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Any Carbonite users?

JackieD

JackieD

Tug Review Crew
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I have a couple of external hard drives which I have done manual backups (piece by piece) of individual files like pictures, documents, favorites, email etc. but am wondering if having a service that automatically backsup is the way to go. My netbook has crashed before and is just about to do it again. The last time I was in was May and they said it was a matter of time....plus my power cord is starting to not work :wall: It's covered under warranty but it will mean taking it back in and getting it traded for another and losing all my data (they won't transfer without a hefty fee). Carbonite is advertised all over the radio and I am wondering if there's any feedback about the service.
Thanks
 
I have carbonite and am quite satisifed. I was getting ready to buy a new computer and decided to take a free trial of carbonite and backup all my photos etc. The backup went well. When I bought the new computer I "restored" all the files to the new computer. I was happy and bought the service. What I like about carbonite is that for your fee you get unlimited backup. It is also extremely easy to use. I have it set on automatic and whenever I add new files they get backed up quickly without need for me to do anything. Carbonite icons by all your files indicate whether they are backed up or pending backup. You can also access carbonite remotely from another computer to see your files.

Carbonite does not do an image backup of your computer or backup your os.
 
The online backup services for consumers are typically all very good. However, the online backup does not replace the need for a local backup. Consider your options carefully.
 
We have used Carbonite for about 3 years. We do back up our laptops and netbooks to the desktop every couple of months and all our photos are on the one with Carbonite. We have also used Carbonite to restore a new computer. It takes a while, but everything comes back and you still have all of your photos and files. Carbonite is so easy - it just backs up for you. When we are on vacation for 4-5 weeks, it sends an email that back-up is overdue.

Hubby just bought a handheld 640BG external hard drive to use for our netbooks just so he can backup when we are on long vacations. (When we take the most pictures.) We do not have Carbonite on all of our computers, so the hard drive cost was about 1/2 the cost for Carbonite on 2 more computers. We will see how that works.
 
I love Carbonite. I've had to restore to my laptop once, and once I restored to a new computer with no problems. I'm terribly tech-challenged, so if it's easy for me, anyone can do it. They also have an iPhone app where you can view anything that's on your computer(s).
 
I've used it for about 4 years now without incident. Have recovered a couple of files with ease.

I also have a redundant external hard drive backup that does incremental backups every night that has failed once in the same period with 0 data recovery.
 
I love Carbonite. I had a computer crash about a year ago. Fortunately I had enrolled in carbonite a few months before that. When I got my new computer all my files and pictures were restored very easily.

I have started scanning all our old family pictures so they won't be lost, even if there is a fire. Even some of our old slides I had put on a disk and have put them on the computer so Carbonite will back them up. Gives me peace of mind.
 
pgnewarkboy said:
ICarbonite does not do an image backup of your computer or backup your os.

the online backup does not replace the need for a local backup. Consider your options carefully.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies. Okay, being pretty computer illiterate...what does this mean. Do I still need to run a regular backup program to an external hard drive (my computer doesn't have a program already installed for that....) Also, does this mean I need to copy all my programs separately?
What about email? I use Outlook, will that copy to Carbonite in it's entirety or will that be omitted? Sorry for being un computer savy :shrug:

Thanks again!
 
Carbonite is easy. You do not need a separate hard drive for an additional backup system. We just bought an external backup drive because we have 5 computers and only one is protected by Carbonite. We use Carbonite on our main computer and then just either backup to the main computer or to the new external hard drive for our laptops and netbooks. We did not want to spend $60 per year for each computer, but do pay it for our master" computer that we want to have the data saved on. It saves all data that is on your computer.
 
I use SugarSync because you can back up multiple computers on one account. Otherwise, it's very similar to Carbonite.
 
JackieD said:
What about email? I use Outlook, will that copy to Carbonite in it's entirety or will that be omitted? Sorry for being un computer savy :shrug:

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

IIRC, you select what you want backed up in Carbonite when you initially set it up. I'm pretty sure you can change the settings whenever you want. I have it back up all documents, my email (Outlook Express), photos, and some programs. It's very user friendly, and I'm not tech-savvy either.
 
The default backup does not include programs, system files, temporary files, videos, or individual files greater than 4GB. You can, however, manually add these to your Carbonite backup with the exception of system files located in C:\\Windows and temporary files located in Temp folders.

Carbonite will back up the mail folders however recovering individual emails is problematic and not something I've ever attempted.

Why not give their free trial a shot and see if you like it - delete a test file or test email and see if recovering it is easy for you to do.

As to the external drive - if you want to run it as a redundant backup then go ahead but find a cheap backup program that will do it automatically like backup4all Lite so you days of drag and drop are over.

JackieD said:
Thanks for the replies. Okay, being pretty computer illiterate...what does this mean. Do I still need to run a regular backup program to an external hard drive (my computer doesn't have a program already installed for that....) Also, does this mean I need to copy all my programs separately?
What about email? I use Outlook, will that copy to Carbonite in it's entirety or will that be omitted? Sorry for being un computer savy :shrug:

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
 
We subscribed to Carbonite recently. Just wondering, If you have that why would you still need to do a local backup?
 
I only heard about this recently on Coast to Coast AM with George Nory..the UFO guy....i listened to the commercial but i know very little about it..but what i do know they give you a 15 day trial and 2 months free if you sign up for a full year...only $56.00 for the entire year...wish i had more details...but in a disaster i would just use my recovery medic discs and a couple of USB Flash Drives...does the same thing basically...
 
The data I have is irreplaceable (personal photos as well as business records among others). Therefore, I believe a redundant backup is appropriate. "Stuff" happens - this way "stuff" has to happen to 3 separate things all at the same time so I should be safe. I've had drives fail so once bitten, twice shy.

External drives are so cheap these days you can run a 1TB NAS for under $100 which IMO means a very inexpensive way to protect my data and have piece of mind.

Former Cruiser said:
We subscribed to Carbonite recently. Just wondering, If you have that why would you still need to do a local backup?
Click to expand...
 
Not sure what to think

I was the OP. I went through the whole free trial download...wholy cow did it take a LONG time. Anyway, my free trial is about to expire and I have to send in my netbook tomorrow to the manufacturer because the hard drive is crashing and it's under warranty. It will be wiped clean :eek: . I sent Carbonite an email last week asking this question (they never responded) so I just got off the phone with them after holding 20 minutes. The person I talked to seemed to have no clue!

Here's my question. I have thousands of pics on Picasa. It is backed up but I want to know when I go to restore, will it appear EXACTLY as it is now? I don't want to have to re-edit everything. The tech person said they don't know!!!! I have also done a backup of Picasa on my external hard drive. I want to be assured that when I get a new computer, it will be the same.

Any experience with Picasa specifically?

Thank you!!!!!!
 
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