College of Education Backup System (CrashPlan)

The College of Education backup system utlizes a very user-friendly commercial backup software named CrashPlan. Some features of the system include:

• Real-time backup that saves changes to your files every 10-15 minutes.
• It works for computers located on and off-campus. Off-campus access is very useful for computers that move around alot like laptops.
• You can select what files and folders you want to backup on your computer. You can make changes to what is backed up at any time through an easy to use program that runs on your computer.
• A web interface is available for the system which will allow you to access any file you have backed up. This means as long as you have an internet connection you can access files on your computer from any location in the world. This is useful if you are at a conference on the other side of the country and have forgotten to bring a file located on your computer. If this file is being backed up with the backup system you can use the web interface to download the file to a computer you have access to at your current location.
• Versioning. The backup system will keep copies of old versions of files it has backed up. So if you have made a change to a file and wanted to revert to the version of the file as it was the previous week for example, you can do so.
• You can restore files yourself at any time without the assistance of technical support staff. Restoring files is accomplished through an easy to use point-and-click interface provided by the CrashPlan program installed on your computer.
• Backup data is transmitted and stored encrypted to a centralized server maintained by the College of Education technical support staff. In addition your backup data is redundantly stored at an off-site location. This satisfies the UT Austin requirements for the backup of Category-1 data.

The backup system is available free of charge to current College of Education faculty and staff. The software is only licensed to be installed on UT-owned computers so it cannot be installed on computers that you personally own.

Available CrashPlan Tutorials

• How to Activate CrashPlan on Your Windows Computer
  • When CrashPlan is installed onto your computer it does not automatically start backing up your files. You first must activate the software with your EID account.
• How to Change What Folders Are Backed Up
  • By default CrashPlan will only backup your home folder. For most people this will be sufficient. However you may change what folders are and are not backed up at any time.
• How to Password Protect the CrashPlan Program
  • If you share your computer with someone else you should always password protect the CrashPlan program. If you don't do this, then when the other person logs into the computer and starts the CrashPlan program they will be able to see what files you backed up to the server and restore them to their folder on the computer.