I had a terabyte box half-filled with data crash onto my tile floor a few weeks ago and now find myself implementing CrashPlan's cloud backup as a form of insurance. But the problem is bigger.
I have to finally set aside time to master my own data flow. It's obvious after a few days with Crashplan that I have several self-induced choke points and each of them need my attention.
I stepped into CrashPlan because of Jochen Lillich's recommendation. He uses and recommends CrashPlan as part of an essential business process. I don't mind paying a little more than I've previously paid for online backup because I'm getting a piece of software for myself. Until I started using it, I did not realise that I could use the service to back up to CrashPlan's servers and to my own (or my friends') computers.
As the screenshot shows, it will take nearly a month to get my ropy data into a cloud backup. (Don't believe what's on the screen because I scraped the screen while using a Mifi dongle.) I won't stand for that delay so I've started snipped gigs of data from my work laptop for storage onto one of my six removable drives. I doubt that the critical workflow data I use stretches more than 40 GB. I expect that by the end of next month I will have multiple encrypted backups of my files: one on an old laptop and one on CrashPlan's servers. And one major benefit is that I'll have critical data one tap away from loading onto my Xperia Arc.
I need to test CrashPlan's restore functionality by the end of my first week's use. I expect the process to be quick and painless. Check back when for my update in mid-November 2011. I hope to share a view that CrashPlan has backed up my data quietly and reliably. I want to know it will continue running without stopping me from rendering video. In fact, I hope to report that I don't even remember it's working in the background. That would be an ultimate compliment.
