Backblaze is giving away one million dollars worth of the Backblaze online backup service. “Whoa”, you say, “Backblaze is like the thriftiest company ever, now they’re giving away a million dollars worth of their service, what gives?”

That’s a fair question. Here’s the deal…

Starting immediately and running through the end of World Backup Day (March 31, 2013 11:59 PM PDT), Mac and PC users new to Backblaze can sign up to receive 3 months of the Backblaze online backup service for free (a $15 value). To sign up, all you need to do is go to www.backblaze.com/worldbackupday and enter a valid email address during the promotional period. The first 66,667 unique and valid email accounts to sign up will receive an email containing their personal code, providing them with 3 months of unlimited online backup from Backblaze. That’s it. A new Backblaze customer can sign-up, get a code via email, and run Backblaze for free for 3 months.

“OK, that’s cool, but what about us existing customers, are we being left out?”

Of course not. We have entered all of our existing customers into a contest. We will randomly select 5 lucky winners and each winner will receive an iPad Mini. We’ll select the winners on April 2nd and contact them via email at that time.

“Nice, but three free months of Backblaze is nearly as good as an iPad Mini. Any chance I can get the free Backblaze?”

To use the free 3-month code, you will need to create a new Backblaze account. You cannot add the 3-month code to an existing Backblaze license. So if you have a second computer laying around that you’ve been meaning to back up with Backblaze, now’s your chance. Or maybe you’ve been thinking of getting Backblaze for your Aunt Polly or Grandpa Roger, now’s your chance. One thing to know, if you cancel your existing Backblaze license so you can use this new free 3-month code, you’ll have to resend us all of your data again – is it really worth it?

So that’s it, one million dollars worth of the Backblaze service for free for new customers. Now there’s no excuse not to back-it-up with Backblaze.

*Update* – Thanks everyone for signing up! Codes are going out soon, and the iPad Mini winners will be notified on April 2nd, 2013 (so they don’t think it’s an April Fool’s joke)!

Backblaze has a great support team and one of the most frequent requests they receive is, “could you please provide an invoice?” From the beginning, we’ve been handcrafting every invoice that’s been sent out, and while we love making our customers happy, as Backblaze has grown it’s become increasingly difficult to keep up with all the requests. Over the last few years, we’ve been hard at work making the best online backup solution possible and that meant that our engineers were working on iterating and expanding the functionality of our backup client. Unfortunately this meant that some of the non-mission critical improvements we’ve wanted to make had to take a backseat. Well, the day of automated invoicing is finally upon us! Thanks to Monika, the latest addition to our engineering team. After joining Backblaze she was tasked with something of the utmost importance, creating an invoicing system so that you can get your own invoices!

That’s right! Starting today you will be able to go to the “Transactions” section of your Backblaze account and select a year or billing period for which you would like to receive an invoice. Once created, you will be able to print or download the invoice which will have all of your Backblaze transactions including your dates of purchase, the number of licenses purchased, and the total cost. Even though this may sound like a minor improvement it is something we are very excited about!

We thought ten people would care; instead a million people read our Storage Pod 1.0 blog post where we open sourced the Backblaze Storage Pod design and introduced the world’s most cost-efficient way to store big data. The interest grew when we published our Petabytes on a Budget: Revealing More Secrets blog post that announced Storage Pod 2.0, which doubled the amount of storage and reduced the price. Since then several companies have built businesses selling Storage Pods inspired by Backblaze to hundreds of organizations around the world who are storing hundreds of petabytes of data on their own Storage Pods. Today we introduce Backblaze Storage Pod 3.0 which stores more data, costs less, is more reliable, and is easier to service.

What’s New?
For Storage Pod 3.0 we redesigned the chassis and upgraded many of the components. Most of the changes are aimed at improving the reliability and flexibility of the Storage Pod. The full parts list is in Appendix A at the end of this post.

Here are the highlights:

• 180 terabytes of storage. With the availability of 4 TB hard drives a Storage Pod can now be configured to store 180 TB (45 x 4 TB). As a bonus the same chassis and components can be used with any capacity of 3.5” hard drives.
• Anti-vibration drive bay assemblies. There are now 3 assemblies, one for each row of 15 drives. Each assembly is designed to lock down a row of drives in place. These assemblies replace the “drive bands” around each drive. This saves nearly an hour during Pod assembly and makes drive replacement easier as well.

  The key advantage of the drive bay assemblies is to reduce vibration. These assemblies not only keep the drives still, they also keep them firmly seated in the backplanes. Over the past several months we have tested different models of drives in the new drive bay assemblies and we have seen a dramatic improvement in overall system performance along with lower drive failure rates.

• Upgraded motherboard. We now use the Supermicro MBD-X9SCL-F motherboard which replaces the previous model. The new motherboard adds a host of advanced processing features from Intel, as well as upgrades the PCIe slots to double throughput. Note that while our currently specified SATA cards do not take advantage of this increased throughput, it’s nice to know we can use it in the future.
• More motherboard choices. We added standoffs to the chassis to provide better support for Micro ATX motherboards while still supporting the Standard ATX form factor. Specifically the new standoffs support the outer edge of the Micro ATX boards.
• CPU. We upgraded the CPU to a 2nd generation Intel Core i3-2100 processor to replace the end of lifed (EOL) i3-540 model. This also gets us a little bump in clock speed (3.06 to 3.1 GHz), lower power usage (65 versus 73 watts), and more supported RAM (32GB up from 16GB).
• Memory. We changed memory suppliers, so now the memory is certified by Supermicro.
• Boot drive options. With Storage Pod 3.0, boot drives can now be 2.5” or 3.5” and we allow a second 2.5” drive to be attached for use in a redundant RAID1 boot volume. Boot-up drives can also be traditional HD or SSD drives. Backblaze switched to 2.5” boot drives because they are less expensive and are more reliable, but we didn’t want to eliminate support for 3.5” drives in case anyone needs a higher capacity 3.5” drive.
• Backplanes. While we continue to use the same backplanes (Sil3726 chipset) as with Pod 2.0, there is another backplane based on the newer Silicon Image Sil3826 chipset that can be used. If you do use the Sil3826 based backplanes, you’ll notice that boot up can take a long time due to a large number of time-out/retry errors during the boot process. Eventually the boot up process will succeed. To fix this, you can use these instructions to update the backplane driver in your Linux kernel so you can use the Sil3826 based backplanes.
• SATA cables. We replaced our SATA cable vendor with Nippon Labs. If you decide to use another vendor, look for cables that are SATA II or SATA III compliant and test them extensively. While any SATA II or SATA III cable should work we have found quality control problems with a number of vendors. In all cases it was the connectors, not the cables, which were defective.
• Metal standoffs in the chassis. We replaced the plastic standoffs with metal components that can be manufactured as part of the chassis to reduce the cost and assembly time.
• Improved airflow. The vent design was improved to increase airflow through the pod. We’ve never really had a problem with heat in the pods, and we’d like to keep it that way.
• Chassis rivets. We replaced many of the screws with rivets. This simplifies the manufacturing process and saves times during the assembly process. Note, if you end up buying a case from Protocase (more on them later), they continue to use screws versus rivets. The two manufacturing processes produce the same basic chassis regardless.
• Costs Less. For Storage Pod 2.0, the price for the components without drives was $1,984.00. For Pod 3.0 the price is $1,942.59, or $37.41 less – or about a 1.9% decrease in the cost (see Appendix A for a parts breakdown). The main component in the total cost will be the hard drives. The lingering effects from the Thailand drive crisis and consolidation in the drive industry have meant that even today hard drive prices are higher than they were when Pod 2.0 was introduced back in July of 2011 but here’s one way you can save a little on the price of hard drives.

Lessons Learned
Backblaze currently has over 450 Storage Pods deployed and manages nearly 50 petabytes of data. There are also many Storage Pods being used by organizations around the globe. Along the way we’ve learned a few things:

• Firmware revisions matter. Watch out, manufacturers update hardware and upgrade firmware without changing their model number. These updates are intended to fix bugs but in the process new bugs can be introduced. Read the release notes carefully and downgrade the firmware to the version you’ve tested whenever possible. When updates are unavoidable, test them thoroughly before deploying them.
• Let your vendors do the testing. Components like memory, PCIe cards and hard drives are modular and should all play well together. Unfortunately, the specs that allow for this interoperability (PCIe, SATA, DDR3, etc) are as complicated as are the components themselves. Because of this, use ‘certified’ components whenever possible. This will minimize problems and avoid finger pointing between vendors if problems do arise.
• Don’t make random changes to our design. It might be tempting to try a build a pod out of the spare parts lying around your office but don’t do it. The components specified in the parts list in Appendix A are known to work well together. We believe in iteration and experimentation but don’t reinvent the wheel unless you have to.
• There is more to power than just Watts. ATX power supplies deliver power at several voltages or ‘rails’ (12V, 5V, 3.3V, etc). Each vendor imposes unique limits on the amount of power you can draw off of each rail and unused power on one rail cannot be used on another. In particular, most high end power supplies are designed to deliver most of their power on the 12V rail because that is what high end gamer PCs use. Unfortunately, hard drives draw a lot of power off the 5V rail and can easily overwhelm a high wattage power supply. You will hit serious problems if power requirements for each component are not met so be careful if you don’t use the power supplies we recommend.
• Keep it simple. For hard drives, SATA cards, SATA cables, backplanes, etc. you should use the same vendor, part number and/or model number as much as possible. By keeping things simple you reduce the number of variables that need to be considered if things go wrong. If you do mix components do it intentionally and for a good reason like comparing the performance of 3 different hard drives. And when you do this, make sure you’ve set things up in a way that allows you to draw clear conclusions. For example: with hard drives, if you want to compare the performance of 3 different models you should arrange them so that each RAID array is homogeneous. You should also take care to make sure each array is spread across all backplanes and SATA cards so that you don’t have IO hotspots which could taint your results.
• Things change. Just when you get comfortable with a part, it will be discontinued or upgraded. We buy in quantity, we buy spares, and we have substitutes ready to go at any time. We also look for parts that have long-term support policies. We realize you may not be able to do these things, so be prepared when you upgrade one component that something may break.

The Uses and Users of a Storage Pod
In general there are three types of storage:

1. Transactional storage that provides real time or near real time access to data.
2. Bulk storage which stores a large amount of data yet provides access to that data within seconds to minutes.
3. Archive storage which keeps all of your data and often requires hours to days to access the data you need.

All are important. Our Backblaze Storage Pods were designed, built and implemented to economically hold large amounts of data yet provide access to that data in seconds to minutes, thus they are purpose-built for bulk storage. The economics of using a Backblaze Storage Pod for storage have driven many organizations and people to build and utilize Storage Pods inspired by Backblaze. This community has also built upon the Backblaze design and specifications to build Storage Pods for all types of storage needs. Here are a few examples:

• GINA, The Geographic Information Network of Alaska stores geospatial information.
• Vanderbilt University Institute of Image Science stores MRI scanner data for their research partners.
• Crispin Porter + Bogusky create ads for companies like Old Navy, Best Buy, Coke Zero and others, they archive their media campaigns on a Storage Pod.
• Netflix created their Open Connect Appliances, inspired by Backblaze Storage Pods, to store videos closer to their customers.
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Heritage Auctions, the University of New Mexico and many more.

Storage Pod Economics
When we announced Storage Pod 2.0 in July of 2011, the price dropped by 15% and we doubled the amount of storage versus Storage Pod 1.0. So with Storage Pod 3.0, this should be the section where we would say something like “as hard drive prices have dropped, the economics have continued to improve.” We would say that, except that the Thailand drive crisis which began in October of 2011 raised hard drive prices dramatically. That event, and perhaps the continuing consolidation of hard drive manufacturers, has meant that hard drives prices have yet to return to their July 2011 levels. For example, the hard drive we specified in the Storage Pod 2.0 blog post was listed at $120 (Hitachi 3TB 5400 HDSS5C3030ALA630). To purchase that same drive today you would pay $199 with very limited availability. To be fair there are other drives available that we use, but even the least expensive drive is $125 and that’s an external USB drive that must be ‘shucked’ before it can be used. With the increase in drive prices and decrease in availability, we have validated a variety of drives that work in Backblaze Storage Pods. Here is a list of the drives we have tested and currently use:

4 TB drives
• Hitachi – HDS5C4040ALE630 (Just starting to use these, but they look good.)

3 TB drives
• Hitachi- HDS5C3030ALA630 (low power)
• Hitachi – HDS723030ALA640 (high power)
• Western Digital – WDC WD30EFRX‑68AX9N0 (RED)
• Seagate – ST3000DM001‑9YN166 (slightly higher failure rate)

Another thing we expected to happen was wide availability of 4 TB drives with the subsequent price drop. Only recently have we been able to get a reliable supply of 4 TB drives and prices are starting to drop. While we have built and deployed 180 TB Storage Pods (forty-five 4 TB drives) and we expect to move to exclusively building 180 TB Storage Pods in the near future, the cost per TB for 3 TB systems versus is 4 TB systems is nearly the same.

Storage Costs
The table below compares the total cost of different Backblaze Storage Pod configurations.

Description	Pod 2.0	Pod 3.0	Pod 3.0
Drive size	3 TB	3 TB	4 TB
Our cost per drive	$120	$125	$195
Number of drives	45	45	45
Chassis cost	$1,984.00	$1,942.59	$1,942.59
Drive cost	$5,400.00	$5,625.00	$8,775.00
Total cost	$7,384.00	$7,567.59	$10,717.59
Total size in TB	135	135	180
Cost per TB	$54.70	$56.06	$59.54
Cost per GB	$0.0547	$0.0561	$0.0595

While it looks like the cost of a 4TB drive system is more expensive, when you factor in rack space, electricity, installation labor, etc. the long term cost for Backblaze leans towards using 4 TB drives. Our monthly cost for a full rack of Storage Pods with 3 TB drives is $0.63 per TB, while a full rack of Storage Pods with 4 TB drives is $0.47 per TB. When you factor all the costs together, it takes about 5 months for us to recover the extra cost encountered when building 4 TB based Storage Pods.

Building Your Own Storage Pod
Since Backblaze has given away the design, you can build your own Storage Pod. You’ll want to start with the parts list in Appendix A. From there feel free to change out some of the components, redesign the case, or completely change out the design. It’s up to you, but pay attention to the “lessons learned” noted earlier. To help you out, here’s a nice screen shot assembly walk-through from Protocase you can review and here’s a Storage Pod assembly overview (PDF-1.5MB) that you can download. You may also find some fellow Pod Builders by visiting the openstoragepod.org web site for information on their efforts to develop “affordable & energy-efficient high-capacity storage servers, built from commodity components”.

One thing to know is since we don’t sell the Storage Pods and don’t make money off any ancillary services, we don’t provide support or a warranty for people who build their own. To all of those builders who take up the challenge, we’d love to hear from you and welcome any insights you provide about the experience.

Buying a Storage Pod
If you are interested in buying a Storage Pod or having one built for you we recommend you talk to the folks at Protocase. They have built hundreds of Storage Pods. They can also help you with design changes for a reasonable fee. Also, their 45 Drives wiki site contains useful technical information about their Backblaze inspired Storage Pods.

As noted earlier Protocase continues to use screws versus rivets in the assembly process of their Storage Pods. From a functional point-of-view you will notice no difference in the finished product.

Another thing to know about Protocase is that they do not include hard drives with their Storage Pods. Protocase does test each Storage Pod they build with drives before they ship the unit to you, but it’s up to you to buy and install the hard drives. This is pretty easy to do, but be forewarned; sometimes buying 45 hard drives at Costco can be an issue.

Thanks for All the Fish
Thank you to everyone that has helped with ideas for how to improve the Storage Pods and to those who have helped spread the word on the reality of inexpensive big data storage. We welcome your continued feedback and support. Enjoy the design!

Appendix A – Price List:

The prices listed below are what we pay for the parts. To obtain these prices we do purchase then in quantity.

Our first Restory is actually two stories. Each lovingly crafted and delivered to Backblaze. And you thought online backup couldn’t be romantic…

A One Way Street

“ I think I should take this time to just tell you what our relationship is: a one-way street.

Honestly, I don’t think about you at all. You just go and go – constantly running behind whatever I do, and whatever files I create – and I really don’t pay attention in the least.

What’s even worse is that you’re whom I go to first when there’s a problem. I take advantage of the fact that you’re always looking after me. I never even acknowledge you’re around until I lose something – then you’re my only hope. You would think after saving me so many times, I would show more gratitude. The truth is, I kind of like what we have going. You do all the work of following me around and making copies of what I leave behind, and I’ll forget about you until I need you. Deal? Deal. ”

— Aaron

I Couldn’t Ask for a Better Partner

“ We met on a dark and stormy night. I was scared. She was not. She had it all. Tons of reliable storage for all my back up needs. She had the confidence, the stamina, and the strength to take all my fears away! The storm raged on. The power kept going out. I knew then that I needed a solution to my back up issues. No therapist could help me. I had to jump in with both feet. I took the plunge and signed up for Backblaze.

Now, 4 months later, I sleep at night knowing she is taking care of my back up needs without any effort on my part. I feel safe and protected. And it just happens. After that initial uncertainty I now love her simplicity, her total competence and loyalty to my data, keeping it secure and safe so I can rock my MacBook without reservation! I know now that every song I download, every video and picture I capture is safe and I will never lose anything, ever again!

I couldn’t ask for a better partner. I am secure in my relationship with her and now I have the confidence to forge ahead with my files, my music, my pictures. All I need to do is just keep on keepin-on and she does the rest. ”

— Michael

Giving the gift of Backblaze to back up your Valentine’s photos, videos, music and more probably isn’t the most romantic present you can give – we understand. But remember, Backblaze will silently and reliably back up your Valentine’s files long after the chocolates have been eaten and the flowers have died. Such is the calling of the strong silent type.

You’ve been waiting patiently and it’s almost here, but we just couldn’t wait any longer to tell you, so here’s a sneak peek at Backblaze Mobile for iPhone. That’s right, in just a few short weeks, you’ll be able to access, download and share the files you have backed up with Backblaze using your iPhone. Simple, straight-forward, cool and free with Backblaze online backup for your Mac or Windows system.

Here’s a peek at what you can do…

Access	Download	Experience	Share
(click on any picture above to see it in full size)

If you are already using Backblaze online backup to automatically and continuously back up the files on your Mac or Windows system you are almost ready to go. Soon you will be able to download Backblaze Mobile for iPhone from the App Store. Sign up here if you want to be notified by email when Backblaze Mobile is available.

Once the Backblaze Mobile app is installed on your iPhone, anywhere that your iPhone is connected to the Internet you can access your backed up files. Simply sign in with the email address and password that you created when you installed Backblaze on your Windows or Mac system. Your photos, music, documents, and everything else you have stored with Backblaze will be at your fingertips…

How it Works

Access: After signing in, you’ll see a list of all the computers (Windows and/or Macs) you are backing up with Backblaze online backup. Select one of these computers. Next you’ll see all the drives for that system that Backblaze currently has backed up. This can include multiple internal as well as connected external USB, Firewire and Thunderbolt drives.

Download: The folders and files are organized just like those on your computer, so the files you want are easy to find. Once you’ve located your file it can be downloaded to the iPhone. Remember, the current the file size limit for a single file is 30 MB. You can download as many files as you want and you can see a list of your recently downloaded files by selecting the “downloads” button.

Experience: Once the file is downloaded you can see and/or hear the file. Viewing a PDF, listening to a MP3, or previewing a Microsoft Word doc are all possible. You’ll be able to see and/or hear all the file types your iPhone knows how to present.

Share: Once you’re sure you have the right file you can share it. The options you get depend on the type of file, for example, if the file is an MP3, you may not see the “print” option, but it will be present for a JPG or GIF file.

Think of what you can do with Backblaze Mobile for iPhone

Your Mac is at home, 2,000 mile away, turned off. You want to show off the photos of your cat Fluffy to your friends and family. You sign in to your account with Backblaze Mobile and within minutes everyone at the party is experiencing Fluffy. While you’re at it, you post a couple of photos of Fluffy to Facebook. Fluffy would be proud.

You are turning in the forms for your mortgage application, but you forgot to print one of the forms you completed last night. It’s on your PC. You take out your iPhone, sign in to your account with Backblaze mobile and find the file. You print off the file from your iPhone using Air Print and turn in your completed paperwork.

Your laptop was stolen at the airport. You have a presentation in two hours. Backblaze Mobile to the rescue. You sign in to your account with Backblaze Mobile, download the presentation and email it to your host, problem solved. Now if only Backblaze could help you get your laptop back – wait we can do that too.

Questions and Answers

Q: What files can I get access to through Backblaze Mobile?
A: You can access the files that are securely backed up and stored by Backblaze from your Mac or Windows system.

Q: Can Backblaze Mobile for iPhone access my Windows files?
A: Yes, you can access the files that are backed up from both Windows and Mac computers.

Q: What kind of iPhone and which version of iOS do I need?
A: The app will run on all iPhones running iOS 5.0 and higher.

Q: Does the app work on iPads?
A: The current app works in “pixel doubling” mode; a native iPad app is coming soon.

Q: What about the iPod Touch?
A: Yes, as long it is running iOS 5.0 or higher.

Q: Can I download and view a video file?
A: Yes, but the current size for any individual file is 30 MB.

Q: Can I have multiple mobile devices access a single Backblaze account?
A: Yes. Simply sign in from each device using your standard Backblaze credentials.

Q: Can I have one mobile device access multiple Backblaze accounts?
A: Yes. Simply sign in to each account using your standard Backblaze credentials.

Q: Does the app back up my iPhone too?
A: Not at this time, but if you sync your iPhone and its contents to iTunes on your computer and then back up that computer using Backblaze, your data is backed up and available for Backblaze Mobile to access.

Q: How secure is the connection between Backblaze and the iPhone?
A: All communication, between the iPhone and the Backblaze datacenter where your data is stored, occurs over an HTTPS (encrypted) connection.

Q: Is my password stored on the iPhone?
A: You decide. In the Backblaze Mobile settings, you can choose your login to be in “convenience” mode or “secure” mode. In convenience mode, your Backblaze account password is stored in the Apple Key chain and protected by the password you have on the iPhone. In secure mode, the Backblaze password is not stored and must be entered each time you sign in to Backblaze using Backblaze Mobile. In either case, you should always have access to your iPhone protected with a password.

Q: How secure are my downloaded files on my iPhone?
A: Files downloaded by Backblaze Mobile are stored encrypted in the Backblaze domain space on the iPhone.

Q: Can I change my Backblaze account settings such as my password with Backblaze Mobile?
A: Not at this time, but you can use a browser on your iPhone or any other device to access your Backblaze account and make changes as desired.

Q: If I have set an additional Passphrase on my Backblaze account, can I use Backblaze Mobile?
A: Not at this time. Currently only accounts with the standard account name and password will work with Backblaze Mobile.

Thank you for patiently waiting for the Backblaze Mobile for iPhone app. The wait is almost over.
 

For all our talk about online backup, restoring data is what Backblaze is all about!

“Backblaze saved the day for me–not once, but twice in less than 6 months. My computer did one of those spectacular crashes where it seems most of its insides get replaced and I needed my BB restore files. Five months later both my new hard drive and my external hard drive died and I needed those BB restore files again…” —Marla, a Backblaze Customer.

“It works! My iMac crashed and I had to purchase a new one. All of my digital negatives, jpegs and documents were restored from Backblaze and in no time at all, I was back in business. I have more confidence in Backblaze than I do in my external hard drive backup…” —Kathy, a Backblaze Customer

2.5 Billion Memories Restored

Backblaze recently passed the 2.5 Billion mark for the number of files our customers have restored. We say files, but our customers think of them as graduation photos, videos of their children, music, financial records, genealogy data, scrapbooking designs, etc. That’s a lot of digital memories that have been returned home safe and sound to folks like Kathy and Marla. That’s nice.

Can’t quite comprehend what 2.5 Billion looks like? If each file were an 8×10 photo, printed out they would cover nearly 32,000 acres or 12,900 hectares for folks outside the US and Canada. In either case, that’s enough photos to cover the entire city of San Francisco or all of Walt Disney World in Florida, each of which is, coincidentally, the same size; 30,080 acres.

More Fun Backblaze Restore Facts

• Users request more restores on Monday versus any other day.
• In December 2012, we restored 280 TB of data
• On average we restore the most files on the 5th of each month
• On average we restore the fewest files on the 22nd of each month
• The number of files being restored per user increased nearly 70% from December 2011 to December 2012
• We estimate that we will restore our 5 billionth file in January 2014—stay tuned…

Big Gets Even BIGGER

We’ve doubled the size of our USB Flash Drive restore option from 32 GB to 64 GB, and we’ve tripled the size of our USB Hard Drive restore option from 1 TB to 3 TB. Even better, we didn’t raise prices.

So you can get a 64 GB USB Flash Drive restore for $99 (USD) or you can get up to a 3 TB USB External Hard Drive restore for $189 (USD). These prices include preparation and shipping anywhere in the world. We’ve sent restores to Singapore, Romania, Japan, and many other places all with free shipping. Of course you can always securely download your restore for free as a ZIP file over the Internet like 99% of our users requesting a restore, but just in case, we’ve made the USB restores bigger.

Things to Know About USB Restores

• The 64 GB USB Flash Drive will hold about 60 GB of data after formatting, so if you have more than 60 GB of data to restore, you’ll to need buy 2 or more USB Flash Drives.
• If you purchase an USB External Hard Drive restore, we will ship you a drive that will accommodate your data, up to about 3 TB in size. For example, if you are restoring 1.1 TB of data we could ship you a 1.5 TB drive. The price will be $189 no matter what size drive we send.
• One more thing, if you order a USB Flash Drive or USB Hard Drive restore, you get to keep the drive we send you—enjoy.

So if your cat knocks water on your laptop or you’ve deleted the playlist for your wedding, Backblaze can be there to help you out. And if you’re one of our many customers who has done a restore with Backblaze tell us your story, we’d like to hear it. Just email us at:

Thanks.

Bringing with her a Masters of Science degree from MIT and a handful of patents, Monika joins Backblaze as a Software Engineer. She’ll initially work on the server side of our service and she’s already busy checking in new code. Welcome Monika.

How did you get into computers?
I took a Basic language course in high school and I thought it was more fun than some of my other classes.

What’s your favorite language to code in?
I have coded in many languages and it’s hard to pick out one favorite language. All languages come with some baggage and can be used incorrectly. My focus is to develop software that is simple and elegant.

How do you currently backup your photos, music, data, etc. on your home computer?
I upload my photos to flickr and upload some of my music and documents to dropbox but sadly till I became familiar with Backblaze, I didn’t back up all my data.

What attracted you to Backblaze?
People sometimes downplay the importance of file backup yet I know of so many people who have lost of thousands of photos and documents that were important to them. As we’re becoming “digitized” we need to make sure that we don’t lose this data because of a faulty drive or natural disaster. I want to make it easy for people to safeguard data that matters to them.

Where are you originally from?
I consider myself a citizen of the world. But I have been in California for the last 15 years of my life and I love it here.

Favorite place you’ve traveled?
Paris is still my favorite city. I lived there for one year and I still consider it the most beautiful place in the world.

If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do?
I would devote all my time to volunteering, especially working with kids.

Back in November our Drive Farming Brigade was asked to farm hard drives for us over the Thanksgiving holiday. Hundreds of drives showed up and we dutifully sent them to our warehouse. They joined our drive stockpile and patiently waited for their chance to reach their hard drive destiny and be part of a Backblaze Storage Pod. Is there any greater honor for a hard drive than to be part of a Backblaze Storage Pod, backing up our customers’ data?  We think not!

Now it their turn for these farmed drives to be installed in Storage Pods. To honor our intrepid drive farmers, we decided to “tag” drives to their farmer. These photos, courtesy of our Operations Team, are from the first batch of farmed drives, 5 each from Olivier, Jeannine, David and the rest. Once installed, they will undergo rigorous testing to make sure they are ready for the task at hand – safely backing up photos, videos, documents and more for thousands of customers until such time as that data is needed.

So thank you drive farmers in your efforts to help Backblaze deliver truly unlimited online data backup. While everyone else is raising prices we continue to be just $5 a month and we’d like to keep it that way. Thanks again!