Jeannietx

I'm hoping I can get some assistance finding a user friendly computer files backup. Not a physical device, been there done that.

My 7 year old Dell XPS died. Can't complain, that's the longest I've ever had one. I have subscribed to Carbonite since the day I set that computer up.

So I get my new computer set up and go out to Carbonite and begin the process of retrieving the first folder of pictures, which happened to be an Africa folder. Carbonite shows the file is moving, about 1 1/2 hours later that folder is showing it can be downloaded, so download it, but nothing is there.

The attraction of Carbonite was that if I am on the other side of the world I was supposed to be able to pull up any folder I needed. I've never needed it until now, and can't get it.

I'm looking for recommendations for a straight forward back up for the new computer that is user friendly and works.

If you have read this far I thank you.

Jeannie

javabytes

I've had good luck with CrashPlan.

Jeannietx

Have you had to use for recovery?

Thank you for responding.

timfountain

+1 for CP Pro. Saved my bacon just last month.... Complete SSD failure. No work lost. Back up and running in 2 hours.

javabytes

Yes. Worked just fine for me.

chx1975

First of all, you do not have a backup if you never tried to restore it. On servers, it's a regular exercise to try to restore to an entirely new infra and see how long it takes and whether it's correct.

And yes, for desktop Crashplan works well.

Jeannietx

Thanks to all of you for the recommendation for Crash Plan. I will be backing up the new computer with CP.

shawbridge

At my company, we use Box for Enterprise which has versioning. I have an old laptop that is always running at home and I plugged a Seagate 1 TB drive (I think) into it and have Apple Time Machine back up the laptop onto it. Because the two computers sync as a result of Box, the old laptop is always current within a few minutes (or at the end of an airplane trip). So, there are two backups: 1) onto Box for Enterprise; and 2) onto the Seagate drive. With either, we can dial back to the date in case there is corruption.

For my wife, we use 1) Backblazes; 2) a RAID drive at home; and 3) an Apple Time Capsule (when we go away for an extended period). We've never backed up from BackBlazes but the Time Capsule worked when it was needed.

bchandler02

Another vote for Backblaze here - been using them for a few years. Haven't had to restore yet, thankfully.

chx1975

Ah yes, I almost forgot: besides CrashPlan, I have a 2x2TB NAS in the closet, that's another backup. Haven't practiced restore from that one recently, hrm

glob99

A ransomware virus would encrypt all connected drives.

oneant

+1 for multiple backup/restore options, and that you technically do NOT have a true backup unless you have tested restore functionality.

I use Acronis for both the server & all home computers to a 4TB local USB drive. Talking bare-metal restore options (which have all been tested successfully), but those backups also provide granular restore for directories/files as needed.

That 4TB drive is then fully backed up to the cloud.

Off-site redundancy is a critical component of a proper backup scheme (say, house burns down or something), but so is the ability to restore some/all data rapidly, which means a local backup rather than having to rely solely on internet bandwidth.

javabytes

OP is looking for a set-and-forget backup solution for the replacement for a 7 year old XPS. While many in this thread offering expertise are familiar with all sorts of advanced concepts - NAS, RAID, bare metal restore - and for whom a robust strategy of local and offsite backups is pertinent, consider your audience. I too back up locally with 24TB of drives on site, to CrashPlan, and to Amazon S3 with replication across three regions. I would never suggest that for the typical user. Keep it simple. CrashPlan subscription to back up to the cloud in case the house burns down. If you've got lots of data and need to restore all of it quicker than the internet allows if something goes wrong, then plug in an external hard drive and let CrashPlan back up to that too.

shawbridge

glob99, if there were ransomware, would I be able to use another device and the Box backup and restore to a date earlier than the corruption?

Is CrashPlan protect against ransomware? What are its advantages relative to other methods.

chx1975

Crashplan keeps multiple version as specified, in case of ransomware, just roll back.