carbonite?

Having been unable to identify a universally highly rated external hard disk (to replace my binned WD drive) to use solely for backup purposes, I have installed carbonite on a free trial basis. Not a vast amount of data involved but it's v important to me. BT digital vault was too limiting.

Initial backup took eons, but carbonite now seems to be updating it without any noticeable impact on what I happen to be doing.

However ... haven't had to do a restore yet, and I wondered if any of you guys have experience of doing so with this online facility. Your thoughts please??

Never heard of it before. Plenty of reviews, e.g. http://www.amazon.com/Carbonite-Inc-CARB1002-Online-...

Thanks John

I had come across that link, and was somewhat worried that 50% of users gave less than ***** !

Sometimes you have to read between the lines though. I did put the agreed painfully ssslllooowww initial backup at least partially down to the infamous bt.

And, as ever, some folk think its beneath them to read instructions. Just as an example, 'new grandma' said that it doesn't ask what you want to back up. Wrong! It clearly says that you have the option to let it do its default thing, or alternatively you can specify what you want to back up - which is what I chose to do. I don't think making that simple choice is too much to ask., do you?

No, I agree the reviewers shouldn't complain about things covered in the manual (although how many of us read them properly before jumping in).

Been using it for the last three years, with out any problems, fortunately I've never had to do a full restore; however, I've restored many individual files without any difficulties (It also let you restore previous versions of files).

Very good reason why a lot of fault codes boil down to one of two things:-

RTFM and/or PEBKAC both of which can be expressed as an id ten t fault

(Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair for those wondering).

Hi spranglebolt,

Is the backup solution for home or business use? And are you UK based? If your data is critical or very important to you, I wouldn't recommend using Carbonite. Being based in the US, so too are their datacentres, and they also do not mirror onto another geographically separate datacentre. For home use, for photos etc they probably would be a good bet based on price and the fact that chances are you won�t need to back up too often, however there are countless forums complaining of shoddy restore capabilities and support responses.

I also wouldn�t trust many of the amazon reviews, they are known for plugging their own reviews in the past! (another quick google search will reveal this!)

I've been using it as a 2nd line of defence, 1st line being a backup to a network drive. The first backup took about 5 days on an 800kbps up. now i don't notice it. I have had cause to restore files selectively following a cleardown & rebuild and it worked perfectly

In reply to a post by spranglebolt:

Having been unable to identify a universally highly rated external hard disk (to replace my binned WD drive) to use solely for backup purposes, I have installed carbonite on a free trial basis. Not a vast amount of data involved but it's v important to me. BT digital vault was too limiting.

Initial backup took eons, but carbonite now seems to be updating it without any noticeable impact on what I happen to be doing.

However ... haven't had to do a restore yet, and I wondered if any of you guys have experience of doing so with this online facility. Your thoughts please??

I'm a little wary of these online backup solutions as the security of the backed up data is wholly outside your control. For instance, what happens if the company involved goes through or their servers are seized etc?
If you insist on using such a service and are a Barclays Bank business customer, they offer a pretty good online backup service. It's free for up to 2Gig of storage and £7.50 per month for unlimited:
http://www.bank.barclays.co.uk/Businessservices/Onli...

In reply to a post by Jennifer_Bud:

.....they are known for plugging their own reviews in the past! (another quick google search will reveal this....

Kettles and pots????

No. We aim to maintain a strong online presence however this does not mean that we pose as customers or write our own reviews anywhere.

Hi Deadbeat. We actually use the same software that Barclays provide. However the problem is that their "unlimited" package isn't unlimited in the slightest, but actually has a 5GB fair usage limit and charge £3 per GB afterwards.

(Check out their T&C's http://www.barclaysecure.com/legal point 6. "Where Your usage of the Software and Service exceeds a storage level of 5 Gigabytes before compression at any time during a month, You will be charged £3.00 excluding VAT for each additional Gigabyte used (before any compression occurs) or part thereof (�Usage Charges�). Any such charges will be added to Your next payment due to Us.)

And your charges and T&C's etc are?

You're very welcome to give one of our sales reps a call and we'll happily go through everything with you this morning.