Crashplan questions
We use the family plan. Everyone backs up to the cloud automatically. New computers are restored from the cloud with the files from the computer they replaced. Great system, and teenagers and traveling college kids are protected where ever they are. Worth the dough.
We use Mozy, all cloud-based. I am not sure how the plans compare though.
I think the 'backup to other computers' is just an optional feature that you can use with the Family plan, presumably for those worried about reducing restore time?
kmk said:
We use Mozy, all cloud-based. I am not sure how the plans compare though
We found Mozy much more expensive, because you pay for additional storage while Crashplan is unlimited. My pictures and my music take up 250 gb, and one of my kids films are over 200. With Mozy, that came to twice what Crashplan costs. Also, Crashplans interface is easier, which means my daughter actually uses it.
I left Mozy for crashplan a few years ago when they got rid of their unlimited plan.
I think you misunderstand the terms of the plan. The family plan entitles everyone to backup to their cloud service which they call Crashplan Central. Backing up to each other's computers is free with them.
Even if their sole backup were your computer, it's fairly safe, since the likelihood of both hard drives failing at once is pretty low.
But I recommend using the cloud service for the most safety. Backing up to each other is a nice bonus but can be difficult, depending on how much bandwidth you all have.
Tom, what your analysis does not take into account is that you could lose access, through fire, theft, power surge, or other whole-house issue, to both drives. Not the most likely scenarios, but not beyond the experience of more than one person I know. Belt and suspenders: hard backup and cloud.
I should have mentioned that all of the family members live in different locations, so we're not subject to a same-house disaster.
Tom, my concerns are (1) it's an extra $90 bucks for me to pay every year for something that doesn't benefit me, and (2)
max_weisenfeld said:
Tom, what your analysis does not take into account is that you could lose access, through fire, theft, power surge, or other whole-house issue, to both drives. Not the most likely scenarios, but not beyond the experience of more than one person I know. Belt and suspenders: hard backup and cloud.
My sister once had her house broken into and her backups were stolen along with her computer. I also know someone who lives in Brooklyn and her apartment recently burned down. So yeah, I recommend online backups always.
Max, I fully agree, and I wonder what I said to make you think I believe a cloud backup is all you need. It's best to have both local and cloud backups. But if you're going to go halfway, go with cloud. If you're going to do things in stages, get cloud first and local second. One advantage with starting with the cloud is that it's so easy and painless.
I have Crashplan for myself, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to provide coverage for family members.
Crashplan has an individual plan (59.99/year), which is what I currently have, and a family plan ($149.99/year). As I understand it, if I add my family members as friends to my individual plan, their files are backed up to my computer, not the cloud. But their backup files are not backed up by Crashplan, so if my computer dies and I lose all my data, they lose their backups. So that's a risk. I keep local backups on a Time Capsule, so it's not too likely. They also wouldn't be able to restore if my computer was shut down or offline.
Also, if a family member's computer dies, it's not clear to me from the help if that person will be able to restore files from their backup to a new computer. Anybody know?
I'd rather not spend the extra $90, but it might be easier than dealing with the drama if someone's computer dies and they expect me to figure out a solution.