Those of you who utilize us for your computer support know that we have recommended and use ourselves Mozy Pro for online data backups.

Earlier this year Mozy modified their pricing structure and did away with their unlimited plan for Mozy Home users.

While this did not affect our Mozy Pro users as they were already paying by the GB, it did get us to thinking about pricing, and so we looked at other online backup services out there.

Today I want to tell you about Crashplan, a service that offers unlimited backups for both home and business users, along with a couple of other very nifty features.

Because Mozy charges by the GB of space you use, all we backed up was our core data.  We did not include photos or music.  I have a LOT of music, and the monthly cost to back it up would be in excess of $30/month for that space alone using Mozy’s service.

I installed the CrashplanPro software on my main office system, which took all of 2 minutes to download and install, then kicked off the backup.  My initial data was 102GB in size.  To back that much data up on Mozy would cost $54.95 a month, and the initial backup would take a very long time, measured in weeks.

One of the great things about Crashplan is that it will allow you to modify how much bandwidth to use.  I removed all restrictions, let her rip!

The initial backup took 36 hours.  For 102GB of data.  FAST!  I ran the backup during business hours, kicking it off on a Wednesday morning.  I had another tech who was also using Crashplan to backup 60GB of data on his system at the same time.  We did not notice any degradation to our network speed, but we do have a 25/25 FIOS pipe here.  I would imagine with a standard DSL line it would take considerably longer to backup your data.

Another (HUGE!) feature is that you can backup mapped network drives or NAS drives.  It does take a bit of configuration, and while it not officially supported, Crashplan did post a how-to article on how to set it up.  We setup a NAS drive here with about 700MB of data and ran a full backup on the drive in a matter of a few minutes.

And the icing on the cake? Android and iPhone access to your backups! Install the free Android or iPhone app, login and you can check the status of your backups, even browse and download backed up files.  Now that is slick.

We welcome any feedback, and as always if you have any questions don’t hesitate to give us a shout!

Web
Main site: www.scurlocksystems.com
Remote Services: www.ssaremote.com

Scurlock Systems and Associates LLC

866.665.1750 | 972.633.1111

Scurlock Systems is located in Plano, Texas and provides both remote computer service and computer repair in Plano, Dallas, Richardson, Allen and surrounding areas.
We also just happen to make rock solid desktop computer systems!

When you take your computer in for service one of the questions that you (I hope!) are asked is if you have a current backup of your data. Think this through fully before answering – if you have a backup from ‘several months ago, I think…’ then the answer is no, you do not have a current backup.

One of the services that we offer at Scurlock Systems to clients is to image their hard drive, which is a complete, 100%, bit by bit copy of *everything* on the drive. The cost is minimal ($45), and the process involves pulling the hard drive out of the computer, mounting it in one of our servers and obtaining the image.

The process takes all of 90 minutes to an hour to complete, after-which you *know* your data is backed up before any work is performed.

The next time you take your computer in for service and you aren’t 100% sure that you have a current backup, ask about getting your hard drive imaged as a precaution.

I’ll leave you with one example of how a simple image saved the day…

We had a client who needed several of their computers’ hard drives to be encrypted, and while the program used to encrypt the drives, PGP Whole Disk Encryption by Symantec, was world-class, anytime we perform disc encryption we take an image of the drive before beginning the encryption process.

We imaged each of the system drives, then proceeded with the encryption process. On all of the systems but one the process was textbook. Installed the software, encrypted the drive, rebooted, Bob’s your uncle, we’re done.

On that one system though… The software was installed and the encryption process run, the system rebooted, and… Nothing. Zilch. System would not boot. Seems something got corrupted during the encryption process and fried the drive.

After spending time on the phone with tech support it was determined that the only option moving forward was to reload Windows, applications and data. ‘I hope you have a backup…’ was all the tech could say at the end of the call.

Not to worry, we had a full image of the hard drive! We placed the image back on the drive, putting the drive back to just how it was before starting the process, booted into Windows with no harm done. We reran the encryption process, this time without any hitches, and all was right and good with the world. Had we not had the image, and even if the client had a full backup of all their data we would have wound up reinstalling Windows, updates, antivirus, applications, the list goes on…

The imaging software we use is made by Acronis.

We welcome any feedback, and as always if you have any questions don’t hesitate to give us a shout!

Web www.scurlocksystems.com and www.ssaremote.com

Scurlock Systems and Associates LLC

866.665.1750 | 972.633.1111

Scurlock Systems is located in Plano, Texas and provides both remote computer service and computer repair in Plano, Dallas, Richardson, Allen and surrounding areas.  We also make killer desktop computers.