Are Your Photos Protected?

Fortunately, it’s been a long time since I’ve had any type of hard drive failure, but I have lost documents due to corruption or viruses. I have purchased external drives in the past, ones that promise to back-up my computer, but I never receive any kind of confirmation that they are being backed up regularly.  And what happens in a fire?  I’ll lose my PC and my external hard drive.

I have had a number of friends recommend I back-up my computer with an online back-up storage solution.  It has taken my probably 4 years to finally consider this option seriously.  Mainly for two reasons:

1.  I didn’t want to pay yet another monthly bill and

2. There are a number of options, which online back-up company would I choose?

Realizing that I’m not the only who doesn’t back-up my computer and has questions, I set out to explore which company would offer the best back-up security at a price that is manageable.

While at BlogHer ’13, I had the opportunity to talk with several online  back-up companies, one of which, Backblaze, which was on the top of my list.  I was very impressed with Backblaze and they offered me a one year trial.

Back-up My Computer with Backblaze

I started the Backblaze trial in January of 2014 and the trial just ended.  I received an email each month stating that my computer had been backed up and they told me how many gigabytes had been backed up.  Just getting this verification made me feel confident that things were being backed up.  I never got any kind of verification like this from my back-up external drives in the past.

Here’s what my account looks like:

You can see I have over 438,000 files being backed up off of just one computer.

On the fence about backing up your data?  Here are some things to consider…

Threats to Be Concerned About:

• Fire
• Viruses
• Errors in a program that corrupt documents
• Kids/Others accidentally deleting your photos/documents/files
• PC or hard drive failure
• Burglary
• Losing your laptop
• Laptop getting damaged due to vehicle accident
• Water damage

Backblaze can back-up an unlimited amount of files on your computer, but here is…

What BackBlaze Doesn’t Back-Up:

• ISO (Disk Images)
• DMG (Mac Disk Image)
• VMC VHD VMSN (Virtual Drives)
• SYS (System Configuration & Drivers)
• EXE (Application Files)

Backblaze doesn’t copy application files, so if you get a new computer, you will still need to buy licenses for new software to be installed on your new computer.

Backblaze stores over 85 petabytes of data for people around the world.  It’s one of the fastest growing companies in America, so you can trust it’s going to be around for a while.

There’s An App for That!

Interestingly enough, Backblaze also offers a Backblaze app for both Android and iOS devices.  I didn’t understand the point, so I didn’t download it at first.  But upon further investigation, I saw that the app allows you to download any file that is being backed-up on your PC from your mobile device!  Wow.

How handy is that?  I’m often traveling and missing pictures or documents that are home on my PC.  Now I can easily access them.  I tried out the Android app and was impressed at how responsive it was.  I could click through the folders just as I would if I were using my PC and had little lag time.

BackBlaze

Features:

• Back-ups happen automatically
• Backs up an unlimited number of data
• No maximum file size limits
• Can also back up any external hard drives attached by USB
• Can help you track down your laptop/PC if stolen
• Available for both PC and Macs
• There’s a Backblaze app available for both iOS and Android

Pros:

• Gives you security knowing your photos, songs, and documents are backed up regularly
• Back-up does not interfere with your work, it happens in the background
• Price is reasonable
• Backblaze backs up an unlimited number of files on your PC, no matter how much you have
• If you buy a new PC, you can transfer the license to the new one
• The free Backblaze app allows you to access your backed up files from anywhere

Cons:

• Applications aren’t backed up
• You can’t use one license for all PC’s in the house, you need to buy a license for each one

BackBlaze is very competitive versus their competition.  They offer the lowest price for the unlimited back-up service they provide.  The cost is $5/mo to back-up one computer, or $50 a year (a $10/yr savings), or $95 for two years.

A Mom’s Perspective

I have continued my Backblaze service to back-up my computer another year and paid for the $50/yr option.  My computer has all of our family photos on it, so mine is the most important to back-up.  The other computers in my home are using Microsoft OneDrive as virtual drives in the Cloud, so we should be covered there.

I have to say that backing up my hard drive has been a worry of mine for years. As a tech enthusiast and advisor, I have no idea why it’s taken me so long to obtain peace in knowing that our precious photos are being  backed-up.  I literally have hundreds of thousands of photos, stemming all the way back from my great grandparents all the way up to my children’s’ childhoods.

Do you have a back-up plan set up to ensure you don’t lose your children’s’ precious photo memories and invaluable work documents?  Now’s a good time to put a plan in place.