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2017 has been a busy year for Backblaze. We\u2019ve reached a total of over 400 petabytes<\/a> of data stored for our customers \u2014 that\u2019s a lot!<\/a>, released a major upgrade to our backup product \u2014 Backblaze Cloud Backup 5.0<\/a>, added Groups<\/a> to our consumer and business backup<\/a> products, further enhanced account security<\/a>, and welcomed a whole lot of new customers<\/a> to Backblaze.<\/p>\n For all of our new users (and maybe some of you more experienced ones, too), we’d like to share some power tips that will help you get the most out of Backblaze Backup for home<\/a> and business<\/a>.<\/p>\n Include Directly-Attached External Drives in Your Backup<\/p>\n Backblaze can back up external drives<\/a> attached via USB, Thunderbolt, or Firewire.<\/p>\n Back Up Virtual Machines Installed on Your Computer<\/p>\n Virtual machines, such as those created by Parallels, VMware Fusion, VirtualBox, Hyper-V, or other programs, can be backed up with Backblaze<\/a>.<\/p>\n You Can Back Up Your Mobile Phone to Backblaze<\/p>\n Gain extra peace-of-mind by backing up your iPhone or Android phone<\/a> to your computer and including that in your computer backup.<\/p>\n Bring on Your Big Files<\/p>\n By default, Backblaze has no restrictions on the size of the files<\/a> you are backing up, even that large high school reunion video you want to be sure to keep.<\/p>\n Rescan Your Hard Drive<\/a> to Check for Changes<\/p>\n Backblaze works quietly and continuously in the background to keep you backed up, but you can ask Backblaze to immediately check whether anything needs backing up by holding down the Alt key and clicking on the Restore Options<\/em> button<\/a> in the Backblaze client.<\/p>\n You Can Share Files You’ve Backed Up<\/p>\n You can share files<\/a> with anyone directly from your Backblaze account.<\/p>\n Select and Restore Individual Files<\/p>\n You can restore a single file<\/a> without zipping it using the Backblaze web interface.<\/p>\n View Previews of Photos You’ve Backed Up<\/p>\n On the restore page you can click on each individual file that’s backed up, and if it\u2019s an image (jpg, png, img, tiff, or gif), you\u2019ll see a preview of that file<\/a>.<\/p>\n Receive Your Restores from Backblaze by Mail<\/p>\n You have a choice of how to receive your data<\/a> from Backblaze. You can download individual files, download a ZIP of the files you choose, or request that your data be shipped to you anywhere in the world via FedEx.<\/p>\n Put Your Account on Hold for Six Months<\/p>\n As long as your account is current, all the data you\u2019ve backed up is maintained for up to six months<\/a> if you\u2019re traveling or not using your computer, and don\u2019t connect to our servers. (For active accounts, data is maintained up to 30 days.)<\/p>\n Groups Make Managing Business or Family Members Easy<\/p>\n For businesses<\/a>, families<\/a>, or organizations, our Groups feature makes it easy to manage billing, group membership, and individual user access to files and accounts \u2014 all at no incremental charge.<\/p>\n You Can Browse and Restore Previous Versions<\/a> of a File<\/p>\n Visit the View\/Restore Files<\/a> page to go back in time to earlier or deleted versions of your files.<\/p>\n Mass Deploy Backblaze Remotely to Many Computers<\/p>\n Companies, organizations, schools, non-profits, and others can deploy Backblaze computer backup remotely across all their computers without any end-user interaction.<\/p>\n Move Your Account and Preserve Backups on a New or Restored Computer<\/p>\n You can move your Backblaze account to a new or restored computer with the same data — and preserve the backups you have already completed — using the Inherit Backup State<\/a> feature.<\/p>\n Reinstall Backblaze under a Different Account<\/p>\n Backblaze remembers the account information when it is uninstalled and reinstalled. To install Backblaze under a different account, hold down the ALT key and click the Install Now<\/em> button<\/a>.<\/p>\n Protect Your Account with Two-Factor Verification<\/p>\n You can (and should) protect your Backblaze account with two-factor verification<\/a>. You can use backup codes and SMS verification in case you lose access to your smartphone and the authentication app. Sign in to your account<\/a> to set that up.<\/p>\n Add Additional Security to Your Data<\/p>\n All transmissions of your data between your system and our servers is encrypted<\/a>. For extra account security, you can add an optional private encryption key<\/a> (PEK) to the data on our servers. Just be sure to remember your encryption key because it\u2019s required to restore your data.<\/p>\n Schedule Your Backups for Off Hours<\/p>\n Let Backblaze back up your computer while you’re not using it. Use the Schedule<\/em> option under Settings<\/em> to set the backup time for when you’re away from your computer. You set both the Start<\/em> time and the End<\/em> time for backing up.<\/p>\n How Fast is your Connection to Backblaze?<\/p>\n You can check the speed and latency of your internet connection between your location and Backblaze\u2019s data centers at https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/cloud-backup\/resources\/speedtest<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fine-Tune Your Upload Speed with Multiple Threads<\/p>\n Our auto-threading feature adjusts Backblaze\u2019s CPU usage to give you the best upload speeds, but for those of you who like to tinker, the Backblaze client on Windows<\/a> and Macintosh<\/a> lets you fine-tune the number of threads our client is using to upload your files to our data centers.<\/p>\n Use the Backblaze Downloader To Get Your Restores Faster<\/p>\n If you are downloading<\/a> a large ZIP restore, we recommend that you use the Backblaze Downloader application for Macintosh<\/a> or Windows<\/a> for maximum speed.<\/p>\n You can find more information on Backblaze Backup (including a free trial<\/a>) on our website<\/a>, and more tips about backing up in our help pages<\/a> and in our Backup Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\nBlazing<\/span> Power Tips for Backblaze Backup<\/h2>\n
Back Up All of Your Valuable Data<\/h3>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nGet the Best Data Transfer Speeds<\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWant to Learn More About Backblaze Backup?<\/h3>\n