CrashPlan

1.0 stars

"DO NOT USE - deletes data, can't get through to support"

February 21, 2013  |   By Reviewer123456

Version: CrashPlan 3.4.1

Pros

None. No, really. None.

Cons

Have been having trouble with them for YEARS. Have spent in total >20 hours on the phone with their support team. (A useless exercise where you will be told inaccurate info, etc). Note: I am extremely tech-savvy and CrashPlan is confirmedly a mess.

Deleted all of my data (Terabytes)
- My cc's expiration date had been reached. Within 15 days all my data with them was deleted and unrecoverable, ever. I called them about it and they were like "oh well sorry, it's after 15 days. here's how you can pay us again to renew." ?? Dropbox would never do that. Literally all my data from computers that are no longer functioning. I would have been better off w/ a local HD.

Ordered an external harddrive and it didn't work to back up.
- Spend 10 hours with them on this

Can never reach the support
- If you like products without support, go for tis

Am told inaccurate things by support

Summary

Some more:

Support, when contacting you, takes forever to solve an issue, if at all

Really, really, really hard to get data off of their app when they do have it

Hard to search for data / file names.

So many other issues I can't even remember. Been a SAGA with these people.

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1.0 stars

"Buggy and slow"

January 2, 2013  |   By f5gj2

Version: CrashPlan 3.4.1

Pros

Can backup both to cloud and to other computers.
Automatically connects to other computers, even over the Internet and behind routers.

Cons

Can't detect removable drive on Linux, creates a folder on root partition instead and fills it up until computer crashes
Linux installer is hacky, non-standard and not user-friendly.
Install script is buggy, won't work on any shell except bash.
Linux uninstaller doesn't actually remove files, then refuses to re-install because of its own bugs.
Extremely slow backups.
Setting backup locations is not intuitive.
No useful feedback on progress of backup.
Customer support doesn't even try to fix problems.
They've lost customers' data more than once.

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5.0 stars

"Happy With Crashplan"

December 29, 2012  |   By wla2000

Version: CrashPlan 3.4.1

Pros

No interference with computer performance
Mostly easy to use interface
Good support

Cons

Tricky figuring out how to "attach" to an existing backup set

Summary

I've been using Backup4All for some time, and I continue to use it now, but I've added Crashplan as a redundant service.

I have about 50 GB of space on a server on which my little family web site is hosted. I use some of that space for my Backup4All backup, using ftp to send daily incremental backups. Unfortunately it ends up eating all the space, so every once in a while I have to delete all the backups and then run a new initial backup, which takes two to three days. I own a license to the Backup4All software, and pay for the server space anyway, so there is no ongoing cost for the backup storage.

I tried Crashplan for the one month trial, and liked it so much that I signed up for the four-years unlimited storage plan, which amounts to $2.92 a month. I think that's pretty reasonable.

My initial backup to Crashplan's servers also took just over three days. However, by default it is set up to reduce its priority when the computer is in use, so I could not tell at any time that the backup was going on, except by looking at the notification area (system tray) icon which displayed its status.

Once the initial backup was done, it started doing incremental backups every 15 minutes. Again, not once in my trial month have I experienced any kind of slow-down as a result of the software running.

I've had no real need for restoring files in that time, but of course I tried to perform some restores anyway. Navigating the available files and folders was quick and easy (unlike in many other backup software implementations, where it takes forever to find out what's in the backup). The latest version of the backup file can be restored, or some earlier version. The file can be restored to its original location, or to any alternative location, and can be renamed if a collision occurs. It really couldn't be easier.

I think the best use of Crashplan is backing up to a remote server. However I have had occasion to use Crashplan in its backup-to-an-external-device mode, on my work Windows 7 laptop computer. I was preparing to have the laptop reimaged, because it was giving me some mysterious spontaneous reboots (and blue screens of death!). I plugged in a .5 TB external USB drive and backed up all the important things to it with Crashplan.

After the reimaging was done I installed Crashplan, and then ran into a little difficulty figuring out how to restore from the backups. This was during the business day, so I executed a "chat" with technical support, and asked how to do this. Within moments I had the answer (which was to click on "attach" on the backup tab, and then navigate to the backup folder; then you go to the restore tab and the restore source (my external drive in this case) becomes visible). Score 1 for customer support, -1 for directly intuitive user interface.

After I figured out how to attach to the backup, I was able to restore my files quickly and easily.

I observed while I was nosing around the backup directory that it is quite encrypted. Crashplan claims a gazillion-bit encryption scheme, and I guess by looking at the folders and files in the backup that they mean business. I also suspect that the backups on their servers (or on "friends" computers) are equally encrypted, so the data should be pretty safe from eavesdroppers.

I had one other occasion to use Crashplan's customer support. It was after hours, so I could not use "chat". Instead I sent an email, on a Friday evening. Three hours later, that evening, I received a reply. That really impressed me. My question, if you're interested, was this: I wanted to know where Crashplan logs the list of files it backs up. The UI only gives brief summaries of its history, saying how many files and how many MB were backed up. The answer was to look in the C:\ProgramData\CrashPlan\log directory in the backup_files_log.0 file. It gives an extremely detailed list of all the files backed up. It also shows, that my first backup included 53,490 files (55GB) and took 3 days and 5 hours to complete. It also shows that the backup was suspended once a day for about a minute when the Norton full-system scan took place.

I recommend Crashplan with no reservations and give it two thumbs up.

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2.0 stars

"Get Idea- tough to use"

December 25, 2012  |   By Deserthail

Version: CrashPlan 3.4.1

Pros

Unlimited back-up with plan, including external harddrive

Cons

Lugubriously slow upload/ to work optimally, uses lion's share of computer's resources

Summary

I wanted to love crashplan, I really did! As noted by many others, our lives have become rooted in data that we fear losing.
Unlike some others, when I did have an issue with the software, I did get timely help. So in that area, it didn't fail.
I'm a photojournalist and have a 1.5 TB ext drive I needed to back up. I've finally given up after three months. . .yes, three months.
The upload speed is horrible- yes, I've tweaked the settings, yes I have the fastest highspeed offered by my provider and they are not throttling.
In Crashplan's defense, it appears no one has figured out how to do this correctly. They're all some form of terrible for large data uploads. However, if you're just backing up your home computer with spreadsheets, Word Docs and family jpegs I would think it would work fine. It's just not a professional tool at all.

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