About CrashPlan Central
CrashPlan Central is an online subscription service for which you pay an annual fee to store your files in a secure location that we manage for you in our data center. You can back up your files to CrashPlan Central for a 30-day free trial after you activate your CrashPlan account. After the 30 days, you can continue backing up online to CrashPlan Central if purchase one our Unlimited Online Backup plans.
CrashPlan Central takes the least effort to set up as a backup destination and offers a convenient backup solution if you don’t have a lot of data to back up or don’t have other resources you can use as a backup destination. And the 30-day trial period is a great way to get acquainted with CrashPlan while you arrange backup destinations among your friends and colleagues.
CrashPlan Central is for backing up personal data only. Contact us to back up business data with CrashPlan PRO.
Reasons to backup to CrashPlan Central
- You don’t have much to back up.
- You don’t have another computer to use as an offsite backup destination.
- You don’t want to ask anyone to be a backup destination for you.
- You feel uncomfortable asking a friend for backup space, because you can’t offer your computer as backup destination in return.
- You want to be able to restore your backup without having to ask your friend to turn on his computer. CrashPlan Central is always available (24/7). When you need to restore a file, you know CrashPlan Central will be powered on and up-and-running.
- You are uncomfortable about having your files on someone else’s computer, even though your files are encrypted.
- You don’t mind paying a monthly fee for using this secure location and are comfortable with the idea of your files being kept in an underground bank vault in the Midwest.
Things to consider before backing up to CrashPlan Central
- Initial backup can take weeks to complete (depending on the size of your files), leaving your files vulnerable during that time. (CrashPlan Central offers the option to seed your initial for you, for an additional fee.)
- If you lose all your files, it could take a similarly long time to restore them. (CrashPlan Central offers the option to ship your data to you, for an additional fee.)
- Even though your files are encrypted and secure, you may feel uncomfortable having your files “lumped in” with other people’s files.
