Editor’s note: On March 3, 2022, Backblaze ended the USB flash drive restore option. While we parted ways with USB flash drives, we continue to offer many options for restoring your files—explore ways to recover your data here. Backblaze is increasing the maximum size of our USB hard drive restores to use 4TB external drives.… Continue reading 4TB USB Restore Drives Are Here: Yay!
Year: 2014
The Backblaze of Pizza?
Backblaze and pizza? Two great tastes that taste great together, right? Recently, one of our employees checked out a pizza place near his home called “Blaze Pizza.” The next day, he wrote to the company: “Blaze Pizza” is basically the Backblaze of pizza: They offer one size of pizza, but unlimited toppings for one flat… Continue reading The Backblaze of Pizza?
Marketing Intern: Angelina
Now that Marketing Intern Lisa is heading back to college, we proudly introduce our new Marketing Intern, Angelina. Her hobbies include musical theater, singing, sculpting, and fencing, but it was her love of digital arts that was most intriguing to us here at Backblaze. Where are you from? I currently live in Pittsburg, California. What… Continue reading Marketing Intern: Angelina
Engineering Intern: Eli
Eli is a self-described lover of magic tricks and is now also an Engineering Intern at Backblaze. We gave him a shirt and told him to learn the product ropes from our CTO, Brian, so that he can “abracadabra” and make bugs disappear. What attracted you to Backblaze? I have been a supporter of Backblaze… Continue reading Engineering Intern: Eli
Welcome Chris, Sys Admin & Backup Maniac
Let’s welcome Chris as a Senior Systems Administrator for Backblaze. Born and raised in San Jose, California, Chris joins Backblaze after stints at VMWare, Sunrun, and a couple of other local organizations. Tell us how you back up your photos, music, data, etc. on your home computer. It depends on what the type of file… Continue reading Welcome Chris, Sys Admin & Backup Maniac
The High Cost of IRS Hard Drive Failure
In 2011, Lois Lerner’s hard drive crashed and took some emails with it. Unfortunately for Lerner, she happened to be working as the Director of the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Division. Now there’s a congressional inquiry in to the IRS and at the heart of that investigation is that very same broken hard drive. Bloomberg writes:… Continue reading The High Cost of IRS Hard Drive Failure
Six Billion Files Restored and Counting
Funny thing about providing an online backup service that is currently storing over 100 petabytes of customer data—sometimes people need their data back. In fact, nearly half (46%) of our customers restored one or more of their files in 2013 and that adds up. From when Backblaze first started until the end of May 2014,… Continue reading Six Billion Files Restored and Counting
Today Show: Cryptolocker Continues to Hold Data Hostage
Last October, we wrote a blog post about a new piece of ransomeware called Cryptolocker. At the time, it was a relatively new virus, and was not yet affecting as many people as it is now. As of March, Geek.com reports that Cryptolocker’s “masterminds have raked in somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 million, and… Continue reading Today Show: Cryptolocker Continues to Hold Data Hostage
Seniors Are the Kings of Data Backup
June is Backup Awareness Month and the results from our annual Backup Awareness Survey are in. Say what you want about your supposedly technically-challenged grandparents, but they back up their computers. It’s not even close. Grandpa, in particular, is a backup fiend when compared to the 18 to 44-year-old crowd. He’s more than twice as… Continue reading Seniors Are the Kings of Data Backup
Candace Sails Her Way to Backblaze
Let’s welcome Candace as she joins Backblaze as a Senior Software Engineer, initially assigned to our Mobile Products group. Previously, she had worked with our CTO, Brian, and yet she still decided to join us ;-) What’s your favorite hobby? I love both cooking and sailing. Over the last year I’ve been working my way… Continue reading Candace Sails Her Way to Backblaze
Next Batter: James, Partner Program Manager
James started at Backblaze several months ago as a contractor and recently accepted our invitation to join Backblaze as an employee. We hired him not only for his partner management skills, but because he said he would manage the Backblaze softball team. Now all we need is a Backblaze softball team. Are you from the… Continue reading Next Batter: James, Partner Program Manager
Introducing: Flash Drive Restore Boxes
Editor’s note: On March 3, 2022, Backblaze ended the USB flash drive restore option. While we parted ways with USB flash drives, we continue to offer many options for restoring your files—explore ways to recover your data here. We’re excited to announce that our 128GB USB flash drives will now be shipped in tiny little… Continue reading Introducing: Flash Drive Restore Boxes
Welcome Ariel: Nomad, Couch Surfer
Ariel has a beautiful home in Oregon, yet we lured him to the San Francisco Bay Area to work for Backblaze as our new Purchasing and Inventory Manager. As he gets settled into the Bay Area, Ariel has become somewhat of a nomad, making the couch de jure his latest home. He doesn’t have to… Continue reading Welcome Ariel: Nomad, Couch Surfer
Backblaze Launching Refer-a-Friend
Help Your Friends and Yourself You back up your computer. You go to bed every night, wrap yourself up in a blanket burrito, and think about how peaceful your life is now that you have an online backup; hard drive crashes no longer loom in the back of your mind. Sometimes you think about your… Continue reading Backblaze Launching Refer-a-Friend
Hard Drive Temperature—Does It Matter?
How much does operating temperature affect the failure rates of disk drives? Not much. The unlimited online backup service provided by Backblaze requires a lot of storage. In fact, we recently passed the 100PB mark in our data center. This means we use disk drives. A lot of disk drives. The Backblaze Storage Pod is… Continue reading Hard Drive Temperature—Does It Matter?
Marketing Intern: Lisa
Lisa joins us as a Summer Intern in our Marketing department while on break from her studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. As an intern, she’ll spend a couple of months trying to organize what marketing has spent the last year messing up. Let’s all wish her good luck. What are you studying at… Continue reading Marketing Intern: Lisa
Wanted: Sr. Systems Admin, Web Services
Thank you for your interest, but this position has been filled. Please check out our jobs page for additional great opportunities at Backblaze. Responsibilities: Own Apache, Tomcat, WordPress and Java services used to host static and dynamic web sites. Maintain and expand platforms used to host web services including Dell, Apple, and Supermicro servers plus… Continue reading Wanted: Sr. Systems Admin, Web Services
Release 2.5.1
Release Date: 4/28/2014 Version: 2.5.1 Windows version: 2.5.1.735 Mac version: 2.5.1.742 Normally “dot” releases such as 2.5.1 are about making little improvements that go unnoticed by nearly everyone. For example, in 2.5.1 we sped up the file scanning process on the Mac platform by utilizing BSD layer OSX system calls. We also added .pvm files… Continue reading Release 2.5.1