CrashPlan Makes Backups Easy and Free – Want Help Getting Started?

Backing up your computer(s) is one of your most basic responsibilities – it should rank right up there with food, shelter, and companionship as a necessity of human existence. Without backups, you could lose everything – all your digital photos, all your documents, potentially all your emails, all your music, etc. Even if you do backup, if you don’t do it right, you can still loose everything – a friend of my mother’s lost the only copy of her nearly finished dissertation (6 years of work!) when her computer and backup drive were stolen.

Despite the risks, many computer users don’t backup right – mostly because it used to be difficult, or they didn’t think anything bad would happen to them. First you have to get over the second reason – something bad WILL happen to you – eventually. And now, thanks to CrashPlan, the first reason is no longer valid.

CrashPlan is a combination of backup software and an online service that makes it very easy to do the right sort of backups. I’ve tried many different backup systems and services ove rthe years – CrashPlan is, by far, the best. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it is simply awesome.

Amazingly, the basic version of CrashPlan, which does most of what you need it to do, is free! With it you can quickly set-up automatic, in-the-background backups (meaning you don’t have to do anything, or even see anything, to backup) to multiple backup destinations, including local hard drives, your other computers, and even your friends computers. That’s right – CrashPlan will securely backup your files to the extra hard drive space on your friend’s computers (if they permit you) – which means that even if your computer AND local backup drive are stolen or destroyed, you’ll still have a copy of all your digital goods. If you choose to, you can pay CrashPlan their extremely reasonable rates to backup to their servers and get additional features like continuous backups (instead of just once per day).

I have a free license for CrashPlan+ to give away ($60 value) – the first person to ask for it in the comments will get it! I’m also offering a backup setup service – if you are convinced you need backups, but don’t want to set it up yourself, I’ll consult with you, draft your backup plan, and implement it using CrashPlan, for a flat rate of $99. This covers installing and setting-up CrashPlan on all your families’ computers, teaching you how it works (if you want to know), and proving ongoing support in the unlikely event that you need it. If you want to backup to CrashPlan’s servers you’ll need to buy service from them (as low as $5/month for ALL your families’ computers) but I’ll do all the set-up for you, and there are no other charges. Email or call if you are interested.

UPDATE: I’ve got a second CrashPlan+ license to give away – post to the comments if you’d like it!