Carbonite Online Backup: Review
By Partho, Gaea News NetworkFriday, March 27, 2009
As people look for better ways to avoid irreplaceable loss of files, the backup systems are high on demand. while searching for backup tools I came across a simple and easy to use online backup service - Carbonite. After using it for a while, I could make out certain things that I would like to share with you. Carbonite Online Backup essentially protects the files in your Computer in case of an accidental deletion, theft, catastrophe or drive failure. This online backup service helps to protect the all-important photos, music, business contacts and financial information. Carbonite is a remarkably simple and easy to use service. This online backup service can be used to backup files from a remote computer connected to Internet. The service seems be designed more for personal use than business. Carbonite charges a nominal fee to backup data that is $54.95 per year. Let’s go into its details.
Carbonite provides an automatic and secure backup for irreplaceable contents in the computer. A small software program is installed in the computer that runs in the background. Whenever it finds a new or modified file in the system it keeps a backup of the file automatically.
Working
When the software is installed a Carbonite adds another drive with lock-like icon in the My Computer Window. This is the remote storage for all the documents. It can be integrated with the desktop to make things simpler and easier.
Security
This is an online application and this is why security is of prime concern. Carbonite encrypts the files twice before backing them up securely offsite. It uses an encryption technique similar to what the banks use. The encrypted files are secured in the data centers which only the user can access.
Easy and Simple to Handle
Carbonite keeps backup automatically and requires no manual intervention. The backup of the new and modified files are automatically generated when the computer is idle. Carbonite goes idle when the user is working on the computer, ensuring that it doesn’t slow down the internet connection.
Restoration
It is easy to restore the files with Carbonite. In case some files are lost accidentally you can restore them with a few clicks. Clicking on the drive opens a folder that contains all the backed up files. The files can be directly copied from the folder onto the computer.
Pros
There a number of positives with Carbonite
- The backup preferences can be changed easily whenever the user wants.
- The ease of use, price and functionality are commendable.
- One of the main advantages with Carbonite is that it offers a sort of unlimited backup.
- Carbonite offers full speed backup for the first 50 GB
Cons
Carbonite is far from a perfect backup tool that are available, let’s get into its darker side.
- Carbonite has major drawback and that is it cannot backup any file if its open. It cannot backup the email or financial documents, if they are open.
- Some complexities may arise while trying to view the backup files like the blue screen of death.
- Carbonite doesn’t backup multiple versions of a document
- It’s surprising to see that Carbonite is using 15-drive RAID 5 arrays instead of RAID 1.
Although Carbonite boasts of a large customer base, the company had ink on its reputation when it failed to backup data of over 7,500 customers. Carbonite filed a lawsuit against Promise Technology, the hardware manufacturer, for the crack-up. To add to the mess the data recovery was not up to the standards. Conclusively, I wouldn’t rate Carbonite highly as a back up process. Let me know if you have gathered something more about it.
Tags: Carbonite, Lost, Online Backup, Online Backup service, Things
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August 16, 2010: 1:34 am
There are many companies that are probably in your area or region that offer online backup are a service. The problem is how far away is the data? Bandwidth decreases over distance. |
 davevaldiment |
June 26, 2010: 1:30 pm
I have just purchased a new computer and can you back up all my data from my last one you have stored |
 Kaiser Sosay |
April 10, 2010: 2:37 pm
I just subscribed to Carbonite; however, I would not have done so if I had known that they do not backup external hard drives. I can’t believe that I had to find out the hard way (by subscribing and trying to save data backed up on an external drive) and that Carbonite did not warn me. People that buy Carbonite tend to have a lot of music and other files worth protecting on external drives. To not protect data from external drives is a major flaw and huge blow to Carbonite’s overall utility. I want my money back and my subscription cancelled. For the price of Carbonite, I could have bought a 1TB external storage backup for my existing external drive and been perfectly happy. I hope this note makes its way to Carbonite’s management. If I get my money back — some harm and some foul from what I believe is deceptive promotion by Carbonite — If I don’t, I will be a mouse that roars. Again,I hope everyone out there understands that Carbonite does not back up data on external drives. |
 Debbie |
March 28, 2010: 8:23 pm
STAY AWAY! Customer service consists of one-size-fits-all solutions that take a lot of time and don’t work. I have to reinstall every time I reboot. One of my customers paid for the second year on credit card, Carbonite wrote the email acknowledging payment and the charge went through. But the software wouldn’t acknowledge it, and after two months of almost daily emails, none of which were ever acknowledged, even with different addresses, customer had to remove Carbonite and go with another service. Now I am trying to restore files after a hard disk crash. The most valuable one was on my desktop and was never backed up. Restoring is insanity. I wouldn’t wish this mess on anyone. |
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Debbie |
December 26, 2009: 5:24 pm
I can’t recommend Carbonite. Every time I reboot I have to reload Carbonite and it is a pain — many, many “click here”’s that could be streamlined. I have dealt with Customer Service doing the hours and hours worth of stuff they want me to “check”, send them, etc. and still can’t get it to work right. But the worst is that I am the board of a local non-profit that used Carbonite. They duly spent the $55 to renew, got the receipt, the charge went through, etc., but Carbonite kept saying it wasn’t paid. Emails from my personal account and the accounts there went unanswered, totally ignored for weeks. There was NO WAY to get Carbonite to back up any more. Finally, the choice was to throw good money after bad and “try” to pay again, or try Mozy. Not a tough choice. I am a technician who frequently specs software for jobs like this. I now warn everyone away from Carbonite and will stop my account when it expires, as well as back up manually in the meantime! |
 Raman_mathew |
October 19, 2009: 3:54 am
I have a HTC Ozone phone.I am looking for a backup solution for my personal data on my phone. So with BackupandShare.com, can I say I am at the right place? |
 Alan_kate |
October 9, 2009: 4:12 am
I have just switched to BackupandShare.com after trying out few renowned backup services.And the experiance so far is wonderful. I am getting seamless backup service without any failure. Also, the restore procedure is also smooth. Very userfriendly and costeffective service. |
 john |
September 24, 2009: 10:24 am
Linux users can’t use mozy carbonite or backblaze unfortunately. Here is a less expensive choice than mozy. Simple sftp server which also offers web access. The beauty is you can use whatever sftp capable client you like. Works on any OS…win, linux, or mac. datastorageunit.com only 2.99 a month for unlimited storage. |
 Nadeem |
June 7, 2009: 7:27 am
Now who says Carbonite does not backup email data or open files and it does save multiple version of files. I backed up last fall and was able to recover all of my data in few clicks..my emails address book and everything was backed up automatically, and those guys helped me restore and import my emails. |
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May 13, 2009: 5:33 pm
Jane: You’re right, we don’t support external drives at this point. That’s a feature we’ve been saving for a version of Carbonite called Carbonite Pro that will be going into beta next month. As the name implies, it will be aimed more at the professional than the home user. If you’d like to be notified when it’s available, just send an email to probeta@carbonite.com. David Friend | Chairman & CEO Carbonite, Inc. 334 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116 617-587-1110 |
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May 13, 2009: 4:11 pm
Jane: You’re right, we don’t support external drives at this point. That’s a feature we’ve been saving for a version of Carbonite called Carbonite Pro that will be going into beta next month. As the name implies, it will be aimed more at the professional than the home user. If you’d like to be notified when it’s available, just send an email to probeta@carbonite.com. David Friend | Chairman & CEO Carbonite, Inc. 334 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116 617-587-1110 |
 Jane |
May 4, 2009: 10:38 am
Carbonite sounds great but it lacks some important features for me, since I mostly backup external HDD, network drives and USB drives from both my Pc and Mac. Most providers don’t have these features but this wasn’t a problem for SafeCopy (www.safecopybackup.com). It allows me to do the above features plus I can share the same account for both my Mac and Pc. I’m very happy with it and it’s worth checking out. |
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Jane |
May 4, 2009: 10:09 am
Carbonite sounds great but it lacks some important features for me, since I mostly backup external HDD, network drives and USB drives from both my Pc and Mac. Most providers don’t have these features but this wasn’t a problem for SafeCopy (www.safecopybackup.com). It allows me to do the above features plus I can share the same account for both my Mac and Pc. I’m very happy with it. |
 Lauren |
April 14, 2009: 5:24 pm
Beware of Carbonite. Backup’s great but don’t try to get your files back onto your computer if anything happens. I’ve been trying for two days the restore keeps freezing. Their online help is useless!!! Then if you try to call them they want another $20 for support. STAY AWAY!!!!!! |
 Tom |
March 30, 2009: 10:46 pm
You realize that the same week that you posted this review Carbonite filed a law suit against one of its hardware vendors for failures that caused the loss of data for 7,500 customers, right? In your “cons” list, you note that they use a single RAID 5 array to protect their users’ data. That is a single point of failure. Pretty crazy. |
 Anonymous |
March 29, 2009: 3:50 am
As a current Carbonite customer I wanted to comment on two failings of Carbonite: • Customer service is next to useless – sending you in a round robin of nonsensical actions until you basically give up. Both of these claims can be backed up by doing a quick search for the same. If Carbonite wants to stay alive, it had better look to address these serious issues. I, for one, am looking to switch to a company which deserves my hard earned money. |
 rosetheruler |
March 28, 2009: 5:58 pm
thanks for the review. I was looking for something like this to back up my files. |
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March 28, 2009: 7:54 am
Thank you Gavyn. we will surely try them out and get back with our experience. Thanks Soumya Sinha |
 Gavyn |
March 27, 2009: 8:38 pm
You should probably use an online backup service that doesn’t lose people’s data. I would suggest mozy.com or https://www.myotherdrive.com |
John Tourloukis