- Online file backup.
It seems so impractical.
Uploading hundreds or even thousands of gigabytes of files
just in the off chance that if your house
gets hit by a hurricane
and all your hard drives get flooded,
you have a way to restore your data.
Is it really necessary?
And what's the best way to backup files to a server.
In this video,
I'm gonna be sharing the best online backup solution
for your computer.
Whether you have no file backup, a local file backup,
or an online file backup that's a hassle,
finding a practical file backup solution
can seem impossible.
In all of this, you might be asking yourself
why you can't just use Dropbox, or Google Drive,
or another cloud platform.
After all, they do offer tools
to automatically back up your files.
And if you have less than a hundred gigabytes of data
to back up, this is probably fine.
But as your needs for storage grow
then the problems begin with these solutions.
Number one, you're gonna have to pay for storage.
If you have eight terabytes of data like me,
that means $20 a month or more
for enterprise versions of Google Drive or Dropbox.
And as you do start to back up terabytes of data,
file restore becomes a huge concern.
What if I had an eight terabyte hard drive
that failed and I had to download
all eight terabytes of data?
I'm gonna download that from the internet?
Is it gonna split it into multiple zip files?
Then, what?
I open the zip files
and try to piece back together the drive structure.
It would be a headache.
There has to be a solution
to be able to get my files on a drive,
plug it into my computer,
and be back in business.
A proper backup system needs a way to receive a drive
with your files in the mail.
That way if you have a drive fail
that's eight terabytes,
you get a hard drive mail to you with your data,
plug it in, copy the data over,
send the drive back, and you're back in business.
It's simply not acceptable
to only be able to download files
if you need to restore files
if you have more than a hundred gigabytes of data.
Enter Backblaze.
Backblaze is an online file backup solution
for Mac and Windows
that's $7 a month for unlimited storage.
It's super easy to set up.
Download the trial at the link in the description below,
select which drives you wanted to back up,
and it's automatically gonna back up all of your files
in the background.
Even if you turn off your computer
while it's backing up files,
the next time you turn it on,
it simply picks up where it left off.
It's carefree and it's really easy to get started.
Backblaze is not to be confused
with cloud syncing platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox.
It is not a file collaboration system.
In other words, you can't upload files to Backblaze
and send a link to your friend
and have them conveniently download it.
It's not a black hole for having unlimited cloud storage
where you can offload a bunch of files from your drive
and clear up drive space.
The general rule is that if you store it,
Backblaze will back it up.
So, they'll back up 18 terabytes of data for you
but only if you have an 18 terabyte hard drive
that you're storing it on locally.
That keeps everything fair
and makes sure you don't try to use Backblaze
as something that it's not.
So, what does Backblaze do?
It backs up your computers internal drives
and any external drives you specify.
This is an insane value
if you're a freelancer, photographer, videographer
a creative, anyone who has a lot of data.
I have an 18 terabyte external drive
and Backblaze will back up all of it.
The only catch
is you have to have that drive plugged in
at least once every 30 days.
So if you're thinking you're gonna put 10 archive drives
on a shelf and never think about them again
and they'll be backed up to Backblaze,
that's not true.
You have to be plugging them in regularly.
Otherwise, Backblaze is going to delete the files.
It's also worth noting
that you cannot back up network drives.
If you have a NAS system,
you have to use Backblaze B2
which is their enterprise product.
And with Backblaze B2,
you have to pay per gigabyte that you back up.
When you need to restore files,
you can either download files
or have the files sent to you in the mail.
Backblaze charges $99 for a 256 gigabyte flash drive
or $189 for an eight terabyte external hard drive.
If this seems like a rip off,
it kind of is
if you don't return in the drive and mail it back.
See the great thing
is you can treat this almost like a security deposit.
Backblaze will charge you for the flash drive
or external hard drive.
They'll mail it to you.
You can actually copy all of your files
off the drive to your own drive,
mail the Backblaze drive back,
and get a full refund.
This means the effective cost
of restoring your files by mail
is essentially a refundable deposit of $99 or $189,
plus the cost of return shipping.
So, walking away from a catastrophic drive failure
only having to pay to ship a hard drive
back to Backblaze, I think is a fair price.
Backblaze also has 30-day file history
included in the base plan.
File history gives you two main benefits.
One, if you deleted a file two weeks ago
and you cleared it from your recycle bin
and you decide you need it back,
you can go in a Backblaze for 30 days
from when that file was deleted, restore it,
download it, and your back in business.
Two, you can also access earlier versions of files.
So, if you open a word document
and accidentally backspace everything and save over it,
file history with Backblaze
allows you to restore an older version of that file
up to 30 days old.
So, that way you can be back in business
as if that mishap never even happened.
So, you might be wondering if Backblaze
is really right for you.
I get it.
It's easy to think hard drive failure won't happen to you
until it does.
And it's too late to go back and back up your files
after it's already failed.
I've personally had two hard drives' fail
in my life, so far.
And one of those hard drives,
I was only able to recover the files because of Backblaze.
I am so thankful that I signed up for Backblaze
and started using it before it was too late.
So when I did have a hard drive failure,
I got that drive shipped to me, plugged it in,
copied the files over, and I was back in business.
Speaking of hard drive failures,
Backblaze actually publishes statistics on this
and they've been doing so since 2013.
You can go to their blog and check out all the stats
on hard drive failures, how long they last,
when they're most likely to fail.
It's actually very interesting.
The pitch for Backblaze has been strong in this video
but that's because it just works.
This video is not sponsored by Backblaze
and I have personally been paying for my own service
for many years.
You could look at competitors like Carbonite, IDrive,
or Acronis.
But a lot of these competitors have multiple plans
which complicates which one you need.
And a lot of them are also charging you for storage.
I love that Backblaze has unlimited storage.
It's really no nonsense.
And you might be thinking,
"Christian, what about using a local backup solution?
What's wrong with the backup tool built into Windows 11
or Time Machine for Mac?
Why can't I just plug in another hard drive
and have the files automatically copied to there?"
And the answer
is there's not necessarily a problem with doing this,
after all local file backup
is going to give you the fastest restore time
of any backup solution.
But I see two issues here.
One, you have to buy double the storage
of what you typically need.
So if you have a lot of files like me,
that means having 16 terabytes worth of hard drives
instead of just eight terabytes.
The other problem, and this is the bigger one here,
is that you need the backup drive with you at all times.
Otherwise, you're missing out on having the latest backup.
If you travel a lot, if you're on the go,
if you have say an eight terabyte external drive
that's portable, you carry it along with you.
You travel, you go somewhere.
You're working on important files.
Boom, that's the time that your hard drive decides to crash.
If you didn't plug in your backup drive
while you were at that coffee shop,
none of those files are backed up.
But with an online file backup like Backblaze,
everything is backed up all the time
as long as you're connected to Wi-Fi.
And imagine this,
what if you're doing everything by the book.
You have your main drive and your backup drive
at a coffee shop with you.
Both of them are plugged in.
Everything is backing up on the spot.
But maybe you put your laptop away.
You put your drives back in your backpack.
You have to go use the bathroom or do something.
You come out, your backpack stolen.
That's a tough situation to be in
because your local backup,
everything that you had, all of your files, they're gone.
With a solution like Backblaze,
with an offsite backup, that's not a problem.
You don't have to worry about getting drive stolen.
You don't have to worry about a natural disaster.
Your files are going to be protected
even if the worst happens.
If you'd like to get started with Backblaze,
I have a link to a free trial in the description below.
So what do you use for file backup?
Is everything stored offsite?
I'd love to know your thoughts in the comments down below.
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With that said, I will catch you guys next time.