Carbonite Backup Software Review
I have been wanting to test and write a Carbonite backup software review for quite a while. I’ve heard a lot of buzz about this online backup service for the common PC user and kept waiting for it to fade away. But, it didn’t.
Another reason I wanted to try Carbonite was because I desperately need a backup service for my PC. Carbonite is for Windows, by the way. Promise me you won’t laugh at me for my previous software backup “process.” I certainly deserve it.
- Manually select files on my PC
- Copy them to a CD or DVD
- Physically take the backed up data CD/DVD to another location
- Rinse and repeat every 6 months
Sad, huh? This doesn’t work for obvious reasons.
A small business owner recently told me that he hired an IT company to come in and configure his computers for automatic backup. He probably owns 1 to 3 machines. I believe he said is paying them around $200 per month to setup and manage this task. He referred me to the contact at the IT company and we scheduled a visit. Ironically (and thankfully), the technician called me at the last minute to cancel the appointment. He said that his wife was having a baby and asked if we could reschedule later. He never called back.
After a year or so of continued nervousness over losing my data, I finally signed up for Carbonite backup today. I used their free trial that lasts for 15 days and doesn’t require a credit card. The service costs $54.95 per year and doesn’t seem to put any limitations on the amount of files that can be uploaded.
The first thing I noticed in Carbonite’s marketing was the emphasis on “simple” and “automatic” terms. I want simple. Automatic is find as long as I have control over when backups are performed. I don’t want Carbonite to start backing up my files when I am about the business of defeating an opponent in an online multiplayer game!
Installing Carbonite Backup
Installion was indeed simple with these 3 steps.
- “Run” the File Download
After clicking “Install Now”, click “Run” on the File Download window. - “Run” the Setup Software
After the file downloads, click “Run” to start installing. - Finish the Installation
The Installer will automatically open when the download is complete.
The next thing thing was to walk through a few screens courtesy of the Carbonite Backup wizard. One of the options was to manage encryption manually or let the software do it automatically, the recommended option.
Selecting files to Back up
The next step is to select the files for Carbonite to back up. This is done conveniently through a Windows context menu. Color coded dots indicate whether the file or folder has been backed up yet.
Running Carbonite
This is a screen shot of the actual program as it backs up my files.
Conclusion
I have to say that using the Carbonite software to backup my files online was indeed simple as claimed. It was automatic and required very little brain activity. I guess backing things up should be a pretty brainless task. The scheduling feature enabled me to set up times for running the software that didn’t conflict with my PC gaming activities. Using Carbonite Backup was a lot faster, easier and safer than my previous method of backing up to discs every 6 months and storing them at another location. It seems that others share a similar view:
“Carbonite is the closest to perfection we’ve seen so far” - TechCrunch
What do you think?
January 2nd, 2009
You might have bothered to test restoring your files. There you might realize that lots of your files were automatically or inadvertently excluded from backup, that you can’t readily restore onto another PC, or that due to some product defects your backup would get overwritten or clobbered. This has been my painful story in trying to recover my files after a disk crash using Carbonite.
You might also have tried the vendor’s support and found that you’re lucky to get a response within the advertised 72 hours (!) that response is typically wrong or incomplete and you have to wait another 72 hours to get clarification.
I am a long time user and I do not trust this product or its vendor.
January 2nd, 2009
Roaming, sorry to hear about the problems. When I tested the restore function, it worked fine for me. I restored only to the one machine that I backed up from, so I didn’t get to see how Carbonite would behave on other machines. At some point, there should be a limit to the height of expectations on a product priced under $50 per year IMHO.
January 2nd, 2009
Listening to Carbonite’s ads on the radio, I think they might be responsible for maybe inflating expectations of what their software will do- I can see how someone might be dissapointed based on what they promise.
However, apparently Jimmy Kimmel likes it, and he has mission critical data to be backed up:
January 5th, 2009
I have mixed feelings about Carbonite and Roaming raises some good points. Personally I like IDrive online backup. Similar to Carbonite, but in my experience quite better (and restores are easy and pretty fast).
March 15th, 2009
Today was the first time that I “had” to use Carbonite to restore lost data. I woke up and opened my email client, Eudora (yes I know it’s old school and I haven’t had time to switch it out yet) and for some reason, all email messages from 2008 had disappeared from my outbox. I did some research and found the 2 file names needed, then went into Carbonite Backup’s restore mode and picked a restore date of a few days earlier. It worked. Got my files back.