Here are instructions on how to restore one or more files from your CrashPlan online backup archive.The instructions work for both CrashPlan and CrashPlan Pro. In my opinion an untested backup system is next to useless. Only by testing it do you know for sure that your backup system is owrking properly. By testing it you also learn how to restore a file which will enable you to be a bit more calm in the event of an actual disaster

If you’re a visual learner you might like to watch my video demonstration of how to preform a restore from CrashPlan.

• Open the CrashPlan (or CrashPlan Pro application) by clicking on its icon on your Dock or in your Applications folder.
• On the left-hand side you’ll see five sections, click on Restore.
• You’ll see the CrashPlan Central Destination listed at the top as well as the time of the most recent backup. If you want to restore from a backup other than the most recent backup then click words “most recent” which appear at the bottom of the window. From the calendar that appears select a previous date and time and click “Ok”.
• Next select the files or folders you want to restore by inserting a checkmark in the checkbox to the left of the file’s name. You can either use the search field to locate your file or you can click the arrows to the left of folder names to see the contents of the folder. Using these arrows you can navigate down several layers of folders to locate the files or folders that you see.
• By default the files will be restored to the Desktop. If you prefer, you can click on the word “Desktop” near the bottom of the window to select another location.
• Finally, click the “Restore” button.
• “Restore Status” information will be listed at the bottom of the CrashPlan window. Depending upon how many Kilobytes of data you select it can take a while for CrashPlan to retrieve the files and send them to your computer. When the restoration is complete the status message will list the time at which that the files were restored to the destination on your Mac.

It’s also possible to restore files from CrashPlan’s web site. This option could be useful if your laptop was stolen or if you’re traveling without your laptop, but need a file. Restoring files from the CrashPlan web site limits you to restoring a maximum of 500 MB.

In this Tech Tip article, I’ll tell you how to setup CrashPlan’s Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service to perform automated, off-site versioned backups. I use this service to backup my work laptop. In my previous Tech Tip on setting up a comprehensive backup system, I mention how CrashPlan can be a nice supplement to backing up your Mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner since CrashPlan’s backup data can be stored off-site on CrashPlan’s servers. Thus, it can provide automated, off-site backups of your business data.

In another recent Tech Tip I talk about how to use CrashPlan+ to backup personal data so if you’re not backing up business data you’ll probably prefer to sign-up for the less-expensive CrashPlan+ service which offers the same set of features. That article includes definitions of CrashPlan, CrashPlan+ and CrashPlan Central so if you’re not familiar with the differences between these terms please read this part of the article now.

One important detail to know is that CrashPlan’s does not mention this Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service by name and barely mentions that a hosted service is available. In fact, I was confused after reading the CrashPlan web site and trying to understand the proper way to use CrashPlan+ to backup business data. I only learned about the Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service by exchanging emails with Code42′s tech support team. I was informed that CrashPlan will be revising their web site to offer a better explanation of the range of services that they offer. In the meantime, here’s my abbreviated explanation.

CrashPlan, the application, can be used to backup either personal or business data to local hard drives, hard drives connected to your friend’s computer at their home or office, or hard drives connected to other computers on your own network. However, neither CrashPlan nor CrashPlan+ allow you to backup business data to CrashPlan Central, Code42′s servers kept in a secure data center. I value having a reliable, redundant backup system and I want my data to be secure so I really like the idea of storing my backup data on the CrashPlan Central servers. So, if you’re a business owner and you want to backup your business data to the CrashPlan Central servers then you need to sign up for either CrashPlan Pro or the Hosted Pro Client Subscription Service (contact info listed below). CrashPlan Pro is advertised as supporting 10-10,000 computers, but technically it could be used for any number of business computers. It just isn’t cost-effective until you have about 10 computers. It seems that Code42 setup their Hosted Pro Client Subscription Service as a bit of an after thought to plug the gap in their service offerings and to give business owners with 1-5 computers a way to more affordably store their data on the CrashPlan Central servers.

If the Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service is a good fit for your small business then here’s some guidance on how to set it up.

Contact Code42′s sales team at sales@crashplanpro.com and ask them about the Pro Hosted Client Subscription Service.

Fill-in and return the Pro Hosted Order form that is sent to you by the sales team. Read the pricing examples that I provide at the bottom of this article.

You’ll be notified of your login information once your account has been setup.

Download and install the CrashPlan Pro application. It works on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs running OS X 10.4.11 or higher.

Open CrashPlan Pro. When you’re prompted to login do so using the account information you were given.

On the left-hand side click on the Backup button. Look at the section labeled “File to  Back Up”. By default it’s set to backup your Home folder. This folder is the default location for all of your music, pictures, documents, local email messages and files on your Desktop. This is typically what I recommend you back up. However, if you want to make changes to add or remove folders click the button which should be labeled Change or Change File Section.

Once you’ve selected the files you want to backup then again click on Backup on the left-hand side. Then, in the Backup Destinations section locate “CrashPlan Central” and click the Start Backup button. The backup will start. That’s it. You’re up and running!

Remember this initial back up could take days or weeks to complete depending upon how much data you’ve selected and the speed of your Internet connection. Until this initial backup is complete you don’t have much protection. So, I’ll reiterate that I think CrashPlan is a nice supplemental backup to local backups performed by Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan offers some redundant protection and off-site protection which is very important to have if you only backup to one hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan is also very useful if you travel and take your laptop with you since CrashPlan will run anytime your Mac has an Internet connection.

You can quit the CrashPlan application and the backups will continue since CrashPlan is made up of two parts. There is the CrashPlan application which you use to configure the backups. The other part is the CrashPlan Engine, which runs quietly, unseen, in the back-ground. CrashPlan’s Engine automatically adjusts how much of your computer’s processing power and your network’s capacity it uses based on whether or not you’re using your computer. You can view and adjust these values in the Settings section of CrashPlan. Also in Settings you can adjust how long versions of files are retained and your can setup files or folders to exclude from your backup data using file names or regular expressions. You can also adjust the frequency and types of email notifications which you receive.
By default, CrashPlan will send you email notices when it hasn’t been able to backup your Mac in XX days and it’ll also send you a weekly summary of when the last backup occurred. You can change these email notification schedules in the Settings section.

As with any backup application. I recommend that you perform test file restorations regularly to ensure that the backup system is working properly and so that you’re comfortable performing restores so you can do it with confidence with disaster strikes.

On the left-hand side click on the Backup button. Look at the section labeled “File to  Back Up”. By default it’s set to backup your Home folder. This folder is the default location for all of your music, pictures, documents, local email messages and files on your Desktop. This is typically what I recommend you back up. However, if you want to make changes to add or remove folders click the button which should be labeled Change or Change File Section.

Once you’ve selected the files you want to backup then again click on Backup on the left-hand side and click the Start Backup button. The backup will start. That’s it. You’re up and running!

Remember this initial back up could take days or weeks to complete depending upon how much data you’ve selected and the speed of your Internet connection. Until this initial backup is complete you don’t have much protection. So, I’ll reiterate that I think CrashPlan Pro is a nice supplemental backup to local backups performed by Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan Pro offers some redundant protection and off-site protection which is very important to have if you only backup to one hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan Pro is also very useful if you travel and take your laptop with you since CrashPlan Pro will run anytime your Mac has an Internet connection.

You can quit the CrashPlan Pro application and the backups will continue since CrashPlan Pro is made up of two parts. There is the CrashPlan Pro application which you use to configure the backups. The other part is the CrashPlan Engine, which runs quietly, unseen, in the back-ground. CrashPlan’s Engine automatically adjusts how much of your computer’s processing power and your network’s capacity it uses based on whether or not you’re using your computer. You can view and adjust these values in the Settings section of CrashPlan Pro. Also in Settings you can adjust how long versions of files are retained and your can setup files or folders to exclude from your backup data using file names or regular expressions. You can also adjust the frequency and types of email notifications which you receive.

By default, CrashPlan Pro will send you email notices when it hasn’t been able to backup your Mac in XX days and it’ll also send you a weekly summary of when the last backup occurred. You can change these email notification schedules in the Settings section.

As with any backup application. I recommend that you perform test file restorations regularly to ensure that the backup system is working properly and so that you’re comfortable performing restores so you can do it with confidence with disaster strikes.

Pricing Example – As of the November 2010 the cost is $5/computer/month plus 30 cents per gigabyte per month with a minimum of 50 GB. Thus, for one computer the cost would be $20/month ($5 for the computer and $15 for upto 50 GB of storage).

The cost for 4 computers would be a minimum of $35/month ($20 for 4 computers and $15 for upto 50 GB of storage). $35/month x 12 mns = $420 per year each year.

Here’s a cost example in case you need more then 50 GB of storage space.

4 computers = $20/month

initial 50 GB of storage space = $15/month

additional 20 GB of storage space = $6/month

Total is $20 + $15 + $6 = $41/month    12 months x $41 = $492/year

Update Jan 2011: In December 2010, CrashPlan released CrashPlan version 3 which added new features like the ability to backup different files to different destinations. More importantly, it rolled the CrashPlan + features of backups running every 15 minutes and storing multiple versions of files into the standard CrashPlan application. Thus these two features are now standard for all users of CrashPlan.

In my Tech Tip on how to setup a comprehensive backup system I mention that CrashPlan can be a nice supplement to backing up your Mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner since CrashPlan’s backup data can be stored off-site on CrashPlan’s servers. Thus, it can provide automated, off-site backups of your personal data. In this article I provide instructions on how to setup CrashPlan to perform automated, off-site, versioned backups.

I need to start by introducing and defining a few terms.

CrashPlan is the name of a backup application. It’s free for personal use. It’s made by Code42 Software.  It can be used to backup data to a locally connected hard drive, to another computer in your home, to another computer at your friend’s home or to CrashPlan’s servers. These servers are called CrashPlan Central. The capabilities of the CrashPlan application can be extended by buying a license for CrashPlan + (plus). The license is simply a long string of letters and numbers which you enter into the CrashPlan application. The most important capabilities which one gets from CrashPlan + are more frequent backups and versioned backups. Let me elaborate. The free version of CrashPlan performs daily backups to other computers or hourly to CrashPlan Central. With CrashPlan+ backups occur every 15 minutes. The free version of CrashPlan stores only one copy of each file. If you edit a file each day then then new version of the file replaces yesterday’s version. With CrashPlan+ you can configure CrashPlan to hold onto previous versions of files for a while or forever.

It’s important to know that CrashPlan is free for personal use by residential customers. That is, you’re allowed to use it to backup only personal data, not business data. If you’re a business customer then you should buy CrashPlan + ($60). This then allows you to backup your business data but only to local hard drives or other computers owned by you or your friends. CrashPlan+ is not adequate for backing up business data to CrashPlan Central.

If you’re a business and you want to backup your business data to CrashPlan Central then you need to sign up for either the Hosted Pro Client Subscription or CrashPlan Pro. The Hosted Pro Client Subscription service is for a maximum of 5 computers. CrashPlan Pro is for 5-10,000 computers or more. I’ll talk about the Hosted Pro Client Subscription service in a future Tech Tip article.

Setup Instructions

Start by going to CrashPlan’s web store and purchasing a license for CrashPlan+ ($60) and either an Individual Unlimited Plan ($54) or a Family Unlimited Plan ($100). The individual plan provides unlimited storage for one computer at CrashPlan Central. The family plan provides unlimited storage for all computers in one household at CrashPlan Central. When you finish the checkout procedure you’ll receive an email which contains your license code for CrashPlan+

Download the free CrashPlan application. It works on PowerPC Macs as well as Intel Macs running Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher.

Open CrashPlan. You’ll be prompted to enter your user account information. You don’t have an account yet so follow the instructions to setup an account.

Once you’ve setup your account then the CrashPlan application will open. On the left-hand side click on Settings and then on the right-hand side click on Account. Type in your CrashPlan+ license key in the boxes provided. Click the Save button.

On the left-hand side click on the Backup button. Look at the section labeled “File to  Back Up”. By default it’s set to backup your Home folder. This folder is the default location for all of your music, pictures, documents, local email messages and files on your Desktop. This is typically what I recommend you back up. However, if you want to make changes to add or remove folders click the button which should be labeled Change or Change File Section.

Once you’ve selected the files you want to backup then again click on Backup on the left-hand side. Then, in the Backup Destinations section locate “CrashPlan Central” and click the Start Backup button. The backup will start. That’s it. You’re up and running!

Remember this initial back up could take days or weeks to complete depending upon how much data you’ve selected and the speed of your Internet connection. Until this initial backup is complete you don’t have much protection. So, I’ll reiterate that I think CrashPlan is a nice supplemental backup to local backups performed by Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan offers some redundant protection and off-site protection which is very important to have if you only backup to one hard drive using Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. CrashPlan is also very useful if you travel and take your laptop with you since CrashPlan will run anytime your Mac has an Internet connection.

You can quit the CrashPlan application and the backups will continue since CrashPlan is made up of two parts. There is the CrashPlan application which you use to configure the backups. The other part is the CrashPlan Engine, which runs quietly, unseen, in the back-ground. CrashPlan’s Engine automatically adjusts how much of your computer’s processing power and your network’s capacity it uses based on whether or not you’re using your computer. You can view and adjust these values in the Settings section of CrashPlan. Also in Settings you can adjust how long versions of files are retained and your can setup files or folders to exclude from your backup data using file names or regular expressions. You can also adjust the frequency and types of email notifications which you receive.

By default, CrashPlan will send you email notices when it hasn’t been able to backup your Mac in XX days and it’ll also send you a weekly summary of when the last backup occurred. You can change these email notification schedules in the Settings section.

As with any backup application. I recommend that you perform test file restorations regularly to ensure that the backup system is working properly and so that you’re comfortable performing restores so you can do it with confidence with disaster strikes.

Are you considering an online backup system? Here’s an overview of the pros and cons of such systems.

Before we review the pros and cons, one has to initially be open to the idea of having a copy of their personal data stored on a relatively unknown company’s server. Thus there is an issue of trust. Who is this company? How do I know that the workers aren’t looking at my data? Companies which offer online backup services understand these concerns and address them by storing your backup data in an encrypted manner. The encryption key used to secure your data is randomly generated based on the password to your account. This means that nobody else is able to view the contents of your backup data.

The biggest advantages of online backups is that you end up with an off-site backup copy of your data and that the backups can run automatically. This means that if your Mac and any local backup copies sitting next to your Mac were destroyed by a fire or stolen by burglars then you could retrieve a recent copy of your data from the online backup system. This is great. However, once you learn how long it would take to download gigabytes of music files, photos and word processing documents then you’d see one of the disadvantage of online backup systems. They are slow. Depending upon how much data you want to backup to an online backup system, it could literally take days or weeks to copy it since the speed or Internet connections in homes and businesses are slow compared to the copying data onto a USB or FireWire hard drive. Let me illustrate this. I had a client with 16 GB of data. This data could be backed up to an external FireWire drive in about 15 minutes. Copying this same data to an online backup service took about 4 days.

As a consequence of their slowness, I tend to recommend only backing up part of your Mac’s hard drive not the entire thing. More specifically, I recommend only backing up your Home folder since it contains all of your personal data. Don’t bother backing up your applications and the folders containing the Mac operating system. I do believe in backing up everything on your hard drive, just not using an online backup system. Instead, one should use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to make a full bootable backup. For more details read my Tech Tip about setting up comprehensive backup systems. Adding an online backup adds redundancy to your backup system. If one of your backup systems, like Time Machine, were to stop working and you didn’t notice it for a few days, it would be very nice to know that your automated online backup system was still doing its job.

I should also mention that online backup systems can be quite affordable. I tend to recommend CrashPlan to people who want to setup online backup systems. For $54 CrashPlan provides you with unlimited storage space on their servers for backups or personal data on one computer for one year. Or, one can buy a Family Plan for $100 which provides unlimited storage space for all computers in your household for one year. The pricing for backing up business data on buisness computer is a bit more complex. In the coming weeks, I’ll write a Tech Tip which discusses CrashPlan in more detail.