Filed under: Software, Productivity, Internet, Security
Backblaze for Mac officially launches
Configuration and setup
Just like in the beta, Backblaze remains extremely easy to set-up and use. You just install the program (by default it will run in the background, though you can change this), enter in your e-mail address and password, and it will start backing up your files. The default setting has Backblaze running any time it finds an available internet connection. The backup process is constant and Backblaze stores multiple versions of a file for 30 days (so if you are frequently changing a document or spreadsheet, 30 days worth of revisions are saved to Backblaze).
If you want to remove Backblaze, the company has made the uninstall process easier and more intuitive. There is now an uninstaller built into the install DMG image, just double-click on Uninstall (right next to the install option) and you can take Backblaze off your system. If you trash the DMG, just download it again off the Backblaze web site for easy removal.
Backblaze won't backup your Applications (thought it WILL backup stuff in your User/Library folder, so many of your application settings will remain backed up), but it will backup your photos, movies, audio files as well as things like your iPhoto or Aperture database, various documents, and more. By default, .ISO, *.exe and *.DMG files are excluded from the backup file type list, but you can remove most of those extensions (*.ISO cannot be removed) if you want to backup that information.
The maximum single file size is still 4 GB, but keep in mind this doesn't mean your iPhoto or Aperture databases won't be safe. Those databases are actually just folders with lots of smaller individual files, that's fine. If you have individual files over 4 GB in size, those won't be backed up with Backblaze. You'll need to split the files into smaller segments or make alternate arrangements.
What's new and improved
I talked to Backblaze CEO Gleb Budman last week about what is new and improved in the official launch of Backblaze for the Mac. It's really clear, especially comparing the beta version of the client to the new official release, that the company really took the feedback from its Mac users to heart.
The biggest improvement in the service is the ability to backup from external drives. Gleb remarked, "Mac users love their external hard drives." This is very, very true. In the beta version of the client, you could backup from an external drive, but the interface was clunky and unintuitive.
Now, backing up from an external drive is as simple as checking a check box. Check what drives you want to backup and when that drive is connected, it will be monitored and backed up to your account. If it isn't connected, the Backblaze still remembers that drive and when you do plug it in again, data backup will resume. One note: Time Machine drives cannot be backed up to Backblaze (that would be backing up your backup drive, in addition to all your data, which is just overly redundant for a service like this). Additionally, your Boot Camp drives can't be backed up with Backblaze either. You'll want to use Backblaze for Windows while in Boot Camp or look at an alternate method of preserving that data.
One of my favorite features of Backblaze, from the beta, was the various data recovery options. Not only can you download all your data off of the Backblaze servers, you can also order your data on DVD or on a USB hard drive. During the beta, an external 160 GB USB hard drive with all of your data was $190. Now, that external drive is 500 GB in size. So if the unthinkable happens and your laptop is stolen or has a complete and total data meltdown, you can get a 500 GB external drive with all of your data sent overnight via FedEx to your door. That's the sort of ingenuity I like in an online backup service.
Overall
Five months later, I'm still really impressed with the Backblaze service. Online backups aren't going to be the ideal solution for every user -- if you have lots and lots of EXTREMELY large files or you are with an ISP that severely limits your bandwidth, having your own redundant solutions might be a better bet. But for most users -- having an online backup, even in conjunction with something like Time Machine, is a really good idea.
Backblaze is easy to use, effective at backing up your data and well designed for Mac users. The service is available now.
I talked to Backblaze CEO Gleb Budman last week about what is new and improved in the official launch of Backblaze for the Mac. It's really clear, especially comparing the beta version of the client to the new official release, that the company really took the feedback from its Mac users to heart.
The biggest improvement in the service is the ability to backup from external drives. Gleb remarked, "Mac users love their external hard drives." This is very, very true. In the beta version of the client, you could backup from an external drive, but the interface was clunky and unintuitive.
Now, backing up from an external drive is as simple as checking a check box. Check what drives you want to backup and when that drive is connected, it will be monitored and backed up to your account. If it isn't connected, the Backblaze still remembers that drive and when you do plug it in again, data backup will resume. One note: Time Machine drives cannot be backed up to Backblaze (that would be backing up your backup drive, in addition to all your data, which is just overly redundant for a service like this). Additionally, your Boot Camp drives can't be backed up with Backblaze either. You'll want to use Backblaze for Windows while in Boot Camp or look at an alternate method of preserving that data.
Recovery
One of my favorite features of Backblaze, from the beta, was the various data recovery options. Not only can you download all your data off of the Backblaze servers, you can also order your data on DVD or on a USB hard drive. During the beta, an external 160 GB USB hard drive with all of your data was $190. Now, that external drive is 500 GB in size. So if the unthinkable happens and your laptop is stolen or has a complete and total data meltdown, you can get a 500 GB external drive with all of your data sent overnight via FedEx to your door. That's the sort of ingenuity I like in an online backup service.
Overall
Five months later, I'm still really impressed with the Backblaze service. Online backups aren't going to be the ideal solution for every user -- if you have lots and lots of EXTREMELY large files or you are with an ISP that severely limits your bandwidth, having your own redundant solutions might be a better bet. But for most users -- having an online backup, even in conjunction with something like Time Machine, is a really good idea.
Backblaze is easy to use, effective at backing up your data and well designed for Mac users. The service is available now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
stanlemon said 12:06PM on 4-14-2009
Can you provide any feedback comparing this service to say Mozy?
Reply
Alex said 12:24PM on 4-14-2009
The main difference looks like the ability to receive a hard drive. Otherwise Mozy is the same cost and same general feature set. I'd be interested in if their preference pane configuration is faster than Mozy. I never felt like I could do much when I'd try to select which files I want to archive in Mozy.
Christina Warren said 12:30PM on 4-14-2009
I didn't want to get too into a Mozy-bashing fest in a piece on something else, but my experiences with Mozy for Mac have been, um, NOT GOOD. Stalled backups, 12 hour waits to get access to download my files, I haven't been pleased. But that's just my experience.
stanlemon said 12:32PM on 4-14-2009
Thanks Christina for the reply. Not looking for bash by any means. I had similar experiences with Mozy and had mostly given up on the concept of over the next backing up. I'm going to give Blackblaze a try though per your recommendation.
kc! said 3:51PM on 4-17-2009
I have been comparing the two and Mozy says that for backups larger than 80GB, they will send an HDD. Also they say that the home user is throttled down to 1.1MB MAX when uploading to the company (whereas Backblaze will let you go unlimited AFAIK).
They both seem neck-and-neck for me now, although Backblaze "feels" more mac... (better icons, better menu layouts, simpler-seeming). My biggest concern and pleasure with Backblaze is that they are in the Bay Area where I live. Which means that if I have a huge earthquake at my house, destroying my data, so will they. Then again, people in the Bay Area tend to "get" technology a lot more easily than the rest of the world it seems.
Gleb Budman said 12:22PM on 4-14-2009
Backblaze is also giving away 25 free 1-year licenses to the service for users who install today for the first time. (We will email winners tomorrow.)
Thanks and enjoy the service,
Gleb Budman
CEO, Backblaze
Reply
stanlemon said 12:27PM on 4-14-2009
Besides downloading and installing the app (and creating a new account), does anything else need to be done to be entered?
Joseph said 8:22PM on 4-14-2009
I love the presence of CEOs and CFOs on internet forums. It is so interesting to me.
riggsmartini said 2:45AM on 4-15-2009
are you giving these away to the readers or just the people who sign up today?
Joseph said 2:10PM on 4-15-2009
Mr Budman-
I was thinking. I just heard about this from TUAW. Dropbox has offered an incentive program for getting people to sign-up. My space has increased from 2GB to 5GB, by adding friends. I am in the process of my 15 day trial. If all goes smoothly, I will most likely be purchasing a year in advance. All of that to say, You guys should consider an incentive program for referrals of friends that sign-up for a year of service. Maybe a free month tacked on to the end of the service. Would cost you $5/referral, but you gain $50. So a gross of $45. not too shabby.
Anyways -- let me know if you need more ideas to get the word out.
Facebook is how I do my marketing/referrals for dropbox.
Thanks again
--Joseph
mr. Obsession said 12:19PM on 4-14-2009
Comparison to Dropbox is suspiciously missing too...are you guys still on the "Dropbox isn't a legit company" trip you laid out in the Live Mesh article?
REALLY hope not - that wasn't TUAW's finest hour.
Reply
Christina Warren said 12:34PM on 4-14-2009
Sorry, I didn't see them as similar enough to do a comparison. I LOVE Dropbox. Love it. Actually, almost all of TUAW loves it. I'm using it right this second even (uploading my side of the audio for a podcast I do with two friends so that our audio guru can make it sound pretty in post). Backblaze is a more standard backup service and the process is automatic. You don't do backups by dragging a copy of alias over to a dropbox folder.
Dropbox is excellent, I just see it as something that you can use with a service like Backblaze (or any other backup system), not something that's analogous..
shan said 1:30PM on 4-14-2009
There's also no comparison to JungleDisk.
rsm said 12:28PM on 4-14-2009
I agree, how does this compare to Mozy?
Reply
laughingboy said 12:23PM on 4-14-2009
I've tried carbonite, mozy and backblaze.
Backblaze was the only one that worked as expected. Mozy would never complete a backup and would spike the CPU. Carbonite would finish, then start all over.
Backblaze is my choice.
I use Dropbox for file sharing between computers, but I don't see it as a backup solution.
Reply
Jon Steenbergen said 12:34PM on 4-14-2009
good to know, I just cancelled my Mozy account since it hasn't worked correctly since about a week after I installed it!
Byran Newell said 4:29AM on 4-15-2009
I use DropBox as an automatic backup solution- it's freakin' fantastic. Check out this http://wiki.getdropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/SyncOtherFolders for a brief overview. Basically, I now have gotten rid of Apple's backup.app (god, it was horrible!), and now my data automagically syncs.
That being said... I'd love to try out Backblaze. My paranoia on losing my computer keeps me up at night... (typing responses to TUAW posts). I've got SuperDuper, but I need something more. Limitations to backing up Applications though, has me concerned. I realize that it's probably not an arbitrary decision, but I like my applications, and I want them backed up too!
Alex said 12:23PM on 4-14-2009
I'm also waiting on the next refresh of Mac Pros. Ever since I read the early reviews of the i7 processors I knew I wanted the Xeon equivalent in a Mac Pro. I've been holding on to my G5 for far too long.
Reply
Christopher said 12:27PM on 4-14-2009
Restoring after a system crash will be expensive. You pay when you restore. Single zip file, from their website: 1GB zip file will take a few hours to construct---are they using tape or something??? (then you can start downloading it, which if its as fast as the upload, should download quickly). Or pay $99 for a 4.0GB (or less) dvd fedexed to you. I don't see this being a great solution to put files back in the proper place for a machine switch (e.g. your laptop HD died and you have a new HD) --- unzipping everything to the proper places may be a bit more harsh for folks who would expect it to bring files back to the proper place (carbonite I believe does this proper, but is slow on both the upload and download)---- each service has its pros and cons I suppose.
Reply
Christina Warren said 12:44PM on 4-14-2009
That's true -- I didn't have any issues with waiting for a file to construct when I tested the restore process late last year. It was really, really quick and all the stuff stayed in in its proper place. You can choose what files or folders you want to grab from the web interface, which is at least a benefit over some of the others.
I agree that the restore process is where you end up paying, and I think that’s pretty true for all services of this nature. I do think the option to get a 500 GB hard drive with all your data is pretty nice for a worst-case scenario situation. At least in my experience, the only times I've ever needed to do full backup of ALL my files at one time has been when I've had a hard drive crash.