Carbonite Review
Our Rating:
Reviewed Apr 19, 2011
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Carbonite rated 3.68 stars based on 25 votes |
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Pros
- Simple system for verifying which files are backed up
- One low price ($59/year) for unlimited personal or business accounts
- 15-day Free trial with no credit card required
Cons
- No support for networked or mapped drives
- When performing backup, system omits videos by default
- No option for monthly billing
Complete Review
Summary
Carbonite is one of the best-known online backup companies today, and their service and offering shows why.
Since 2006, we have backed up more than 80 billion files, and restored more than 7.2 billion lost files that otherwise would have been lost forever. We back up more than 150 million new files every day, for customers in more than 100 countries.
Set-up
Installation of Carbonite is one of the easiest we've found. After downloading the installer, you name your computer (for users with multiple computers, this nickname avoids confusion during the restore process) and specify what type of computer it is (Desktop, Laptop or Server), then choose how to set up your backup (either Automatic, which is recommended, or a Custom Setup).
With the automatic backup, documents, pictures, email, settings & contacts, and music are automatically selected. What's skipped is videos, program files (executibles) and files over 4GB however, you can add some of these later.
Note: During your free trial period, Carbonite does not automatically select your music or video files. When you upgrade to the paid subscription your music and short video files are added to the backup (if they were previously selected).
Settings
Carbonite's InfoCenter gives you an overview of the backup process, as well as an opportunity to change settings, including your Backup Schedule. While the options you can change are much simpler than other services, for most users what's given is more than enough.
Backing Up
Carbonite uses colored dots as an overlay on your files, so you can quickly see what files are backed up and which are not.
To add a file to the backup set, just right-click and choose Carbonite > Back this up.
Transferring data to Carbonite's servers is a little slower than other providers. Carbonite states, The average Carbonite user backs up between 3GB and 4GB of data per day. Carbonite allocates more bandwidth to new users doing a typical initial backup of less than 35GB and less to users after their backup exceeds 200GB. 98% of Carbonite customers have backups of less than 200GB.
What kind of speeds can you expect from Carbonite? The first 35GB of data can achieve upload speeds of up to 2 mbps (megabits per second). Between 35GB - 200GB of data can have the upload speeds reach up to 512 kbps (kilobits per second). 200GB or more of data can be uploaded at up to 100 kbps (kilobits per second).
To figure out how long your backup will take,
try our Carbonite Upload Speed Calculator
Of course, this is what Carbonite will restrict you at - your connection has to be at least this to see such speeds.
Restoring Data
You can easily restore files by opening the Carbonite Backup Drive within your computer (My Computer, or hold the Windows key and press E). Once you've found the file or folder you wish to restore, you can choose which version of the file you'd like, and where you'd like to save it.
Carbonite keeps old versions of your files for up to three months. However, it does not keep every single version over three months. One version of the file is kept for each day of the past week, plus one version for each week (of the previous three weeks) and one version per month (of the previous two months). Confused? This graphic will help:
If you happen to delete a file from your computer, you have 30 days to restore it, before it's deleted from Carbonite's servers. Remember, Carbonite is online backup, not online storage.
Carbonite does not list any restrictions on restore speeds, but says most users can download 14-18 GB per day.
Mobile Apps
Carbonite has mobile apps for the iPhone / iPod Touch, Blackberry, and Android devices. Called Carbonite Access,
the app is not to backup the data on your mobile device, but rather to give you access to your data backed up to Carbonite. You can download files, or share via e-mail or other services.
Sharing
Currently, sharing is only supported via the mobile apps. When you share a file via email, the recipient will receive an email message with the file as an attachment.
Support
Carbonite has an extensive FAQ which answers many customer questions and online tutorials which show how to accomplish some common tasks. If these don't help, you can contact Carbonite via an online form, explaining your question or problem.
The Carbonite customer support team resolves 98 percent of customer issues within 24 hours, and most are resolved the same day.
Security
As a self-admitted tech geek, one of the unique security features Carbonite boasts is that they retain a professional hacker firm to constantly attack (their) data center, searching for security holes.
While all online backup services list "military-grade" or financial level encryption, Carbonite is the first firm we've seen that attacks their own servers, searching for holes.
Conclusion
Carbonite has made some great improvements since we last reviewed them. While there are still a few things we'd like to see, including an option to pay monthly and an option to have DVDs or an external hard drive shipped to the user if they need a full restore, Carbonite is an excellent choice when considering an online backup service.
- Start your Free trial
- Save 10-20% with a Carbonite offer code
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