Backblaze is a commercial online data backup service, for which this application is the Mac client. It resides in the menu bar, quietly uploading the most recent copy of selected files and folders.
Backblaze relies on a web interface to recover your data once uploaded. Backed up files, whether selected piecemeal or en masse, can be downloaded in a zip file for no additional charge or sent on a USB drive at roughly the cost of the hardware. Using Backblaze beyond a 15-day trial period requires a paid subscription to the service.
Sam's Protip: It's common wisdom these days that it's ideal to back up in at least two different places: in the cloud and on a physical hard drive. I've been backing up to physical media for a while now, but I've come to realize that there are certain eventualities that doing so does not guard against completely.
Pros
- No storage limit
- Backs up smallest files first to back up the most files as quickly as possible
- A good deal for those with lots of data and a fast Internet connection
Cons
- Client cannot be quit conventionally
- No free plans available
Haven't had to use the restore part of the app yet, which of course is the most important. But so far it works well. You can pause it, which is very helpful; in my case, I must pause it to watch online TV or do other high-bandwidth activities, because otherwise it causes everything else to stall. I'm sure it's a limitation of my ISP. The process of selecting what gets backed up and what doesn't is very easy; the defaults are quite good, but be aware of that external hard drives are not included by default.Be aware that it can take a long time to complete the initial backup. I've been using this application for months, and it is still doing the initial backup. That is largely dependent on your upload speed. I started out with 438 GB to back up, and now I have about 213 GB remaining.I give this app a 5-star rating, with the caveat that I haven't tried to restore anything that is backed up.