DVDs were a fantastic storage medium, able to store an astounding 4.7 GB of data for a few dollars. That was 1995. Yahoo was the hottest company on the Web. Google, Facebook, and Twitter weren’t even a concept yet. DVDs had a good run.

It’s time to call them dead.

When we launched Backblaze online backup in mid-2008, we offered unlimited free restores, FedEx DVD restores for $99, and FedEx USB hard drive restores for $189. We didn’t know how many people would choose the DVD restore option, but we figured people understood the concept of getting files sent to them on DVDs and they may feel more comfortable this way.

Well with 600,000,000 files restored in 2011, Backblaze customers restored:

Today we are killing off DVD restores and replacing them with USB flash drives.

For the same $99 price, you can now:

It was a good run DVD, but it’s time to move on.

Backblaze has always provided unlimited online backup:
Unlimited storage and Unthrottled bandwidth.

Today I am very excited to announce: Backblaze 2.0 – a performance release that makes the service more unlimited, faster, and even easier to get all your data safely backed up.

There are 16 updates that we think you’ll love. I want to highlight a few:

Unlimited File Size – while most of you have been able to backup all of your files with the previous 9 GB maximum, now there will never be a file too big to backup.

Unlimited File Types – now you can backup VMware, Parallels, and other virtual machines; as well as ISOs and every single other file type.

Maximum Performance – we have added an Automatic Throttle to most efficiently use your Internet connection, added file batching to speed small file transfer, added hardware acceleration, reduced RAM user further, and much more.

Taking advantage of Backblaze 2.0

New Installs
New customers, new trials, and new installs by existing customers will automatically get Backblaze 2.0. Some functions are on by default (e.g. Automatic Throttle) and others are an option to pick (e.g. Maximum file size backed up defaults to 4 GB.)

Existing Installs
Current customers and free trials will remain on the current version for the moment. We will automatically upgrade everyone over the next few weeks. If you wish to immediately upgrade to v2.0, simply click the “Check for Updates” menu item in the product.

Customers that update from an existing version will keep the settings they have on their current installation. Thus, for example, you will still be on Manual Throttle unless you turn on Automatic Throttle.

A small step
With approximately 2 billion Macs and PCs in use and 94% of them not backed up, data backup continues to be an enormous problem that needs to be solved. Hopefully, this new release is a small step toward making sure no one ever loses data again.

While Apple just recently announced their newest operating system, OS X Lion (10.7), Backblaze has been working with developers and beta testers for a while to ensure our online backup service is fully compatible.

When you rush out to upgrade to Lion, know that your Backblaze online backup service will work seamlessly. The new OS has 250 new features, but I wanted to call out a few:

Download the latest version (v.1.5.5) by clicking the Start Backing Up button on www.backblaze.com and enjoy the service on Lion! (All users will be automatically updated within a few weeks.)

There are many causes of data loss, but a lost or stolen computer has been a guaranteed reason to need Backblaze to recover data. Unfortunately, with some exceptions, the computer itself was gone.

Today, Backblaze announces “Locate My Computer” – a new feature of the Backblaze online backup service that shows you a map of your computer’s location.

We have heard many painful stories, such as that of the cure for cancer being stolen; and some amazing stories such as Mat Miller recovering his laptop when he noticed the thief backed up his college paper to Backblaze or Mark Bao catching the thief that stole his laptop by downloading a video the thief took of himself.

Since launching the company, we have had a steady stream of people contacting our support team saying, “my computer was stolen – is there anything you can do to help? With the exception of rare cases, unfortunately, there was little that we could.

Today, all that changes.

With our new Locate My Computer feature, Backblaze enables customers to:
* Accurately locate their computer on a map
* Get the ISP their computer is accessing
* See the IP address it is using
* And easily view new files being backed up

Locate My Computer is available immediately and is free to all Backblaze customers. Mapping is enabled for new users; users with existing accounts can “Turn On” mapping. To turn mapping on or off, sign-in and visit the Locate My Computer page. (Please click “Check for Updates” from your menu icon to ensure you are using the latest version.)

When Mark Bao posted the video of the thief he recovered from Backblaze, he posted it to YouTube with the title: “Don’t steal computers belonging to people who know how to use computers” With today’s launch we hope to change that to:
“Don’t steal computers from people who use Backblaze.”

Backblaze has always kept a four week history of all the files we back up – typically referred to as “versioning”. This enabled you to realize that you liked your Powerpoint presentation from a couple days ago, before you added all that amazing clipart, and simply restore that previously backed up version.

Today we are launching the ability to restore files within a specific date range!

How would you use this? Let’s say you use Ghost, Time Machine, or another disk imaging product to periodically take a full local snapshot of your hard drive. If your hard drive dies and you have one of these backups, you could re-image a new hard drive directly from that image.

However, that image might be days or weeks old. You can use Backblaze to recover your most current files. By using the date range feature you can select only the files that are newer than your image backup.

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: 3/30/11
Version: 1.5.2
Auto-Update: All Users

• Enabled quick scan of large external drives so files appear quicker in restores (Win)
• Fixed label on “Set Private Encryption Key” button in dialog box fixed (Win)
• Enabled scrollbar in “Transfer Backup State” dialog for customers with more than 16 computers (Win)
• Added exclusions for Office 2011 temporary files (Mac)
• Added launch of Backblaze menu icon when toggle hide/show icon (Mac)
• Added exclusion for OSX 10.4 to no longer auto-update (Mac)

Restoring a three megabyte file takes seconds. Restoring 400 GB might be best done by ordering a USB drive FedEx’ed to you. However, a restore between 1 GB and 100 GB you may choose to download, but that can be painful with most web browsers: some simply cannot support downloads over 4 GB, and most neither check to make sure the file downloaded correctly nor auto-restart where they left off if interrupted.

Thus, Backblaze has developed Restore Downloader apps for Windows and Mac. (The Mac one has been available for a little while; the Windows one becomes available now.)

You still select your restore the way you always did through the website. However, if a restore is over 1 GB, you will automatically be offered a tiny application with which you can download that restore.

Using it is simple: sign-in and click start download.

The Backblaze Restore Downloader will automatically start downloading the most recent restore you have selected. If you stop the restore or there is ever a hiccup in your network, the app will restart from where it left off.

Download the Restore Downloader for Windows, Mac, or have us auto-select for you.

When we started Backblaze, our earliest customers said, “I love backing up my computer with Backblaze. It let’s me sleep peacefully. Now, how can I give this as a gift to my friends to help them as well?” Several holiday seasons went by during which we wished we had the ability to gift Backblaze.

Finally, I’m thrilled to share that you can now give Backblaze as a gift!

For $50 you can get a gift code to a year of automatic backup with unlimited storage. The year will start ticking down once your friend starts using it.

When you buy the gift of Backblaze, you can automatically send an email to, or print out a gift certificate for your friend.

So, perhaps you can finish all your holiday shopping in the next 5 minutes?