Crash Plan Pro

Like many services I use, I recently outgrew my online backup service.  My storage needs exceeded their top capacity, and to renew with them meant a tremendous price increase.  Plus, the backup wasn’t as reliable as it should have been.

Then I found Crash Plan Pro.  Once you download the software and configure the setup, CrashPlan computer backups happen by itself.  There’s nothing to remember. If your backup is interrupted, CrashPlan automatically resumes when computers become available again.

One of the big selling points of this service is that CrashPlan backup software can back up files and folders on attached drives, like my external hard drive. You can even remove and later reattach drives without restarting the backup. CrashPlan doesn’t care how long they’ve been disconnected, either.  And, some data backup services limit the size of files you can back up. CrashPlan backup software has no restriction on file sizes.

Data backups to different destinations occur one-at-a-time. To ensure you’ll have a full backup at one location as soon as possible, CrashPlan automatically determines the order of your computer backups based on which destination will complete first. In general, backups to local destinations happen before remote backup. If you want to control when computer backups take place, CrashPlan gives you the option to schedule your backup.

The process of backing up your data doesn’t drain your computer’s memory, unlike the other service I was using. This is due to CrashPlan’s differential backups and data de-duplication.  After the first backup completes, CrashPlan first checks for data that is already backed up and ignores it for subsequent backups. Subsequent computer backups are usually much smaller because they contain only new or changed information. Data de-duplication happens at the block level, so even repeated information within a file, as well as across all files, is not backed up unnecessarily.

With CrashPlan backup software, you can go back in time and choose to restore specific versions of files based on date. You can also tell CrashPlan where to save the files when you restore and whether or not to rename them. Unlike other backup products, CrashPlan keeps your deleted files forever (unless you tell them not to.) No matter how much time passes after you delete a file, you can get it back as long as you have an active subscription.

CrashPlan uses Blowfish encryption to safeguard your backup. Combined with data de-duplication and compression, your computer backup archive is safe from view. Your files are securely stored in one of several data centers around the world. Each of their data centers complies with the strictest security standards and conforms to industry best practices for power redundancy, cooling and fire protection.

And, if you need to access your files while on the go, now you can download, view and share files being backed up to PRO Cloud right on your mobile device. All you need is a CrashPlan PRO subscription and our FREE mobile app, available for iOS and Android devices.

You can get a 30-day free trial of the service, and then pay as little as $49/year for unlimited data with one computer (personal use with Crash Plan +) or as little as $7.49/month per computer for the CrashPlanPro package, as of this writing.  You can compare features of the various plans here.

Start backing up your computers here.