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. For all our talk about online backup, restoring data is what Backblaze is all about! “Backblaze saved… Continue reading Data Restores: More, More, and Even More!
Software Engineer: Monika
Bringing with her a master’s 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… Continue reading Software Engineer: Monika
Honoring Our Drive Farmers
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… Continue reading Honoring Our Drive Farmers
Welcome Ric, Data Center Guy Extraordinaire
The assembly of our kick butt Operations team continues with the addition of Ric. Keeping 40+ petabytes of customer data safe and happy takes talent and we went all the way to Sacramento to find Ric. Here’s his story. Where are you originally from? It may sound a little morbid, but whenever I’m asked this… Continue reading Welcome Ric, Data Center Guy Extraordinaire
Cats, Computers, and Calamity
Cats can be so darn cute, and popular. Don’t take my word for it, there are thousands and thousands of cat videos on YouTube with millions and millions of views. I would guess if you added up all the “cat views” they’d easily surpass Bieber and PSY. Please don’t spend your time figuring out if… Continue reading Cats, Computers, and Calamity
We’re Still Here!
Well folks, we made it! It turns out we skirted another “world-ending” event. Even though Gangnam Style did hit 1,000,000,000 views on 12/21/2012, the world did not end as was expected. (Sure, it wasn’t a real prediction, but we got a kick out of it.) As a way of celebrating the continuance of this fine… Continue reading We’re Still Here!
Mac OS X 10.4 – Tiger End of Life
What is happening? Backblaze has made the tough decision to stop supporting Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. As of February 1, 2013, Backblaze will no longer run on Mac computers running OSX 10.4 Tiger. Don’t worry though; we won’t let you go that easy. Backblaze is committed to providing unlimited online backup to all of… Continue reading Mac OS X 10.4 – Tiger End of Life
If the World Doesn’t End December 21st…
It’s good to have a backup plan. If the Mayans are to be believed, their calendar is ending this year on December 21, 2012 and the world is ending with it. There’s been some previous end of the world speculation before; but this one has Mayan science on its side! Plus Nostradamus also predicted the… Continue reading If the World Doesn’t End December 21st…
Crowdsourcing Hard Drives
It was 12:10 a.m. on Black Friday. Dave sat clicking the refresh button on his browser; waiting for the page to reveal Costco’s Black Friday deal… Earlier in the day, Dave had signed up to be a drive farmer for Backblaze—a Black Friday drive farmer. He joined about 50 others who signed up to buy… Continue reading Crowdsourcing Hard Drives
Wanted: Black Friday Drive Farmers
Hard drive prices shot up due to the flooding in Thailand, and still haven’t returned to “pre-flood” levels. Since we are determined to keep our commitment to unlimited online backup, we’re constantly looking for good deals on drives. We just found out that Costco will have a fantastic deal on hard drives this weekend. The… Continue reading Wanted: Black Friday Drive Farmers
Thank You for Believing in Us!
With the thanking season fast approaching, we wanted to take a moment and give thanks to all of our loyal fans, evangelists, customers, blog readers, employees, and everyone else that has helped us along the way! Backblaze is now more than five years old, and we couldn’t have done it without all of you. When… Continue reading Thank You for Believing in Us!
You’ve Lost Data Without a Backup… Now What?
With the recovery from Hurricane Sandy just now starting, the full scope of what has been lost is coming in to view. One of the many challenges you may come across might be while trying to recover the data on your damaged or destroyed laptop or desktop computer. If you are a Backblaze customer and… Continue reading You’ve Lost Data Without a Backup… Now What?
Hurricane Sandy and Data Loss Assistance
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 would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the people affected by Hurricane Sandy. We hope… Continue reading Hurricane Sandy and Data Loss Assistance
10 Spooky Data Loss Stories
Recently Yev, our resident keeper of the meme, asked our community to tell us their scariest stories on data loss. From the avalanche of bone chilling stories we picked 10 we thought would tingle your spine without scaring you breathless. Some folks had online backup, others did not, but all are scary. You’ve been warned,… Continue reading 10 Spooky Data Loss Stories
Backblaze Supports Windows 8
Over the last few months, over 500 customers have been using Backblaze online backup on their Windows 8 laptops and desktops. Their photos, videos, music, documents, spreadsheets, and more were automatically and continuously backed up by Backblaze. And when needed, those intrepid Windows 8 users were able to recover their files and folders from Backblaze.… Continue reading Backblaze Supports Windows 8
Backblaze Release 2.1
Backblaze has made a new release available. Below are the enhancements in this release: Release Date: 10/12/12 Version: 2.1 Auto-Update: None Windows Fixed downloader to support really unusual Japanese characters in computer names Changed text in a Notification Dialog from “More Options…” to “Settings….” Mac Made “Backblaze Flame” icon “Retina” resolution on retina displays Adapted… Continue reading Backblaze Release 2.1
Congratulations, Jake and Stefanie!
Congratulations to Stefanie and Jake on their marriage! When our online backup service was founded, we didn’t think that our company would ever be involved in a love connection, but here we are! This isn’t the first time we’ve been “involved” in a wedding, but this story is pretty special. Jake and Stefanie were married… Continue reading Congratulations, Jake and Stefanie!
Farming Hard Drives: How Backblaze Weathered the Thailand Drive Crisis
The rain started in August and by mid-October 2011, violent floods in Thailand had damaged the factories that helped produce nearly half of the world’s hard drives. As an online backup company, Backblaze fills more than 50TB of new drives every day. To survive this crisis without raising prices or compromising service, Backblaze deployed every… Continue reading Farming Hard Drives: How Backblaze Weathered the Thailand Drive Crisis