I have tried a few online backup solutions, (Jungle Disk which was buggy and incredibly complicated; Carbonite which drained my Mac’s resources constantly) and finally ended up with Backblaze. I have been using Backblaze for over a year to backup my Mac computer and have been very satisfied. Their tagline is that it is easy and it is. And it does not drain my hard drive of resources, and I have never run into any issues. It just does its job and I don’t think about it. {Check out their website for more info.}
So I am sharing about it here, recommending it.
Why? Here are some stats to get you thinking:
- All hard drives will crash during their lifetime
- More than 1 in 10 laptops will be stolen in their lifetime
- A laptop is stolen every 53 seconds
- Every year 46% of computer users lose their music, photos, and documents
- 50% of all hard drives will crash within 5 years
- 89.1% of PC users don’t perform regular backups
- A recent study from Gartner, Inc., found that 90 percent of companies that experience data loss go out of business within two years.
- 70 percent of companies go out of business after a major data loss
What do I do? I work on my computer regularly as a web professional, a web designer and developer. So it is important that I have backups. I work on Macs exclusively.
I have a local backup on an Iomega external hard drive that backs up automatically using Time Machine. This is the most convenient form as I sometimes need to go back and get a file that I overwrote or deleted and I can just go back in time and restore it – which is super easy and convenient. Also, if my computer goes down, it is easy to restore to a new computer from a time machine backup – not the case with an off site backup.
I also use Backblaze as an off site backup. I have this in case there is some event that affects all systems in my work studio, (i.e. a theft, a power surge that blows through my surge protectors, and any other type of local problem). This is a secondary backup and has built in a service to track and locate my computer if it does get stolen. The cost is a measly $50/yr. for such an important service and it was super easy and fast to setup runs without any effort on my part. A no brainer for me, once I found a service that worked that well, (this was my third attempt as outlined at the beginning of this article).
I also use Dropbox, and you can read my review of dropbox here, as a very convenient means of having certain files automatically available on my iPod and laptop, (or really from any computer from just logging in). But with Dropbox, those files are automatically synced and available on those devices of mine for use just like any other file in my finder – without having to login to a remote service. I use that for client files that I am currently working with. And it is absolutely secure. Dropbox gives you a few GBs free which is all I need for those files. Not really a backup solution, but part of my approach to managing files and thought I would add it in here.
So if you are not backing up your files, you should. It is easy, affordable, and you don’t want to find yourself wishing you had when it is too late.
That is my review of Backblaze. Good luck!
