Simple backup service Backblaze comes to Macs (invites)

Backblaze is probably the easiest tool out there for backing up your hard drive, and now it’s available for Mac owners.

My editor, Matt Marshall, tried the PC version of Backblaze in September and praised it for being dead simple. I’ve installed the beta test Mac version on my laptop, and I’m sold, too. Unlike most products, what grabs me isn’t how much you can do, but rather how little you have to do.

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There are other backup services out there, such as Mozy and Carbonite, but Backblaze reduces the process to a single step: Installation. Once you’ve installed the product, it works constantly in the background. You don’t even have to select any folders, because the service backs up your entire hard drive, except for unusually large files. It can take a while before your computer is completely backed up, but after that, Backblaze works more quickly because it only uploads new or updated files.

Okay, there’s a second step required eventually — namely, signing up to pay the $5 a month fee. And you can change the settings if you want. But by focusing on a single task, as opposed to richer but more complicated online storage services like Dropbox, the Palo Alto, Calif. startup has really nailed it. Like the vast majority of computer users, I know that I should back up my hard drive, but I’ve always been too lazy. (Plus, most of my crucial files are stored online in Gmail or Google Docs.) Now there’s no excuse.

Backblaze launched a test version of its Mac service yesterday and ran out of spaces by the end of the day. The company says it found a few extra spots this morning, however, so we’ve got 300 invites for VentureBeat readers here. The service is free for 15 days, so check it out.