How to Activate CrashPlan on Your Windows Computer

1. First determine if CrashPlan is already installed on your computer. Some Windows computers in the College of Education have been configured to automatically download and install the program. 

Click the Start Menu icon in the lower left hand corner. Then click on the All Programs link and in the menu listing that appears look for the folder named CrashPlan. If you see this folder then the CrashPlan software is already installed on your computer. Proceed to Step 2.

 

Alternatively you can look for the CrashPlan icon in the notification area of your desktop which is in the lower right hand corner to the left of the clock. The CrashPlan icon will look like a gray house as pictured below:

If you see the CrashPlan icon then the CrashPlan software is already installed on your computer. Proceed to Step 2.

 

CrashPlan is not installed?

• If you do not have CrashPlan installed on your computer, stop here and contact LTC technical support for assistance with installing the program.

 

2. Start the CrashPlan program and activate your EID account for use with the backup system.

First click the Start Menu icon in the lower left hand corner. Then click on the All Programs menu item.

 

In the menu listing that appears look for the folder named CrashPlan. Then click the program named CrashPlan.

 

Once the CrashPlan program starts, the "Create your Account" window will appear. Ensure the New Account option is selected and then specify the following information:

• First name: ( Enter your first name here )
• Last name: ( Enter your last name here )
• Username: ( Enter your EID username here )
• Password: ( Enter your EID password here and then enter it again in the field underneath )

Once the information is entered, press the Create Account button.

 

3. Start backing up your computer.

Once your EID is activated in the backup system you will be presented with a window that has a blue box in it titled Welcome to CrashPlan.

Backups of your computer WILL NOT start until you press the Start Backup button. Press the button to begin backing up your computer to the College of Education backup server. Your data will be stored on the College of Education backup server in an encrypted format. In addition your data will be encrypted as it travels across the computer network from your computer to the backup server. Your encrypted backup data will also be redundantly backed up to an off-site location. This meets the UT requirements for the transmission and storage of Category-1 data.

 

4. Depending on how much data is stored on your computer and the speed of your network connection, it may take a day or so for all of your data to be backed up to the server. Once this initial backup is complete, incremental backups will be automatically performed on your computer every 10-15 minutes. The incremental backups only backup the data that has changed on your computer since the last backup occured so these incremental backups will only take a few seconds to a minute to complete and will not be noticible while you are using your computer for your daily work.

• IMPORTANT: Your computer must be connected to the internet for the automated backups to the College of Education backup server to occur. If you are not connected to the internet, the CrashPlan program will pause and resume once you are reconnected to the internet.

 

5. That's it! Your computer should now be activated with the College of Education backup system and backups of your computer data will automatically occur every 10-15 minutes while you are connected to the internet. You can close the CrashPlan program window at any time. The program will continue to run in the background and back up your files. You can also power off or put your computer to sleep at any time. The backup program will automatically resume when your computer is powered back up.

• See the section titled "What Files and Folders are Being Backed Up by the System" below about what exactly is backed up on your computer by default.
• IMPORTANT: If you share your computer with someone else you must password-protect the CrashPlan program. See the section below titled "I share My Computer with Someone Else. Will They be Able to Access my Backed Up Files?"

 

What Files and Folders are Being Backed Up by the System?

By default, CrashPlan will only back up your home folder. This folder contains the files and folders on your desktop, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, and Favorites folders. For most users this will be all of your data since by default Windows programs store user data in one of these folders. If you want to specify additional folders to back up on your computer you can do so at any time from the CrashPlan program.

• For a tutorial on how to add/remove what folders are being backed up by the system click here.

 

I Share My Computer with Someone Else. Will They Be Able to Access My Backed Up Files?

Yes unless you 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. This in turn will allow them to access your data. This becomes even more important when you are backing up multiple computers with the backup system because any of your computers connected to the system will be able to restore files backed up from ANY of your other computers.

• For a tutorial on how to password protect the CrashPlan program click here.