Crashplan help

[Dobbs2]

Ok I've been backing up multiple computers to Crashplan Central for awhile. The backs ups are easy and I've never had a problem. I have terabytes of data on their servers. I understand if I had the ability to restore these files it would take a long time, but if I had to use the restore function it was absolutely necessary. The one computer I do not have a local backup to is a windows pc. It's about 43gb and well it just had its motherboard, and hard drive replaced. I go to restore a few items thinking I can download everything I have uploaded. It has a 500mb file size limit. I have home videos that are in the gbs. How the heck am I suppose to get these files? When I called about the service before I paid for it. I specifically asked if large files were able to be restored from the web and the Rep assured me I could.

I'm frustrated with this.

Are there any services where this is possible? This is the main reason I needed offsite backup for things like this. I understand file size limitations, but this feature is a must especially if I add my parents computer in the future. I can't force them to back things up locally, but can have applications back up in the background.

Darn you Crashplan I wish I hadn't taken a Reps word and researched myself.

Is there anyway to get this data besides paying $100+ for them to ship a drive?

I'm not necessarily angry, but extremely frustrated.

 

[flynz4]

Ok I've been backing up multiple computers to Crashplan Central for awhile. The backs ups are easy and I've never had a problem. I have terabytes of data on their servers. I understand if I had the ability to restore these files it would take a long time, but if I had to use the restore function it was absolutely necessary. The one computer I do not have a local backup to is a windows pc. It's about 43gb and well it just had its motherboard, and hard drive replaced. I go to restore a few items thinking I can download everything I have uploaded. It has a 500mb file size limit. I have home videos that are in the gbs. How the heck am I suppose to get these files? When I called about the service before I paid for it. I specifically asked if large files were able to be restored from the web and the Rep assured me I could.

I'm frustrated with this.

Are there any services where this is possible? This is the main reason I needed offsite backup for things like this. I understand file size limitations, but this feature is a must especially if I add my parents computer in the future. I can't force them to back things up locally, but can have applications back up in the background.

Darn you Crashplan I wish I hadn't taken a Reps word and researched myself.

Is there anyway to get this data besides paying $100+ for them to ship a drive?

I'm not necessarily angry, but extremely frustrated.

I am a Crashplan user, and like you, I never heard of this restriction. I also have several home movies that are critical and are over 500MB... some up to 1.5 GB.

What I am doing now is running a trial restore of a file that is over 500MB. The restore is running... but I will not know for sure until the backup completes. I will report back with my results.

/Jim

 

[Dobbs2]

Ok thanks. What is weird is the website gives a limit of 250mb files, but the crashplan app in restore mode says 500mb


How did you start the restore of the file over 500mb? Maybe it is user error on my part.

 

[flynz4]

Ok thanks. What is weird is the website gives a limit of 250mb files, but the crashplan app in restore mode says 500mb


How did you start the restore of the file over 500mb? Maybe it is user error on my part.

Update: I just successfully restored a 642.7 MB video file (home camcorder video) successfully... so I am pretty sure that it can be done. I did it through the application... and I see no indication of file size limit in the app.

Here is my environment:

• OS: Mac OSX
• Application: Crashplan+ Family Plan Unlimited
• Encryption: 448b
• Backup destination: Crashplan Centeral
• Restore: Dual level passcode (encrypted password)

I did the following steps:

1. Enter Crashplan application
2. Click Restore Tab
3. Enter secondary password
4. Migrate to the file for the test restore
5. Click checkbox next to the test file
6. Click Restore

I kept the restore paramaters to the default:
Restore: Most Recent
Permissions: Original permissions
Destination: Desktop
Rename any existing files: on

It worked like a champ

/Jim

 

[Dobbs2]

Update: I just successfully restored a 642.7 MB video file (home camcorder video) successfully... so I am pretty sure that it can be done. I did it through the application... and I see no indication of file size limit in the app.

Here is my environment:

• OS: Mac OSX
• Application: Crashplan+ Family Plan Unlimited
• Encryption: 448b
• Backup destination: Crashplan Centeral
• Restore: Dual level passcode (encrypted password)

I did the following steps:

1. Enter Crashplan application
2. Click Restore Tab
3. Enter secondary password
4. Migrate to the file for the test restore
5. Click checkbox next to the test file
6. Click Restore

I kept the restore paramaters to the default:
Restore: Most Recent
Permissions: Original permissions
Destination: Desktop
Rename any existing files: on

It worked like a champ

/Jim

Are you trying to download from Crash Plan Central or just a local backup?

 

[Dobbs2]

From the website it says 250mb in the app on my Windows machine it says 500mb.


I have not needed to use this on my three Macs, just a windows machine. It won't let me restore over that file size.

 

[flynz4]

Are you trying to download from Crash Plan Central or just a local backup?

My trial restore was from Crashplan Central... onto my iMac... all using the Crashplan application.

/Jim

----------

What happens when you try to do a restore from within the Crashplan application? I have never tried doing a web restore before. From your screenshot... it does state that web restore is designed to restore just a few files... not a large restore operation.

I think you need to restore from within the application. That appears to let me restore anything.

/Jim

 

[kapalua12]

[/COLOR]What happens when you try to do a restore from within the Crashplan application? I have never tried doing a web restore before. From your screenshot... it does state that web restore is designed to restore just a few files... not a large restore operation.

I think you need to restore from within the application. That appears to let me restore anything.

/Jim[/QUOTE]

So you should be able to restore your entire iMac internal drive from within the Crash Plan application? What do you do if your OSX drive dies and you need to restore everything to a newly installed drive?

 

[flynz4]

So you should be able to restore your entire iMac internal drive from within the Crash Plan application? What do you do if your OSX drive dies and you need to restore everything to a newly installed drive?

Crashplan typically will be set to protect your data... not your OS and applications. Of course you could do whatever you want... but it would be kind of silly to backup commonly available data.

So the procedure would be:

1. Get your new Mac or have your old one repaired
2. Install OSX if necessary
3. Install Applications
4. Restore all user data from Crashplan

Of course... all of that is only necessary if your local Time Machine backup has been lost along with your machine... which is quite possible in the event of theft and/or fire.

/Jim

 

[Dobbs2]

Alright I figured everything out. I was using iMessage with my father last night. When I told him to go to the crashplan website and download crashplan he signed into the account and tried to do a web restore. I went over to his house today and reinstalled the crash plan app and did a restore from there and everything is fine. User error and not being there in person was the problem not crashplan. Maybe he'll buy an external now. Thanks for the help.

 

[flynz4]

Glad to have helped.

Your post scared me a bit about Crashplan. I am glad that it was a false alarm... because I really think CP+ is the best backup software out there.

/Jim

 

[RyanatCode42]

Restore limit *only* for web

Looks like you got this figured out, but I wanted to spell out our three restore methods and limits on them

1. Desktop restore via CrashPlan application. - No limits

2. Web restore via CrashPlan.com/account - 500 MB per restore limit.

3. Mobile Restore - No set limit.

(The "Restore to your door" is a Desktop restore, though there's a limit of 3.5 TB for your total backup size, because we send you the whole archive on a disk.)

The Desktop restore does not limit the size of the restore or the size of any individual file. You can also restore to any copy of CrashPlan installed under your account, so if you need to restore a large amount of data to a different computer, install a copy and log into your account on that app, and then you can restore to your heart's content.

The web restore is designed as a convenience restore for smaller amounts of files, hence the 500 MB per restore limit. There's no total limit of how much can me restored via web, but if you're restoring multiple GB of files, it's going to be annoying to do a bunch of separate restores. The web restore is only available for your backups at CrashPlan Central.

The Mobile restore doesn't have an arbitrary limit on file sizes, but keep in mind that you're restoring to a limited-resource mobile device, and often over a 3G/4G connection, so you'll want to avoid restoring multi-GB files.

If you have any questions, you can let me know here, or contact our Customer Champion team at crashplan.com/helpdesk

Ryan at Code 42 (makers of CrashPlan)

 

[kapalua12]

Looks like you got this figured out, but I wanted to spell out our three restore methods and limits on them

1. Desktop restore via CrashPlan application. - No limits

2. Web restore via CrashPlan.com/account - 500 MB per restore limit.

3. Mobile Restore - No set limit.

(The "Restore to your door" is a Desktop restore, though there's a limit of 3.5 TB for your total backup size, because we send you the whole archive on a disk.)

The Desktop restore does not limit the size of the restore or the size of any individual file. You can also restore to any copy of CrashPlan installed under your account, so if you need to restore a large amount of data to a different computer, install a copy and log into your account on that app, and then you can restore to your heart's content.

The web restore is designed as a convenience restore for smaller amounts of files, hence the 500 MB per restore limit. There's no total limit of how much can me restored via web, but if you're restoring multiple GB of files, it's going to be annoying to do a bunch of separate restores. The web restore is only available for your backups at CrashPlan Central.

The Mobile restore doesn't have an arbitrary limit on file sizes, but keep in mind that you're restoring to a limited-resource mobile device, and often over a 3G/4G connection, so you'll want to avoid restoring multi-GB files.

If you have any questions, you can let me know here, or contact our Customer Champion team at crashplan.com/helpdesk

Ryan at Code 42 (makers of CrashPlan)

Ryan,
So you are saying that from an individual computer using the CrashPlan Application to restore from the web servers there is no limit to the total GB OR file sizes that we can restore?

Do you recommend backing up the entire hard drive including data or just the data? Wouldn't a total backup of the system drive on an iMac make things easier to restore exactly back to the way the computer was before the disk crash?

Thanks.

 

[RyanatCode42]

Ryan,
So you are saying that from an individual computer using the CrashPlan Application to restore from the web servers there is no limit to the total GB OR file sizes that we can restore?

Yes, no limit to the size of an individual file you can restore, nor the total size of the restore. If you're backing up 3 TB, you could restore 3 TB via one "restore job" of the CrashPlan application. If you had a 20 GB sparse bundle, you could restore that via the Desktop application as well.

Do you recommend backing up the entire hard drive including data or just the data? Wouldn't a total backup of the system drive on an iMac make things easier to restore exactly back to the way the computer was before the disk crash?

Thanks.

Just the data that you've created. The default backup selection is the User folder, since that's where all user-created data is stored by default. While CrashPlan *can* backup system files, since we're not an imaging system, we can't guarantee that restoring all of those files will result in a new system identical to the old.

We recommend reinstalling the OS and all apps manually from their original installers, then using CrashPlan to restore your docs, pictures, etc.

Ryan at Code 42.

 

[kapalua12]

Thank you!