For the past year I have been backing up a sparsebundle image of my boot drive (made nightly by Carbon Copy Cloner) to CrashPlan. I see that sparsebundles are not on the new excluded list, but sparseimages are.
I tested the ability to download the sparsebundle and restore it to a drive with CCC, and it all worked beautifully.
I told Code42 about this, suggesting it would be a popular use of CrashPlan if they included it in their help documentation. I understand now why they seemed very unenthusiastic about the suggestion!
I will watch to see if my sparsebundle stops being backed up.
Of course sparsebundles work by breaking up the image into small bands, which means the amount of data (changed bands) backed up each day is small. Maybe this is why they have not (apparently) excluded sparsebundles.
I have Parallels Desktop set up to run a Windows app called HyTek Meet Manager for managing Finger Lakes Runners Club track meets. I use Meet Manager infrequentlyājust a day or two six times per year
Have you considered using WineBottler to run HyTek Meet Manager? This can be smoother and quicker than loading a full VM environment, and it might simplify the cloud backup issues. Itās been some years since Iāve needed to use it, so I canāt remember if it uses disk images in the setup, but my memory is that all data files are ānormalā Mac folders and files, so might be a cleaner solution for cloud backup.
@ace, I also meant to ask where you read the original CrashPlan announcement about this? Iāve been a customer for years, and this is the first Iāve seen about it (though now see others have been discussing it), which is a bit disturbing.
No, I wasnāt aware of WineBottler (though I presume itās associated with Wine). In this case, reliability is paramount, since we canāt have Meet Manager flaking out on us (for any additional reasons) during a track meet. So Iād be leery of something that might not be seen as ārealā Windows.
Several CrashPlan users sent me the email they received from Code42. I donāt know if there was another public post.
Several CrashPlan users sent me the email they received from Code42.
I only got mine this week, well after the article, so I assume they are being sent out to users gradually.
More disturbing, this morning I got a backup status email that says my last full backup was 9.4 days ago and my āselected for backupā is only 11GBā¦ when before it was 900GB. I know I donāt have 890GBs of VM images, so Iām not sure whatās going on and havenāt had a chance to investigate yet.
But between general Crashplan flakiness (it stops running with no error message or warning) and and their increase in price (I recently went from the $2.50/month initial offer to $9.99), Iām pretty sure Iām going to find another cloud backup solution soon.
Funny timing how their price increase comes right when the service has gone downhillā¦
I also got an email CrashPlan about not backing up applications, but it was a surprise to me to learn that they had been accepting settings from users which backed apps, because from and after the very first time I signed up for CrashPlan years and years ago they always emphasized in writing that users were not supposed to use the service to backup apps. I used SuperDuper for a full weekly clone and Time Machine for continuous incremental backups. It upsets to learn CP has not been enforcing their own rules, and now we who followed the rules may be punished, because perhaps thatās why CP has been slowing everything down on my MBP lately.
QUOTE: Donāt back up operating system and application files
The Code42 app isnāt designed to back up system and application files and we donāt recommend adding these files to your backup selection. Doing so could cause issues with the priority and status of other files you want backed up. Additionally, since the Code42 app isnāt designed to download your operating system or applications, there is no advantage to backing up these types of files. UNQUOTE
Iām perturbed that Backblaze excludes .dmg and .sparseimage. Yes, they often contain app installers and system images, but at least for me and all of my users, they can also contain valuable data. Before reliable full disk encryption, they were the only easy to use encrypted containers for sensitive files such as bank statements and contracts, and most of my users still prefer using them in addition to full disk encryption.
@nls . I have had this conversation with Code 42 and I completely agree that backing up the live operating system with constantly changing apps, logs prefs etc is futile. However backing up a daily static sparsebundle image is not futile and is a technically valid way of having an offsite restorable clone of your boot drive. Unlike a VM, a sparsebundle does not have to be backed in entirety for even a small change. Only the changed bands (which are file level) are backed up. I have tested that this works by downloading the sparsebundle and restoring it and booting from it. Code42 support agreed with all this.
I suggested to Code42 that they could put this in their Help as a great way to use CrashPlan, and they gave me a polite thank you for the suggestion!
I have not previously been backing up my Parallels VMs to CrashPlan, but when I got the email, I added a small unused one to see if it was backed up, and if so, when it will get deleted. So far both the VM and the Sparsebundle are still being backed up.
BTW the quickest way of seeing what is actually in your CrashPlan cloud is with the mobile phone app (which is free).
Thank you, Mike - excellent point! Aside from your test small unused one, have you attempted backing up an actual VM and Sparsebundle to CP? If so, how did that go and how long did it take, etc.?
The Parallels VM is 8GB and my CCC boot drive sparsebundle image is 165GB. They are both backed up to CP. The Parallels VM is not used so doesnāt change from data to day. The boot drive sparsebundle changes by 3-4GB per day normally but the largest daily change currently showing in CCC task history is 26GB. No idea how long they took. I have 21MB/s upload and CP seems to more than keep up, between six hourly backups.
I had to use BackBlaze to recover a large number of videos and image files. I use BackBlaze to supplement other backup drive but bad data corrupted these backup drives. I found BackBlaze restore worked reasonably well with everything I needed being recovered. However the process was very slow despite having a high speed fat internet service. As a non-American I am concerned with the BackBlaze servers being located in the States and therefore I am subject to US (lack of privacy and consumer) laws.
I thought BackBlaze did back up .dmg and .spareimage containers, but a post here said otherwise. If so then this is probably a dealbreaker for me and will look to move off BackBlaze and go elsewhere. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
As the article says, by default, Backblaze includes .dmg and .sparseimage in its backup exclusions. If thatās inappropriate for your situation, you can simply remove those exclusions from the list.
Thanks Adam. I tested and confirm that Backblaze can backup .dmg and .sparseimage files. That original post suggested otherwise and is not the only one post that has made this mistake. Yes you have to remove these from the exclusions list.
Because this mistake comes up from time to time I have suggested to Backblaze that something goes in its help area to make this clear as many people do use .dmg and .sparseimage files for security, etc and may not get into the exclusions stuff.
Do you have a link for the app? A couple of years ago I had the CrashPlan app, but when I went to look for it last year, it seemed to have been discontinued. I canāt find it anywhere, so if you have a link that would be most useful. The CrashPlan website is unusable on a phone.
Well thatās a shame! At this moment it is still working for me but I suppose I have to assume it will stop or give incorrect info soon.
I am also coming to the end of my discount period, so if they also stop my sparsebundle I may very well be looking elsewhere perhaps even Backblaze, in spite of the 30 day hazard.
Thatās what I thought, thanks for confirming. I mean, Iām not pleased, I was hoping Iād just missed something, but at least it affirms my search skills arenāt at fault!
What kind of UP speeds as part of your broadband package are users on here that use an online backup service, paying for?
I donāt use any online backup service all currently.
Here in the UK, Iām about to upgrade to Virgin Mediaās 350/20 package (from 220/12). So VM is essentially massively asynchronous in only giving 20 as the maximum available upload speed they offer consumers. Understandable on the most primitive understanding of internet usage; people download more than they upload. But it makes new innovations like easy large file syncing and backup services, left behind somewhat in this idea of usage.
(the 350 download speed will apparently be bumped to 500 in a few months, but the upload speed is seemingly only bumping to 35, rather annoyingly.)
