what you didn't want a backup of was an absolute PITA when you have more than one HDD.
Plus if the machine doesn't access the account at least once every 6 months the backup is removed ... that is just wrong considering you're still paying for the service.

f0dder · « **Reply #6 on:** August 26, 2017, 11:14 AM »

I logged on to DoCo today for this reason as well.

Pretty shitty decision by the Code42 folks - sure, it's easier dealing with companies than regular plebs, but they could have kept the service running, and focused their marketing drones on recruiting companies.

What are the alternatives these days? I need something that offers me control over what to backup (preferably folder-based and with regex, or at least extension-based exclusions), a good amount of online storage, and ability to do simultaneous local backup is a plus. E.g. basically the CrashPlan feature set - something that's not Java-based and thus uses less memory would be nice.

I like SpiderOak's zero-knowledge philosophy, but their UI is quirky, and last time I used it (several years ago), it was both very CPU-intensive, as well as having really slow speed to their backup servers, from my location in Denmark.

I haven't checked if Carbonite suits those needs, but from the website it seems to be very focused on simple end-users.

wraith808 · « **Reply #7 on:** August 26, 2017, 12:13 PM »

There's Glacier, depending on your needs. Definitely not for the end user, and more of an archiving service than anything else, but you can use something else to back up locally, then copy those images offsite using Glacier in case of total disaster.

Apps that support that sort of paradigm include:
https://fastglacier.com/
https://github.com/brianmcmichael/SAGU
https://www.arqbackup.com/
https://www.cloudberrylab.com/backup/windows/amazon-s3.aspx

And here is a quick guide to backing up with Glacier:
http://www.technologyguide.com/howto/how-to-back-up-your-data-with-amazon-glacier/

I backup my needed files to my Synology NAS, then upload them to Glacier. I also back them up in OneDrive. I don't have a fast restore option using images.

http://wahlnetwork.com/2014/10/27/synology-to-glacier/

f0dder · « **Reply #8 on:** August 27, 2017, 08:41 AM »

I'm personally not really super interested in various cloud storage providers - that kind of stuff is interesting in its own right, but Crashplan was a backup solution. So I'm first and foremost looking for a new backup client that can fill the void... this does include online storage as part of the deal, whether the backup service's own or tight integration with some other provider.

Is Amazon's Glacier a proper backup destination, if it's your sole remote? I thought it was pretty slow + "expensive" to get stuff out of Glacier? One of the important things wrt. backups is testing your backup archives regularly, which doesn't seem to fit too well with Glacier's model...

Also, nice little Carbonite burn from the Backblaze offer ;-)

Quote

There are no extra charges and no limits on the size of your files — no matter how many videos you want to back up.

kfitting · « **Reply #9 on:** August 27, 2017, 10:53 AM »

I agree with most of what f0dder says... but I also was wondering if there are any that have easy integration with a synology NAS. Crashplan had a hacky way to run the service on the NAS rather than your computer. While I did not use this method, I was always interested in it and will make that a part of my search criteria (whether it drives my choice remains to be seen!).

f0dder · « **Reply #10 on:** August 27, 2017, 03:37 PM »

Reading up on Backblaze, I'm not sure that's an option - the only restore option is download through a browser, not their client?!

Currently testing SpiderOak one. The UI is prettier than last time I tried it (but still custom stuff rather than system-native, *sigh*). It's slightly better memory-wise than Crashplan, but still weighing in at around 400 megabytes for the two running processes. And it's still ungodly slow - there's no network speed indicator in the application, but Windows task manager show between 2-3mbit/s. That's not terribly good usage of my 30mbit/s upstream.

Also, it seems that when you "Download" something from SpiderOak, if the files exist on the local machine, those will be copied rather than downloaded? My connection definitely can't do 300MB in a couple of seconds. This means I can't (easily) gauge how fast I'll be able to actually get my files in case of an emergency. Sigh.

wraith808 · « **Reply #11 on:** August 27, 2017, 04:52 PM »

Quote from: f0dder on August 27, 2017, 08:41 AM

Is Amazon's Glacier a proper backup destination, if it's your sole remote? I thought it was pretty slow + "expensive" to get stuff out of Glacier? One of the important things wrt. backups is testing your backup archives regularly, which doesn't seem to fit too well with Glacier's model...

For me, it's part of that 3-2-1 thing- my offsite cold storage.

Jibz · « **Reply #12 on:** August 27, 2017, 04:56 PM »

There are quite a few aspects to such software that factor in (at least for me). I know CrashPlan used quite a lot of memory (here it's sitting at ~500mb), but as long as it's not getting in my way I can live with that. The same goes for bandwidth and CPU usage, the most important thing really is that I do not notice it's running.

One thing I also want is some kind of "time machine" functionality. I do not want to risk a file being overwritten (either by accident or malware) and some simple backup tool simply duplicating that remotely. Ideally there should be some way to go back to how the file was a week or a month ago. Most of these tools seem to support this somehow.

Then there is the storage question. Many of them promise "unlimited" storage, but have some small print that allows them to weed out anyone who uses more than what they deem "regular use". This is one area where I like SpiderOak's approach -- they offer you a set amount of storage, and then don't have to care how many computers or NAS drives you attempt to backup. On the other hand their tiers are somewhat more expensive than the "unlimited" ones. Also, as mentioned, they sometimes run promotions where you can get an "unlimited" account from them as well, and that is where I got mine. I haven't backed up more than ~120gb currently so I have no idea at what point they might start to question your usage.

f0dder · « **Reply #13 on:** August 27, 2017, 08:19 PM »

Yes, Jibz, versioning (and retaining versions sanely!) is a very important part of backups for me as well. I don't view a product without versioning as a backup product.

Being able to set bandwidth limits is nice, I don't want a backup application to mess with my internet usage - but utilizing less than 10% of my pipe and taking forever to back up stuff is not optimal, either. And I do worry about how fast SpiderOak is able to restore...

I'm having a hard time finding a backup product that has a client (with a feature set) that I like, and the online storage (speed + cost) definitely is a hard thing to get right as well

Deozaan · « **Reply #14 on:** August 27, 2017, 08:44 PM »

The off-topic discussion about decentralized cloud storage has been moved to its own thread here.

mouser · « **Reply #15 on:** August 29, 2017, 02:29 PM »

Agree that versioning is key for an online backup tool.

f0dder · « **Reply #16 on:** August 29, 2017, 06:24 PM »

Apparently it's hard to get straight answers from SpiderOak - at least on twitter. They're weazeling around the pretty simple question of "are you throttling uploads?" :-(

kfitting · « **Reply #17 on:** August 29, 2017, 07:09 PM »

f0dder, I'm curious about your backblaze statement... why is downloading via browser so problematic?

4wd · « **Reply #18 on:** August 30, 2017, 12:45 AM »

Quote from: kfitting on August 27, 2017, 10:53 AM

I agree with most of what f0dder says... but I also was wondering if there are any that have easy integration with a synology NAS.

IDrive has applications for Synology NAS' either for specific model or a universal version. They have a free 5GB account so you can give it a try beforehand.

kfitting · « **Reply #19 on:** August 31, 2017, 09:40 AM »

I signed up for iDrive today... they have a year of 2TB for $7. I'll try it at that price!

highend01 · « **Reply #20 on:** August 31, 2017, 10:31 AM »

Quote

they have a year of 2TB for $7.

To make sure that people are aware of the limitation for that offer, I'll quote their website:

Quote

* The 90% offer is applicable for the first year only. 90% offer is only if you are currently using a competing cloud backup service. You need to provide proof of your existing service provider’s account. Competing services include Carbonite, Mozy, CrashPlan, Backblaze, SOSonlinebackup, Dropbox and Google Backup and Sync.

kfitting · « **Reply #21 on:** August 31, 2017, 10:38 AM »

Thanks, I forgot to put that in!

It's fine for my requirements... I just intend to use it as a way to trial the service for a longer time and have no problem paying the full price in a year. So far I have not provided proof of existing service provider (but I have not done more than sign up for an account), but I have it if I need it anyway.

mouser · « **Reply #22 on:** November 11, 2017, 04:32 PM »

Crashplan is closing up soon, and I have to migrate away.. What's the current thinking regarding the best alternative?

wraith808 · « **Reply #23 on:** November 11, 2017, 04:53 PM »

I use a combo of S3, OneDrive, and Synology NAS. Then again, I'm one of the few now that uses selective backups rather than cloning the whole drive.

mouser · « **Reply #24 on:** November 11, 2017, 06:58 PM »

So one thing that I notice that differentiates the alternatives is whether they are PRICE-PER-PC or PRICE-PER-TERRABYTE.

If you want to back up more than 1 pc (say a laptop, your desktop, etc.), then these price-per-pc plans get very expensive, very quickly.

Carbonite is $60/pc per year, or $270/year for unlimited pcs.

Backblaze is $50/pc. No option for family or multi-pc plans?

Spider Oak is $120/year for all pcs, but capped to 1 tb total; or $279/yr capped to 5tb.