14 DAY TRIAL // No matter how hard you'd try, your files will never be safe enough. There is always something that can happen and ruin your restoring plans. CD/DVD discs are not reliable as they are subject to exterior factors and deteriorate. Also, if you take into consideration that the backups need to be updated from time to time, CD/DVD disc are not too great of an answer.
One of the best backup softwares is about $70 and performs beautifully. A cheaper solution is CrashPlan from the company with the same name. The price is only $19.99 and your files can be backed up on line or to another computer.
The 30 days trial version ensures proper testing of the application. The best features included in the software are backing up a MAC computer on your PC. The same feature available for Linux is yet to come. The interface is nice and clean and to be frank it reminds me of Microsoft applications that are equally great looking and useful.
The menus are running down in the left side of the application window and cover the three main areas of the software: Backup, Restore and Preferences. Backing up your files and folders can be done in three ways. Using CrashPlan Central service (an online backup service that is usually not recommended by anyone, including the developer, but works great for storing small sized files fast) may take some time as you will have to upload your files (and if you have a couple of GB to backup it'll take pretty long to complete the job).
The other two options are backing up on a different computer, either yours or a friend's. There are no additional fees in this case (for online backup you will be charged $5/month for 50 GB and for every GB above this you will have to add $0.10). Both of these solutions are a lot faster and you will always know where your files are. The drawback in what concerns the backup option is that there is no way to save your files on a USB storage device from this application or store it on an additional HDD that is not frequently used.
Choosing the files you want to safekeep is done from the bottom of the window. CrashPlan allows selecting everything from an entire drive to single files. This option is also available in the Preferences menu, under Backup File Selection tab.
Restore menu offers a series of options designed to pinpoint the desired backup you want to retrieve and define the location for it to be saved to. Additional options allow the user to rename the files if these are saved in the original location or overwrite them. The operation is simple enough once you have made all the necessary settings as all there is left is choose the data you want to get back.
The first time you are using CrashPlan you will be required to complete some fields that will identify you from the many users. Providing an e-mail is mandatory and so is the password. From these two only the latter can be changed in My Account menu.
Preferences menu is the core of the application and the three tabs available concert in making the backup easier and on time. The user can configure the program to display a warning when the backup is not updated after a certain time passes. For not consuming resources purposes CrashPlan can be set to run only between a user defined time interval every day. Once your backup is updated you can specify the number of versions to keep for a file and the period of time to keep deleted files from the original. This way, if you delete one file and later realize that you need it, you can go to the backup and retrieve it from there.
Advanced options let the user configure the bandwidth limitations when present and idle. Particularly useful, this option ensures that you will still connect to the Internet even when the online backup is being updated. Sometimes the folders you want to safekeep contain extensions that you do not need to backup and do not want to move from that location. The solution offered by CrashPlan is to add suffixes that should not be included in the backup. This way, typing in the extensions will keep that file format out of the backup and later updates.
The Good
The looks are great and the ease of use makes handling a walk in the park. The flexibility of the software goes as far as backing up files from a MAC computer to your PC.
The user can select single files to be backed up and restored. Once the files are leaving your computer they will be encrypted so that nobody can take a peek inside.
CrashPlan will continue working even if you close the interface. The process will run in the background and do exactly as instructed. If you want the process to run only a couple of hours a day you have the option to do it.
The Bad
There is no way to store the backup to a memory stick or on a local device. Online and on another computer are the only options for backing up your files.
The Truth
Good price, and if you have two computers you can safekeep the files from one to the other.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
