CafeTran

At first I thought that the new laptop was defect. Directly after switching it in for the first time, it reported that it had found 318 updates. I clicked Install and then nothing. For hours. I rebooted although it did say I shouldn't. It didn't boot but started installing one update of one. This again took several hours. Then I had to go to school to enjoy a musical: very well acted indeed. We returned and it looked like the laptop had fall asleep: the power button was flashing. I pressed it and the one of one installation went on. At around 22:00 (I started at 16:00) the laptop booted. After that only five optional fixes. Might as well install them. Waiting, booting. Another 30 minutes or so. Finally the laptop was up to date. Does anyone recognise this?

Getting free Dropbox space: http://lifehacker.com/5796318/the-cheapskates-guide-to-getting-free-dropbox-space

11 free backup solutions, some of them offer incremental backups and cloud backups too: http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2014/08/14/11-free-programs-back-stuff-windows

Oops, sorry, make that 22.2 GB. I have 22.5 GB in my free account.

Back in the day, I recommended it to all my friends, and so got all the free GBs based on that. I also did all the stuff that gets you free GBs, such as using their Auto Photo Uploader thingee (didn't really need it, just switched it on to get the free space).

So now I use CrashPlan PROe instead, but still have my 22.5 GB of free space in Dropbox which I still use for some stuff: like sharing files and screenshots.

How does one get 30 GB of free Dropbox space? ;)

PS: Forgot that there are actually also CrashPlan app for Android | iOS | Windows Phone

re "Sounds good. How do you access them in the CP cloud? Via a browser?"

CrashPlan is also different than Dropbox at in that it is a backup solution, not a syncing solution. You can only access your files in two ways/places:

(1) On your computer (duh), and

(2) via the Restore function of the CrashPlan app.

That is, there is no online interface allowing you to browse your files like Dropbox. but that's OK, because I just use it to backup stuff, not browse it on my various different devices either in a browser or in a Dropbox. If I need to do that, I just use Dropbox ( I still have around 30 GB of free space).

No idea about expandrive.com. Would have to test that.

full-size images:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6802597/Screenshots/CrashPlan-PROe_1.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6802597/Screenshots/CrashPlan-PROe_2.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6802597/Screenshots/CrashPlan-PROe_3.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6802597/Screenshots/CrashPlan-PROe_4.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6802597/Screenshots/CrashPlan-PROe_5.png

>"Can you access each and every file stored in your CP Pro cloud, via an explorer, just as in OneDrive or Dropbox? Or do you have to restore them first to your computer?"

Yes. Anything you backup to the CP Pro cloud, can immediately be accessed on your computer locally. 

Sounds good. How do you access them in the CP cloud? Via a browser?

>Unlike Dropbox, you can backup any folder to the CPP cloud, not just stuff in your dropbox folder. You have very fine-grained control over what you backup. You can also backup the entire contents of all of your external hard drives. You basically get unlimited space.

Wow

>Another cool thing about CP Pro is that you can also use the CP Pro application to backup locally, 

It would be interesting to test this: use ExpanDrive to access free web space you have and assign a drive letter to it. Than use the free plan to backup to this web space. Would that work?

http://www.expandrive.com

(oops, copy/pasted that from Notepad, and forgot that this removes all paragraph marks; will type it in EmEditor next time)

Yes, I think CrashPlan Pro is actually called "CrashPlan Business" on their US website.

I use CrashPlan Pro-e (i.e., CrashPlan Pro, Enterprise), via a reseller in the UK: http://www.ceejay.net

Here's a good comparison of all different versions: http://www.code42.com/business/compare.html

There is a reason I wanted the Pro version rather than Home version but to be honest I can't remember it right now. The only way to get the Pro version if you are in Europe is via a reseller; you can't get the Pro version via the American website.

An added bonus of using the UK version, is that your data is stored on servers in Amsterdam, rather than in the US, which means that you comply with certain data security requirements. Can't say that I remember which these are, or even care, but it is a nice added bonus.

Also, using their servers in Amsterdam rather than in the US means that everything works a lot faster.

"Can you access each and every file stored in your CP Pro cloud, via an explorer, just as in OneDrive or Dropbox? Or do you have to restore them first to your computer?"

Yes. Anything you backup to the CP Pro cloud, can immediately be accessed on your computer locally. Unlike Dropbox, you can backup any folder to the CPP cloud, not just stuff in your dropbox folder. You have very fine-grained control over what you backup. You can also backup the entire contents of all of your external hard drives. You basically get unlimited space.

Another cool thing about CP Pro is that you can also use the CP Pro application to backup locally, meaning, I can for example set my entire Data drive to be backed up to the CP Pro cloud, but also to a specific external hard drive. Double protection, or "redundancy", in backup language.

To restore files, you have to use the CP Pro application, unlike for example Dropbox where you can restore your file manager.

>I don’t really use Dropbox as much as I used to, since moving to CrashPlan Pro

I've been looking at the Code42 site but I cannot find a product called CP Pro. Are you using CP for Business? Anyway, I'll probably don't need that. What I want to do is to set up a procedure to have the new kids laptop backupped. No need to save data in the cloud.

So am I correct to assume that the free product is all I need? CP for home?

On another note: can you access each and every file stored in your CP Pro cloud, via an explorer, just as in OneDrive or Dropbox? Or do you have to restore them first to your computer?

on the first official day of the Summer holiday 

Activated MS Parental Control today, since the self regulation on the first official holiday wasn't to call home about.

PS: the Windows Update test above was done here in the New Forest country side, in my "shoffice", connecting to the house internet via a Devolo powerline adapter:

Which is actually pretty amazing, considering the fact that the office that I am in is in a garage/shed, way at the bottom of the garden, quite a distance from the house. I plug one Devolo in in the house, next to the BT router, and the other one is plugged in here in the office, and somehow these things manage to connect to each other through the ancient electrical wiring of the property!

Hi Hans,

There are basically three easy ways to do this (all three rely on symbolic links):

(1) Junction Link Magic : http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htm

(2) Dropboxifier: https://dropboxifier.codeplex.com

(3) Dropbox Folder Sync addon: http://satyadeepk.in/dropbox-folder-sync/

If you need help just ask. I don’t really use Dropbox as much as I used to, since moving to CrashPlan Pro, but I have used all three of these in the past to sync all kinds of files and folders that are located outside the Dropbox folder.

Just made someone very happy by restoring a Minecraft world from the original hard disk from the deceased Asus (2 years, 6 months!) via a Sitecom case for a 2,5" drive, connected via USB to the new laptop.

I'll have to look for a way to have these worlds saved in the Dropbox, instead of some hidden .minecraft folder.