Carbonite

[therising]

Anyone use it?
Your thoughts?

[yokes]

use it
love it
saved me several times when onsite backup failed

[300miles]

I always have concerns around security and privacy with those online backup services.
After all, photos of me when I was 3 will be extremely valuable someday...

[nogods]

I used Carbonite but switched to IDRIVE a few years ago.

First, Carbonite doesn't keep indefinite old files 9or at least it didn't do it back then, I don't know if they have changed).

Second, Carbonite screwed me. My backups were not being completed because of some glitch and they didn't notify me. I found out about 2 months later when I went to download a file. To their credit they did refund the last 12-months charges.

[therising]

UGH....I just realized something....I don't think it works on external H/D's.....:mad:

[therising]

I have about 60 GB of music on an external. So I was just thinking that maybe I would just temporarily move it to my main hard drive, then do a Carbonite backup from there.
But, this is interesting:


Online/offsite file storage. Carbonite is NOT a place to move files from your hard drive, to free up space on your hard drive. If you remove any file from your hard drive, we wait 30 days for you to recover it, and then we delete that file from our servers, too.

So, if you delete something from your hard drive, they delete it as well. Now, I need a Plan B.

[fiona]

I don't understand why anyone pays a monthly fee for something like this when it's a lot cheaper to buy a couple of external USB drives and use a freeware program to automatically copy your crap over to them.

[yokes]

I don't understand why anyone pays a monthly fee for something like this when it's a lot cheaper to buy a couple of external USB drives and use a freeware program to automatically copy your crap over to them.

cause paying the monthly fee I dont need to remember to plug in the external drives, find the freeware and make sure its on, lazy yes, but I generally cant predict when one of the drives is going to go because I dont have the time or patience to monitor them that closely, nor do I care to when I can pay a fee every 3 years and not have to worry about it, plus for the elders in the family I dont have to explain, setup, and make sure they are backing up correctly


Having a storage device fail on me for recovery also helped

[therising]

I don't understand why anyone pays a monthly fee for something like this when it's a lot cheaper to buy a couple of external USB drives and use a freeware program to automatically copy your crap over to them.

But, if you keep your externals all at the same place (say, at home,) and there's a fire - you're SOL.
Carbonite is $55/year. It's not as if it's going to break the bank.
If you have "a couple of externals," that has to cost you, what $150, or so?

[fiona]

Meh, I'm just a geek. :)

[nogods]

UGH....I just realized something....I don't think it works on external H/D's.....:mad:

IDrive works on external drives. $5 month for 150 gb. $50 if paid yearly.

For $150 annual you get 500 gb.

[mikenold]

Carbonite works well for someone who just wants to be protected from losing everything in the case of hard drive failure. $55.00 per year is cheap insurance. It is also easy to restore. Pop in the new drive, load the OS and get online with Carbonite and start the download. ;)

I use an external and a software program that backs up my information. This is the best way for those that are tech savvy. :)

[therising]

I use an external and a software program that backs up my information. This is the best way for those that are tech savvy. :)

So, what's the software program?

[fiona]

So, what's the software program?

I rolled my own in VB. Actually it was something I came up with years ago to back up a server for a nonprofit I worked for that had a huge database of donors that they never backed up! :eek:

[mikenold]

So, what's the software program?

There are many free backup programs out there. I can't remember the name of the one I am using now. It might be Data Safe Backup for windows 7. Just go to cnet.com check for some highly rated ones. Try the one that works best for you. :)

[WNYresident]

"What do you mean all my stuff is gone"...

You don't know how many times I heard that comment after the "neighborhood computer expert" worked on someone's computer.

[therising]

There are many free backup programs out there. I can't remember the name of the one I am using now. It might be Data Safe Backup for windows 7. Just go to cnet.com check for some highly rated ones. Try the one that works best for you. :)

A tech-savvy guy like you uses a free one?

[mikenold]

A tech-savvy guy like you uses a free one?

Why pay when you can do the same thing for free? :)

[mikenold]

"What do you mean all my stuff is gone"...

You don't know how many times I heard that comment after the "neighborhood computer expert" worked on someone's computer.

I had a business owner break down and cry because he had lost 5-6 years of customer information when his hard drive went bad. You can always send the drive out to have the information retrieved. This service usually starts at around $1000.00. I sent out a hard drive for a CEO of a local hospital and it cost him around $1200.00 for 16 excel files. $55.00 a years is sounding even better now, I'll bet. :)

[yokes]

"What do you mean all my stuff is gone"...

You don't know how many times I heard that comment after the "neighborhood computer expert" worked on someone's computer.

The true value of a backup program is not in its ability to back things up, but in its ability to recover what it has backed up.

Having used carbonite for 2 recovories, its worth the money to me.

[fiona]

The true value of a backup program is not in its ability to back things up, but in its ability to recover what it has backed up.

Isn't that the truth!!! That's why I hate tape backups.

[fiona]

What happens if you forget to pay your Carbonite bill? Is it kind of like forgetting to pay your $75 fire company fee?

[yokes]

What happens if you forget to pay your Carbonite bill? Is it kind of like forgetting to pay your $75 fire company fee?

ha! I believe there is a grace period where you would be able to pay up to get your files if you needed to but nothing new would be backup up in that period.

Assumning of course you wouldnt stop paying unless you had another backup available though

[NBuffaloResident]

I don't bother with Carbonite. I back everything up onto a VM's hard drive from all my house computers, and swap HD's from the one in the house, with the one in the office.

So, I get "Every other day" offsite.

Cost $100 bucks. Once.

[yokes]

Great! that solution works well for you.

I would encourage everyone to find a backup solution that works for them. In my case its Carbonite

[fiona]

Great! that solution works well for you.

I would encourage everyone to find a backup solution that works for them. In my case its Carbonite

I back up everything onto a USB thumb drive and then give it to the neighbors' dog to bury in the backyard.

[yokes]

I back up everything onto a USB thumb drive and then give it to the neighbors' dog to bury in the backyard.

I like that method especially now with the price of thumb drives being so cheap.

I have been considering a "greener" approach to my backups and re-using the hundreds of floppy disks I have lying around for backups. :)

[therising]

What happens if you forget to pay your Carbonite bill?
They come to your house and rape you.

[yokes]

They come to your house and rape you.

no they dont its just an "enhanced" pat down

Stop with your drama

[fiona]

They come to your house and rape you.

If they bring whips and leather I might enjoy that a little too much.