CrashPlan 10.19.2009

Code 42 Software has updated their Internet-based, peer-to-peer backup program CrashPlan (free) to provide finer-grained control over the pruning of old versions from the backup archive (for more details, see “CrashPlan: Backups Revisited,” 26 February 2007). Previously, with version retention settings, you had to choose to retain all versions forever, or retain only a certain number of recent versions. Users can now choose to retain one version per day for this last week, one version per day for the last 90 days, one version per week for the last year, or one version per month for previous years.

CrashPlan+ ($59.99) customers can now adjust the frequency and version retention settings even further with sliders under the Settings > Backup > Backup Frequency and Versioning Settings, deciding the precise backup frequency and deletion of outdated backups.

The update extends bundle support for Banner Projects (.bnz), Sandvox documents (.svxSite) or files created with OmniGraffle (.graffle). Finally, several bugs have been addressed, including one that prevented the root designation “/” from being interpreted properly, one that prevented deleted files embedded in folders from being properly detected in real-time, and one that prevented files from a local folder from being restored if the recovery was attempted outside the time period CrashPlan was specified to run.

For current CrashPlan users, CrashPlan 10.19.2009 will be automatically downloaded and installed by the program; no additional steps are necessary. CrashPlan is free; CrashPlan+ costs $59.99. Access to the CrashPlan Central backup service costs $54 per year for individuals or $100 per year for a family.