Backblaze Cloud Backup for Windows

User Reviews

• AWFUL!! STAY AWAY!! WILL RUIN YOUR DAY!!

  JeffyLangJune 29, 2015

  Pros

  Masochists will love it!

  Cons

  Support is the Worst! Company Lacks Integrity (read Amazon reviews) Software is Buggy Restore Window isn't Big Enough to List File Names.

  Summary

  I attempted a Trial with them, which involved two separate support issues. On both occasions, their Tech Support just tried to blow me off with "just wait a couple hours, it will correct itself." I had purposely designed my backup to focus on two folders on an external drive and two folders only so the trial would be very simple, efficient, and easy to spot problems. I literally had to argue with them for over twenty minutes on both requests before they would give in and give me the simplest of troubleshooting options, which was to hold the Alt/Option key while pressing their Restore Options button. Both times, I was correct that further troubleshooting was required. They knew how upset and frustrated and angry their service had made me, and THEY DIDN'T CARE. They were more interested in defending their stupid little egos than providing decent service. They admit that there are bugs. They admit the file name window is too small, but they have no intention of fixing anything!!!! Oh, and they Lost their Chat History that was supposed to be forwarded to me automatically afterwards. Gee, I wonder why?!

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• Terrible Terrible Terrible.

  crina99990December 6, 2014

  Pros

  Hard to say

  Cons

  Never works properly. I've had problems from the beginning, and the "customer service" is non existent. I had a drive mysteriously stop backing up despite being plugged in. They don't reply to emails for days, and then when they do they are snarky and unhelpful. The problem went for over a month, and even though I asked for them to prevent my data from being deleted until we could get it sorted, they just told me there was nothing they could do, and it was deleted! It took months and months to back up that data, and now I have to buy a new drive so I can backup in house until that data is backed up again. They also charged me double for years and refused to help me solve that issue until I finally figured it out myself. I can't believe this company is at the top of the pack. It's absolutely the worst company I've ever dealt with. Period. I will definitely try to switch to someone else. Shame on you backblaze for taking advantage of people and taking your cash grab.

  Summary

  Awful. FInd a different company. They don't provide peace of mind, just frustration and stress. And they'll try to steal some money if they can get away with that too.

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• Listen to their tech help, lose all your data

  Scott_A_LJune 2, 2014

  Pros

  Seemingly cheap

  Cons

  Incompetent tech help with a 24 hour cycle for each reply

  Summary

  I was transferring my Backblaze license from one machine to another, and asked for help in migrating the backed up data. Followed their instructions to the letter, lost all my data. No help or satisfaction from them, and each email took a day for reply. Fortunately I also keep a local backup, but it'll take a long time to re-back up all the data to the cloud. Apparently Backblaze also lies about upload speeds. Hunting for another service now.

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• BEWARE-DO NOT USE BACKBLAZE!!!!

  joquavMarch 14, 2014

  Pros

  Nothing that I can think of at all!

  Cons

  Terrible-ruined a HD and my recovery drive as well!

  Summary

  I starting using Backblaze on a recommendation from a friend, and about two weeks after I started using it, the external hard drive (which was less than 6 months old and no problems till I started with Backblaze) that I was backing up got hung, and I haven't been able to use it since. So, thinking I would be able to just go to Backblaze and recover it, I wasn't too concerned. I spent several hours recovering it from their website, and about the time I got about a third of it back, the recovery drive was no longer showing up on the recovery page. Emailed support back and forth trying to find out what happened. Bottom line, they tried to tell me the online recovery drive that I had already recovered about a third of my files from, never existed in the first place! Don't waste your money on this! They can't seem to what they are supposed to do-backup your data! Not only did their software ruin a new hard drive, but they couldn't even recover my data after it did! DO NOT USE BACKBLAZE-YOU'LL BE SORRY YOU DID!!!!

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• A wonderful backup solution for business

  cohengrpFebruary 3, 2014

  Pros

  It works flawlessly in terms of regular backups; Weekly reports are detailed; great pricing; Restore works fine

  Cons

  Restore is not instant

  Summary

  We are a small business and used Mozy for years. It was expensive and it didn't work all of the time. Their support staff was virtually non-existent. We switched to Backblaze for 3+ months and it has worked perfectly on several computers (pc). With Mozy, we backed up 1/day, but Backblaze backs up hourly as their "recommended" approach which we have found to be a big plus. We've had to restore files a couple of times and the restore is not instant and it requires the user to put the files back where they belong, but it worked. I am extremely happy with cost and performance. Since Backblaze backs up everything (but not the executable stuff), I didn't have to select what files I wanted backed up which I found to be another plus. I haven't found a need to call for support so I can't comment on their tech support.

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• Their data center is in an earthquake zone.

  acohnMarch 6, 2013

  Pros

  Cheap Unlimited Storage

  Cons

  Their data center is in an earthquake zone.

  Summary

  What good is an off-site backup service when the data center is in the path of destruction of the Hayward fault, which seismologists say is overdue for a major quake? They're moving to Sacramento in a couple of years, and I'll check back then.

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• Appears great until you need to restore

  MarkGoldberg99January 14, 2013

  Pros

  Easy to navigate Automatic backups

  Cons

  Restore doesn't work

  Summary

  Backblaze seemed to be the answer to my needs. I was looking for a place in the cloud to store my backup, which included some large files including my iphoto and itunes folders. Then my problems began. My external drive that I store my large files on died. No problem I thought. It's all backed up with backblaze. I have now spent 4 days attempting to download the restore files. I've attempted the whole drive in one go, I've attempted partial restores, and I've attempted just my itunes library by itself. It takes up to 2 days+ to download the restore (zip) file - not backblaze's fault - but then when I try to open the zip file, I get an error. Backblaze does not offer any phone support, and although they state that emails will be responded to within 24 hours, this has not been my experience. Additionally, when they do respond to an email, and they don't give the correct response so I write them back, I can then expect to wait another 24+ hours for the next response. So with 24 hours between each run of a conversation, I expect that it will take weeks before I get anything toward resolving my issue, and at this stage, I highly doubt that they'll actually resolve my issue. There are a lot of other services out there - I would stay away from this one. At the very least, sign up with a service that offers phone support.

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• Resolved My Manual Backup Addiction

  bobfox321gJune 2, 2012

  Pros

  Backs up everything except OS and system files. Perfect for lost files, pics/videos, music, documents. etc. But it did drive me nuts that the O.S.+ files were not backed up. Then the light when on when I lost the main disk drive (with the OS). I buy an new disk and I reload the OS from scratch. I did not need the OS backed up.

  Cons

  So silent and works so well in the background you would swear it is not working.

  Summary

  NO MORE buying backup software, internal disks, external disks, dvds, tape, services but MOST OF ALL my precious time wasted every week doing and managing BACKUP. I even started researching BlueRay drives and supplies. I spent years and tons of money on backup. I researched all the online backup services and found this one to be the very best and cheapest on an annual basis. Research, compare and judge for yourself. Now for less than $4 per month I have unlimited, automatic, silent and invisible backup. It did take me a few weeks to get all my terabytes saved (one time effort). I was a backup addict. I did it faithfully every week for years. I also admit I did NOT trust backblaze at first. I would check and recheck and download random samples to make sure. Never failed me. My Backup addiction is now gone. It is fully automatic. I love it. Oh, and by the way, I am not a stockholder, know anyone there for have any other financial interest in the company.

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• Your Computer's Data is Safe with Backblaze

  davereviewJanuary 26, 2012

  Pros

  Cheap, and relatively easy to use. Insurance against hard drive failures.

  Cons

  Horrible automatic downloader.

  Summary

  Your computer's data is safe with Backblaze. I'm sure the other online backup companies are fine and dandy, but for the past two years Dave Review has trusted the insurance company Backblaze to backup all of the essential files on my computer. Let's be honest, that's what Backblaze is, an insurance company. You pay them to protect you from the catastrophe of your computer crashing just like you pay Allstate to protect you from an accident (or any other mayhem you can think of). And just like insurance, you hate to pay for it until you need it. And last week I needed my Backblaze insurance after my laptop hard drive took a dump. This is my personal laptop and has every photo I've taken since I switched to digital, which was all I really cared about. As a computer guy by trade, I knew something was up when it hard drive light was pegged for no good reason. Usually when I watch porn or stream Amazon Prime movies it will peg for a little, but none of that was happening. I tried to save my hard drive using my forensic kit (no...Seriously)...but no dice, so I turned to Backblaze. The initial setup of Backblaze is easy and relatively painless. They allow you to have them choose what you upload (standard save places on your computer), or you can select it yourself. I will state though that depending on how much data you decide to backup it takes a very long time for the initial backup, after which it is relatively quick (unless you're ripping movies to your computer.) I logged into my account and my heart dropped. I seriously started sweating and my heart started racing. I haven't had a successful backup in 331 days?!?!?! I can't help but think that holy fuck...I've lost everything; I wanted to throw-up. I clicked on the view/restore files link and much to my surprise everything was as it should be; all my files, pictures and documents up until the crash were tucked neatly into the restore window. If you've ever used a computer, you can navigate to your files. I'm stupid as fuck and I found them in the right places. So like anybody would do, I chose to select all files and folders and selected restore. Backblaze determined, as they should, that this was a bad idea. You see how they deliver you the files is in a compressed ZIP file, and anyone in their right mind should not want a file as big as I tried to download. Conveniently they suggest that you choose 20 GB chunks, but will allow you to continue (and shoot yourself in the foot if you want.) I wish there was an option to have Backblaze breakup the chunks for me as most compression programs come with that built-in technology (WinRAR). One thing to note is that Backblaze does not provide the files to you instantly like you are downloading a program, rather prepare your files for you behind the scenes. I selected three chunks; one 6 GB, one 26 GB, and one 58 GB. Backblaze emailed me when the first two files were ready for download, which took only about an hour. Another "feature" they push on you, for convenience and reliability purposes, is to use their home grown downloading tool. I normally don't have a problem with this practice as many companies try to reinvent the wheel some being more successful than others. However, I HATE Backblaze's downloading tool. I wish it were a piece of paper that I could wad up into a little ball and use as kindling in my fireplace, it's that bad. First, take everything you're use to about using the Tab button to navigate and pushing the Enter to key to, you know, execute functions and throw them away as they don't work in the downloader. Next, if you have multiple downloads, guess what Backblaze downloader doesn't care, it only chooses the latest restore and starts downloading it. There is no way to select any of the available downloads which is AWFUL. I would say it's completely useless, but it does download the latest restore, so in developer speak "it functions as designed." Transfer speed of the 6 GB and 26 GB archive files was more than adequate, completing in about an hour and four hours respectively. The 58 GB chunk took around seven hours to complete, but also required installing a ZIP reading application to open the file as Windows couldn't handle the size of the file natively; I used WinRAR and it worked fine. Even though I pay for the cheapest internet connection from Charter, my download speed is pretty good. I can see the times for download ballooning depending on how good your connection is. You can test your speed at any number of sites, but the most user friendly is SpeedTest.net. Hiccups aside, I will definitely continue to recommend Backblaze as an affordable online backup service. Backblaze will protect you from permanent loss of valuable files in the event of a hard drive crash, and just like auto insurance...you shouldn't be without it!

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• Cheap, simple but they do limit upload

  justfortimdOctober 23, 2011

  Pros

  Simple to use and configure.

  Cons

  No matter what they say, if you have a very fast upload pipe such as fiber you will without a doubt be limited. Backblaze is slower than Mozy which admits they have a 5mb upload cap. Backblaze should admit the cap or limits of their technology.

  Summary

  I get 2 meg up on a 20 meg upload connection. Graphed connection draws a line at 2 meg. Start an upload to mozy and it jumps up to at least 7mb up with both running. Great bargain but they should admit they either cap the upload or have upload speed issues!

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