Top Questions from CrashPlan Users

1. Does Backblaze back up Linux?

Linux users can back up to Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, our low-cost cloud storage service. Backblaze B2 is priced per-GB and costs less than Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform. See our Pricing Page for all of the specific details!

Data can be stored and accessed in Backblaze B2 using the web interface, the command-line interface, and APIs. In addition, we have a robust list of third-party integrations — Duplicity, Restic, MSP360, Rclone, Duplicacy, 45 Drives, GoodSync, HashBackup, QNAP, and more — that support B2 for Linux backup.

Links:

Blog post: "Backing Up Linux to Backblaze B2 with Duplicity and Restic"

Tutorial on Duplicity: "Configure Backblaze B2 with Duplicity on Linux"

Tutorial on Restic: "Configure Backblaze B2 with Restic on Linux"

2. Does Backblaze offer a family plan?

While we don’t offer discounts for multiple computers for personal backup, we do offer functionality to manage multiple accounts (be it for a family, team, or business).

For families, teams, or businesses, we recommend our Groups functionality. It allows you to administer and pay for multiple accounts centrally. We wrote a Blog Post on how groups can help you manage your family’s backups.

For families with 3 computers or less, Backblaze is more affordable than CrashPlan. Families with more than three computers or NAS boxes may want to consider Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage with one of our partner integrations. You would use one of our integration partners (like Synology, Arq, Duplicity, etc.) for the software side and use B2 for storage.

3. Can I select which files I want to back up?

As a truly unlimited data backup, Backblaze automatically backs up all of your user-generated data. You may exclude folders or file types as desired by adjusting your settings inside of your backup client. Unless you set exclusions all files— your music, photos, files in My Documents, files on your Desktop, external drives, etc— are all backed up!

The only files that are excluded are the operating system, applications, and unnecessary files such as your trash, cache folders, and other transient files. Backblaze backs up all individual files, with no limit on file sizes or types or total data storage.

Click here to read more about what Backblaze is backing up.

4. It took me a long time to get fully backed up with CrashPlan. I’m worried about how long it will take to push all my data to Backblaze. Can I send you my data on a hard disk to add to my backup account?

We do not offer an option like that for our Personal Backup service. However, we recently dramatically increased the speed at which you can backup your files to Backblaze. Our new version can back up at over 100 Mbps, meaning that if you have a fast enough internet connection, you could back up nearly 1 TB per day. You can find more information on our blog in the post entitled, How to Migrate All of Your Data from CrashPlan.

We do offer the ability for bulk data import for Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage— it’s called B2 Fireball and you can find more details here.

5. Can I back up my Time Machine drive?

If you wish to back up data using Backblaze instead of Time Machine, see this post. If you would like to back up your Time Machine backup on a Synology NAS to B2, here is a dedicated how-to on how to do exactly that. Note that this also works for QNAP NAS devices. You don't need a NAS to make this work. If your Time Machine data is accessible on a Mac, you can use Goodsync (commercial),or rclone (open source), to move that data to B2 automatically.

6. Can I back up a NAS device?

Customers looking to back up NAS devices will love our Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. It’s readily available, low latency cloud storage that’s similar to Amazon’s S3. For customers with Synology or QNAP devices, B2 is natively integrated.

For other NAS devices, we have a robust list of integration partners that can be helpful, like GoodSync.

7. Can I back up Windows and Linux servers?

Our Personal Backup does not support backing up servers. Our B2 Cloud Storage does support backing up servers through third-party software and integrations.

8. External Drives — Do they need to be plugged in every 30 days?

By default, we retain files in your personal backup for 30 days. If a file is deleted or is on a drive that isn’t attached to your computer for 30 days, it will be expunged from your backup.

It is important to note that while files are removed after 30 days if deleted from your computer, your most recent complete backup will be retained on our servers until the next time that the backup is updated. This is generally a short window as backups occur often, however, if your backup is not updated for a while due to the computer not being powered on, not being connected to the internet, or the backup schedule is set to "Only when I click", and you don't delete or transfer the backup and you retain active billing — your most recent backup will be retained.

See our FAQ on this topic for more information.

Backblaze does have an extended version history feature, that will allow you to keep files in your backup. To enable this feature and get more information about pricing, click here.

9. Does Backblaze support backup to a local drive?

Backblaze provides backup and storage for the cloud. There are many options available for local data backup. Windows, Macintosh, and Linux come with built-in, free software for backing up data to local drives. Also, integration partners such as Arq can back up to a local drive and Backblaze B2.

10. Can I restore files from the Windows or Macintosh Backblaze client?

The Backblaze backup clients are for uploading data to the cloud. To restore files you would use our web interface, mobile apps, or our dedicated download clients for Windows and Macintosh. With our 5.0 release, we greatly increased the speed of the restore on the web, and upped the number of threads used by the download clients, which makes restores much speedier. We also supported file preview for certain file types and sharing of individual files from our web interface.

For large restores, you can also use our Restore by Mail option to have us send you a hard drive with your data. Use our Restore Return Refund program to get a full refund when you return the drive.

11. Will Backblaze offer a discount to incentivize CrashPlan customers?

We welcome all CrashPlan customers to try us for 15 days for free (no credit card needed, no obligations). We want to help people make an informed decision so we have put up a comparison of Backblaze v Carbonite on our blog. The comparable service from Carbonite is nearly 3x Backblaze’s everyday price. We hope you’ll give us a shot!