Backblaze has made a new release available. All users are scheduled to automatically upgrade over the next two weeks. Below are the enhancements in this release:

Release Date: 7/20/10
Version: 1.5.0
Auto-Update: All Users

In addition to various minor fixes and enhancements, there are two key new features:

1. Backup Of Individual Files Up To 9 GB
Despite most photos, songs, and documents being just a few megabytes each, Backblaze has always supported backing up individual files up to 4 GB (1000 times bigger) to ensure we captured even your full-length HD movies. However, once in a while we had users tell us they have even larger files: extra-long HD movies, raw footage from photographers and videographers, Outlook files in certain businesses, and more. So, in this latest release, we added support for backing up uber-large files up to 9 GB.

A question we sometimes get asked is: “My iPhoto, Aperture, or Lightroom file that contains all my pictures is bigger than that. Will it get backed up?” Yes. All of those store the files individually inside what is called a “Package” on the Mac. Backblaze sees that it is a package and backs up all the individual files inside of it - which are typically a mere few megabytes.

The default remains 4 GB for existing and new installs since this will not be necessary for most people. However, all it takes is a flick of a menu item to change it if you do.

How do you take advantage of this new maximum file size?
* Update to the new release (or wait to be auto-updated within 2 weeks.)
* Open the Backblaze Preference Panel > Settings > Exclusions.
* Change the “Do not backup files larger than:” setting to “9000 MB”.

2. Transfer Backup State

“Do I need to upload all my data again?”

We have heard this question many times in the past. Users upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 or buying new computers to replace old ones want their backup magically tied to their new setup. Transfer Backup State enables this to happen easily.

When would you use Transfer Backup State?
* You are upgrading the operating system on your computer.
* You are buying a new computer to replace an old computer.
* When your old computer died AND you already restored data to your new computer.

When would you NOT use Transfer Backup State?
* When your old computer died. (Instead, you should restore your data ASAP.)

How do you Transfer Backup State?
Windows: http://www.backblaze.com/help-transfer-backup-win.html
Mac: http://www.backblaze.com/help-transfer-backup-mac.html

Backblaze has made a new release available and all users are scheduled to be automatically upgraded over the next two weeks. Below are the enhancements in this release:

Release Date: 6/21/10
Version: 1.0.7
Auto-Update: All Users

* Protocol changes to add efficiency and reliability.
* Minor security enhancements.
* Rolls up changes from previous versions which were not set to automatically update.

Backblaze has made a new release available. Release is very minor, thus users will not be automatically upgraded. A future release will include these items and automatically upgrade all users.

Release Date: 6/10/10
Windows Version: 1.0.6.263
Mac Version: 1.0.6.264
Auto-Update: None

Usability
* Slightly updated icons in Backblaze Preference Pane/Control Panel

Exclusions
* Added exclusions for temporary filetypes created in iPod Photo Cache (created by iPhone, iPad, etc.)

Backblaze has made a new release available and all users are scheduled to be automatically upgraded over the next two weeks. Below are the enhancements in this release:

Release Date: 3/1/10
Version: 1.0.6
Auto-Update: All Users

Performance Improvements
* Reduces network traffic between client and Backblaze data center.

Improved install & error checking robustness (Mac)
* Clearer messaging during installation if Backblaze data center cannot be reached.
* Clear notification when two Backblaze computers are running with the same ID.
* Many miscellaneous small fixes.

Backblaze has made a new release available and all users are scheduled to be automatically upgraded over the next two weeks. Below are the enhancements in this release:

Release Date: 12/4/09
Version: 1.0.4
Auto-Update: All Users

All binaries are signed (Win)
The installers Windows and Mac installers has always been signed and all Mac binaries have been signed since the Snow Leopard release. Now all binaries on Windows are signed as well per request by Symantec to reduce old versions of Norton anti-virus from misidentifying Backblaze as a virus.

Renewal notification enhancements
* Added notifications to alert customers if their renewal did not succeed.

Added temporary file exclusions
* Excluded DropBox, MobileMe, and Safari cache files since they are temporary and automatically rebuilt.

UI enhancements
* Touched up German and French text to be more accurate and fit better.
* Updated “Vault” icon in Backblaze Preference Pane. (Mac)
* Clicking “Backblaze Preference…” from the icon in the top-bar shows the pane even if it was minimized to the dock. (Mac)
* Stopped printing unnecessary status messages to stdout log. (Mac)

Backup enhancements
* Added iPhone backups to be backed up (for iPhones that are synched with iTunes to the desktop or laptop.)
* Added Mozilla Firefox shortcuts to backup. (Mac)
* Avoid backing up bogus “.” and “..” files found in /Users/Shared/ folders.

Improved install & auto-update robustness (Mac)
* Unpack new installer into uniquely named folder to avoid conflicts.
* Pre-check for Backblaze system files running during auto-update.
* Pre-check for certain esoteric system items to enhance install success.

Ever since Backblaze launched, providing incredibly easy, unlimited online backup, for individual users…companies have said, “Hey, but we have laptops and desktops that need to be backed up too!”

To help these companies, this week we launched Backblaze for Business, making available the same $50 per year per computer unlimited backup.

What is Backblaze for Business?
It is an online backup service that automatically and continuously backs up all data from laptops and desktops over the Internet. The data is de-duplicated, compressed, encrypted, and broken up into small pieces before being uploaded so that it can sent incrementally. If the computer dies, individual employees can restore their data by downloading it or having Backblaze FedEx the data on DVDs or a USB hard drive.

How much does it cost?
Just $50 per computer per year for unlimited storage.

Wait, this sounds just like the consumer service?
Yes, why change a good thing?! What Backblaze for Business adds is:
* Central Billing - a company can pay for all of its accounts centrally and can choose to pay via credit card or be invoiced for the service.
* Central Reporting - the person in charge of the backup service can get automated reports about which computers are licensed, when their last backup was, how far into the backup they are, etc.

Who should use Backblaze for Business?
The service is available for companies with at least 5 employees. Have less than 5? Just have each user sign-up for the regular Backblaze service. Have 10, 100, 1000, or more? Get started on the Backblaze for Business page.

How does this compare to my other options?
There are various ways to backup employee laptops and desktops. You could:
* Buy each user an external hard drive - which will cost you about two years of Backblaze service; you still need a way for them to backup to the drive; there is no central management; and the chances that the hard drive is in the same place as the laptop? Well, you get the point.
* Use a central tape drive system - and sign up to rotate and manage tapes continuously? Deal with the stat that over half of the time tapes fail when you need to restore data? Oh, and how do you deal with users being remote with their laptops?
* Tell users to save important files to a shared drive - seriously, you know this does not actually happen, right?
* Don’t backup laptops and desktops - even though 60% of corporate data is on those employee computers and 70% of companies die after a significant data loss?

What about other online backup solutions?
There are other certainly other options available. We heard 3 requests from companies:
1. Make it easy to deploy. All other solutions required IT to figure out what to backup. Unfortunately, without going to every employee’s computer, that was impossible to figure out, so they would either just backup “My Documents” or pick common filetypes; knowing that other data was going to get lost.
=> Backblaze automatically backs up all data.

2. Make the pricing predictable. Companies need to budget, especially in the current economy. Having unpredictable expenses that grow with the amount of data backed up it challenging.
=> Backblaze charges one fixed price for unlimited storage.

2. Make the pricing affordable. Companies really want to backup their data, but paying $0.50 - $2.00 per GB per month adds up very quickly to hundreds or thousands of dollars per computer per year. A laptop with just 100 GB on it would cost $600 - $2400 per year to backup. Most companies just cannot afford this.
=> Backblaze charges just $50 per computer per year.

How do I get started?
Just visit Backblaze for Business and stop worrying.

Microsoft has been asking people to throw house parties for the launch of Windows 7. We threw our own…but rather than bags of Doritos we racked stacks of hard drives.

For those of you that did throw a Windows 7 house party, or just bought or upgraded to Windows 7, Backblaze fully supports the new OS. In fact, about 6% of Backblaze customers are already using Windows 7 and backing up their data.

Planning to upgrade an existing computer?
* Windows Vista to Windows 7: Use the “In-Place Upgrade” option if available. This keeps your data and Backblaze will continue to operate seamlessly. If the option is not available and you need to do do a “Custom Install”, please carefully follow the steps in FAQ #18 so as to not require re-backing up data. (Find out if you are able to do an In-Place Upgrade to Windows 7 on the Microsoft upgrade chart.)

* Windows XP to Windows 7: Microsoft does not provide a migration path and requires you to delete all data and applications prior to upgrading. Thus, in order to continue with your backup where you left off without needing to re-backup your data, carefully follow the steps in FAQ #18.

Buying a new computer?
Did you get a new computer for the house?
Have friends, family, or co-workers that picked up a new Windows 7 system?
Make sure those new laptops and desktops are also backed up for just $5/month.

Backblaze has made a new release available and all users are scheduled to be automatically upgraded over the next two weeks. Below are the enhancements in this release:

Release Date: 6/8/09
Windows Version: 1.0.3.209
Mac Version: 1.0.3.210
Auto-Update: All Users

Enhanced Bandwidth Utilization
Streamlined metadata uploads to reduce bandwidth usage and enhance backup speed.

Enhanced Update Checking
“Check for Updates” menu item now takes users to a dedicated update page if a new update is available. (Note: software autoupdates, so checking for updates is optional.)

UI Enhancements
* Updated new graphics elements including “Vault” and “Computer.”
* Updated certain dialogs with the Vista “white” look and feel. (Win)

Added Exclusions
* Excluded WER (Windows Error Reporting) folder. (Win)
* Excluded Mac mail “Envelope Index” since it constantly changes and is then recreated automatically. (Mac)

Minor Bug Fixes
* Increased height of several pull down menus that became too short after adding support for blind users.
* Updated installer to handle certain permission restrictions. (Mac)
* Updated installer to fix ’standard’ user install regression. (Mac)
* Updated installer to handle spaces in temporary folder names or the lack of an existing temporary folder altogether. (Mac)

Backblaze has made a new release available. Users will start being automatically upgraded later this week. Below are the enhancements in this release:

Release Date: 8/31/09
Windows Version: 1.0.1.191
Mac Version: 1.0.1.190
Auto-Update: All Users

Complete Snow Leopard Support (Mac)
* Re-written installer to support Snow Leopard security model.
* 64-bit support for higher performance.
* Backblaze Preference Pane properly morphs from System Preference Pane.
(Note: previous version supported, but this one has complete standards adherence.)

Additional Exclusions
* Excluded Retrospect “.rdp” files from backup since Backblaze is not designed to backup backups. Excluded additional temporary files reported by customers. (Windows)
* Excluded 2 GB “sleep image” (RAM snapshot from when laptop went to sleep.) (Mac)
* Excluded all “dot” folders in /Users/ which should not be backed up. (Mac)

Sped Up Indexing
New files are detected quicker by no longer indexing “/Network”, which is not backed up anyway. (Mac)

Improved Accessibility
Added keyboard navigation in Backblaze Control Panel to support blind users. (Windows; Mac coming soon.)

Enhanced Localization
More accurate internationalized numbers and dates for each locale. (Mac)

Other (Mac)
* Fixed bug where Backblaze icon & popups sometimes would not appear.
* Fixed code signing to generate appropriate log warnings.
* Added new file types to reports.
* Fixed sorting bug when a folder is added to the Exclusions list.

Backblaze has made a new release available and all users are scheduled to be automatically upgraded over the next two weeks. Below are the enhancements in this release:

Release Date: 6/8/09
Windows Version: 1.0.1.161
Mac Version: 1.0.1.162
Auto-Update: All Users

This release is primarily a maintenance release to add system checks and make the service continually more robust in addressing corner cases.

“Offline” Message Fix
Some users have seen a blue notification icon and message saying the computer was offline though they were connected to the Internet and backups were continuing. This could occur when users switched between multiple networks (wired, wireless, etc.) While this did not affect backups, Backblaze will show the right message now.

Computer Clock Offset Notification
Backblaze relies on the customer’s computer clock to be fairly accurate in order to properly tag the date files are created, modified, and backed up and keep this in sync with files in the datacenter. This release added a notification if the computer’s clock is incorrect by more than 2 days.

Cloned Hard Drive Fixes
Several small improvements were made to make it easier for users who cloned their hard drive to select and unselect drives.

Uninstall Message Touchup
A few users uninstalled and thought this cancels billing. (It actually frees up a license for use on another computer.) Added a message to explain this in the uninstaller.

Self-Checks for Modifications
Some Backblaze installations have seen issues where the user or other software has deleted, modified, or moved files that are internal to the Backblaze service. Added numerous internal self-checks that will automatically fix issues or notify the user.

Signed Binaries (Mac)
Windows binaries have always been signed. Mac binaries are now signed in preparation for Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) release.

Improved Restore Downloader (Mac)
Sped up application to download files selected for restore.

Enforce Password Compliance
Added checks to enforce all new passwords entered do not contain characters that could be misinterpreted by different browsers.

Changed Log File Names
Log files were renamed with unique names (such as “bztransmit01.log” instead of “01.log”) to enable customer to search easier if needed for support.

Backblaze has made a new release available and some users are being automatically upgraded. Below are the enhancements in this release:

Release Date: 6/5/09
Windows Version: 1.0.0.149
Mac Version: 1.0.0.150
Auto-Update: Some Users

Minor release to address a few small issues including:

Cloned Drive Primary Drive Selection
A small percentage of (mostly Mac) users that clone their drives were unable to select their primary drive for backup. This is fixed.

Backups Halt Temporarily
A small percentage of users have backups stop for an hour once per day. This is fixed.

Only users that seemed to be potentially affected by these items were auto-updated. All users will get these fixes during their next auto-update.

Backblaze has made a new release available and all users are scheduled to be automatically upgraded. Below are the enhancements in this release:

Release Date: 6/2/09
Windows Version: 1.0.0.143
Mac Version: 1.0.0.144
Auto-Update: All Users

Cloned Drive Support
In April, Backblaze released a dramatically improved system for supporting external drives. Previously when an external drive was unplugged it would be treated as a drive that vanished and then reappeared when plugged in again. The new system remembers external drives and treats them uniquely from built-in drives. The new system also provided an interface to manage these external drives.

One thing we discovered after releasing this new system was that a significant number of people (primarily Mac users) cloned their drives. When a drive was cloned, it made it seem as if the same drive existed in two places at the same and confused the new external drive system.

This release enhances external drive support to better support customers who clone drives. The system detects the cloned drive, informs the user, and allows them to de-select that drive from backup. A few enhancements were also added to handle situations that appeared as cloned drives.

Email Support Issue Dialog
Backblaze provides a web page form and an email address to enable users to contact support. Once in a while, our support team is unable to respond to a user’s question because either the user mistyped their email address or our reply email is getting caught in their spam folder. To rectify this issue, this version has a notification system added that will pop-up a dialog via the Backblaze software to notify the user that our support team was unable to contact them and request they contact us via an alternate email address.

Better Exclusions Sort (Mac)
The Backblaze Mac exclusions list shows the folder being excluded. However, since some folder names (such as “Library”) exist in multiple paths, this version includes an option to “Show Path.” The exclusion list shows the directory path by default. This was done to support each platforms standard approach.

Extra Exclusions
We are always listening to users and looking for directories that contain temporary and other unnecessary files. This release added the TechTool cache directory to the exclusion list along with several other minor items.

Backblaze is constantly listening to customer feedback and innovating internally. The new features, bug fixes, and underlying enhancements that result from these become available in various releases of the Backblaze service. One of the pieces of feedback we heard was that some of you wanted to know more about these releases. We listened and I wanted to share our philosophy and approach:

Rollout Timeframe
Large releases with significant architectural changes are qualified internally and put through a rigorous beta testing period before being made available publicly. Small bug-fix or feature-enhancement releases are thoroughly qualified internally and tested with a smaller group of customers. While all customers are eventually automatically upgraded to the new release, larger releases are often rolled out gradually over a couple weeks or more.

Mac and Windows Simultaneous Release
By writing the system cross-platform from day one, we are typically able to do simultaneous releases - ensuring that Mac and Windows users have an identical experience and feature set. At times, there is a feature that is specific to one platform (for example, supporting Resource Forks is important on the Mac and does not exist on the Windows) which requires a slightly different release - but we tend to keep them nearly in sync.

Auto-Update Options
Most people just want their computer - and their backup - to work behind the scenes. As such, Backblaze automatically upgrades its software to the latest version. However, some users requested the ability to see if there was a new version available and they had not yet been auto-updated. We listened and added a “Check for Updates” option in the menu bar. You never need to click this - but if we are doing a rolling update, this will let you know that there is a new version available.

New Release Communications
Historically we quietly made improvements to the service and users would silently benefit. For large releases, such as the launch of the Windows version or the Mac version, we would publicly communicate the availability via the press and our blog. However, in order to minimize the amount of email we send to our customers, we did not send any communication regarding incremental releases. Going forward, we will publish what is new in each release here on our blog and send a notification via our Twitter account. We believe this is a good balance of letting users who are interested know without over-emailing our customers.

When we set out to build a backup service anyone could use, we assumed this was something people wanted to just install and forget - and for most people this was the case. However, we also found there is an entire base of people passionate about backup who want to stay involved and educated. For those of you in this latter category, I hope you enjoy the enhanced insight.

Two weeks ago Backblaze launched the Mac version of its unlimited online backup service. As part of the launch, we randomly selected 25 people who installed on the day of launch to receive a free 1-year license to the Backblaze service.

I wanted to share a few of the responses we received when notifying the winners:

“I am thrilled! I look forward to continuing to use your wonderful product!”
“Wow, what great news!”
“Love the product so far (although I hope I never need to use it!)”
“I have this installed on my shiny new MacBook Pro Unibody, and just finished my first backblaze backup. Sweet, eh?”

All of the winners can backup their computer and any USB or Firewire-attached drives - ensuring their photos, music, and other documents are safe for the year to come.

The winners who claimed their prize, including one who said “Awesome, I never win anything ” are:

Alex Vermulst
Brandon White
Jeremiah Mankin
Kevin Katz
Ramon Silva
Mark Allen
Simon O’Brien
James Kachel
Peter Kazanjy
Mike Chasman
Jason Clarke
Tymothy Bryce
Paul Hibbitts
Phillip Riggs
Neil Berkman
Dan Crane II
Cris Mitchell
Adam Simon
Ray Smuckles
Louis Plante

Congratulations to all of you and enjoy the Backblaze service!

Backblaze loves the Mac, and even tried to bring back Steve Jobs, so we’re very excited today to make our unlimited online backup service available to all Mac users.

With half the founding team originally from Apple, we couldn’t wait to support the Mac platform. We’re thrilled to do so and to see some of the reactions so far:

TUAW: Backblaze for Mac officially launches
MacWorld: BackBlaze online backup debuts for Mac
TechCrunch: Backblaze’s Online Backup Solution For Macs
TidBits: Backblaze Publicly Launches Online Backup Service for Macs
VentureBeat: Simple backup service Backblaze now available to all Mac users
MacNN: Backblaze debuts ‘effortless’ backup for Macs
TheAppleBlog: Backblaze for Mac Now Live
Download.com: Easy backups for Mac: BackBlaze
5ThirtyOne: Backblaze: Secure unlimited automatic backups for $5
MacsimumNews: Backblaze announces Mac Online Backup

At core, Backblaze for the Mac delivers on the same vision - making backup simple:
* Installing is simple - just download, enter an email and password; you’re done.
* Running it is simple - nothing to do; backs up continuously and automatically.
* Pricing is simple - $5/month or $50/year per computer for unlimited storage.
* Restoring is simple - select any files; download or we’ll FedEx a DVD or hard drive.

Here is a screenshot of the Mac Preference Pane:

While the underlying backup system was always developed cross-platform, during the beta we also learned a lot from feedback from thousand of users, resulting in us:
* Improving notifications
* Starting to backup resource forks
* Adding an uninstaller to the install package
* Excluding numerous extra application-specific temp file directories
* …and many other items that we built/fixed/changed.

We also learned Mac users love their external drives, with some users having as many as 6 USB or Firewire drives connected to one system.

While we always supported backing up external drives, we developed a new interface that showing which drives are connected/disconnected, selected for backup or not, or Boot Camp/Time Machine. Now, not only does Backblaze automatically backup external drives…but provides an at-a-glance view of the status.

We hope you enjoy the service.

That may have been the most understated title for a blog post about a day like today.

Less than 3 months after our Windows launch, today Backblaze announced a fully-featured Mac online backup service into private beta that followed the same “backup everything; no configuration setup; unlimited storage; $5 per month” approach.

This happened so quickly due to the team’s deep love for the Mac and continual commitment to cross-platform development. Every line of code for the backup engine always ran on the Mac and Windows ensuring the system’s robustness since all Backblaze customers worldwide already use it. The UI, on the other hand, was written natively to ensure that it was a true Mac product. Stay tuned for a post from our CTO about developing cross-platform code, but for now, more about today’s launch…

At 6am PST, the updated website appeared, Cara lit a laptop on fire, and the first reviews went public. Here are some that covered the launch:
* The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): Backblaze beta launches for Mac
* TechCrunch: Backblaze Brings Its Dead Simple Online Backup To The Mac
* Ars Technica: Backblaze: online Time Machine for Mac, and we have invites
* TidBITs: Backblaze Launches Mac Beta of Online Backup Service
* Mac News Network: BackBlaze reveals web-based system backup for Mac
* Macsimum News: BackBlaze announces private beta version of its Mac software

I want to say a big thank you to the bloggers and journalists who helped us spread the word about the Mac online backup beta! Throughout the day we watched the comments on these sites, the Twittering about Backblaze, and the feedback sent to us; it was great to see so many people passionate about backups.

As many of you found, we had such an overwhelming response that, unfortunately, we had to shut off access for new beta users pretty early in the day. I know several thousand of you did not get in and we are doing everything possible to enable everyone to access the beta. Please bear with us and if you submit an email request, we will contact you as soon as we have space available.

Again, a big thank you to everyone - we’re very excited to help you backup easily.