Backup -- Carbonite or ???

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poadeleted20

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I've seen a few mentions of Carbonite here, and I'm wondering if anyone has enough experience with it or other on-line backup systems to make a recommendation.
 
Ron Levy said:
I've seen a few mentions of Carbonite here, and I'm wondering if anyone has enough experience with it or other on-line backup systems to make a recommendation.
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It is like buying a plane, Ron. What's the mission?

-Skip
 
Skip Miller said:
It is like buying a plane, Ron. What's the mission?
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Personal/business PC laptop. Don't want to lose all my data if the unit gets lost/stolen/crashed. As I'm not a computer geek, and often on the road for a couple of weeks at at time, off-site use is a plus.
 
Ron Levy said:
Personal/business PC laptop. Don't want to lose all my data if the unit gets lost/stolen/crashed. As I'm not a computer geek, and often on the road for a couple of weeks at at time, off-site use is a plus.
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How often are you connected online?

These services copy your data off while you're online and not very active. If your laptop is disconnected a lot, or you connect via an air card or something of that nature, it may not be a good solution.

If you plug in at night and leave it running, great...it'll keep you backed up very well.
 
I heard you can get hibernation sickness from it. First you can't see, then you see a big dark blur, then a big light blur. Pretty soon you're ready to use a blaster to save Lando.
 
EdFred said:
I heard you can get hibernation sickness from it. First you can't see, then you see a big dark blur, then a big light blur. Pretty soon you're ready to use a blaster to save Lando.
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But then you get kissed by Carrie Fisher, so it ain't all that bad.
 
Ron Levy said:
But then you get kissed by Carrie Fisher, so it ain't all that bad.
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Yeah, but after she planted a big one on her brother....so...you know...I'm still not sold on it. :D
 
Ron Levy said:
But then you get kissed by Carrie Fisher, so it ain't all that bad.
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You seen Carrie fisher lately?
Carrie%20Fisher-3.jpg
 
I've test-driven Carbonite, Mozy, and a few others. Carbonite was kind of buggy at first, but is now much better. I use it on one of my Windows PC's and have used it from time to time to restore accidentally deleted files and such. It's cheap and works well enough.

But by default Carbonite doesn't back up file types it doesn't recognize, it doesn't back up videos unless you tell it to, and it has several other quirks that I don't care much for. I still use it because I've already configured and kludged my way through it to get it to work the way I want, and it's not worth changing at this point. But I don't heartily recommend it. Also, their support, I've been told, is basically non-existent (although I've never actually had occasion to use it).

I think for most ordinary users, Mozy Pro is a much better bet.

For advanced users and businesses, I've had great experiences with FilesAnywhere. But they're pricey.

-Rich
 
RJM62 said:
For advanced users and businesses, I've had great experiences with FilesAnywhere. But they're pricey.

-Rich
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Another thing you need to understand, particularly from a business perspective, is that backup <> archive.

As an example: let's say you have a business critical XLS file. You modify it Monday, and realize on Tuesday that your modification has just screwed things up royally...

If you have an archiving system, you can just pull the tape from Sunday night and voila, you have your old file version back.

With an online backup, you're probably hosed...they don't keep versions, just whatever the latest and greatest of a file you have. Great for recovering from file loss, but useless for recovering from file corruption.
 
JeffDG said:
Another thing you need to understand, particularly from a business perspective, is that backup <> archive.

As an example: let's say you have a business critical XLS file. You modify it Monday, and realize on Tuesday that your modification has just screwed things up royally...

If you have an archiving system, you can just pull the tape from Sunday night and voila, you have your old file version back.
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I don't think that's something I need -- strictly backup for disaster relief. So, better MozyPro than Carbonite?
 
JeffDG said:
Another thing you need to understand, particularly from a business perspective, is that backup <> archive.

As an example: let's say you have a business critical XLS file. You modify it Monday, and realize on Tuesday that your modification has just screwed things up royally...

If you have an archiving system, you can just pull the tape from Sunday night and voila, you have your old file version back.

With an online backup, you're probably hosed...they don't keep versions, just whatever the latest and greatest of a file you have. Great for recovering from file loss, but useless for recovering from file corruption.
Click to expand...

Actually, one good thing I will say about Carbonite is that it keeps several versions. I forget how many or for how long, but the few times I've restored files, there were several versions to choose from.

-Rich
 
JeffDG said:
Another thing you need to understand, particularly from a business perspective, is that backup <> archive.

As an example: let's say you have a business critical XLS file. You modify it Monday, and realize on Tuesday that your modification has just screwed things up royally...

If you have an archiving system, you can just pull the tape from Sunday night and voila, you have your old file version back.

With an online backup, you're probably hosed...they don't keep versions, just whatever the latest and greatest of a file you have. Great for recovering from file loss, but useless for recovering from file corruption.
Click to expand...

MozyPro's web site says they can restore file versions up to 30 days in the past.

http://mozy.com/pro/features/
 
Personally, I wouldn't store business or personal files online. There is a risk, however small, of it ending up in the wrong hands or your losing it if the company goes out of business.

I use Acronis, a few very large backup drives, and rotate them to my office or another away-from-home location (a home safe will work well, too, if it's bolted into the floor).
 
wsuffa said:
Personally, I wouldn't store business or personal files online. There is a risk, however small, of it ending up in the wrong hands or your losing it if the company goes out of business.
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Isn't the security issue handled by the encryption?

As for the company going out of business, the chances of that happening at the same time as your computer crashes or is stolen seem remote.

It seems like one needs to adjust the cost and/or hassle factor of the backup solution according to the level of need.
 
Another vote for Mozy.

It was simple to get it up and running, and to schedule daily backups at 1 AM. Depending how much data you have to transfer and the speed of your connection, the first backup can take a week or two of continuous transfer. It's supposed to pause the transfer automatically while you're using a lot of system resources for other things.
 
Most of what I personally back up is Web site stuff, pictures, and so forth. Very, very little of it is confidential. Even then, the encryption is industrial-strength and only I have the keys (stored elsewhere, in several different places, of course).

As for the backup companies going belly up, I believe in redundant backups. My data drives are on a RAID array which is backed up to an external drive, and the data is also backed up online. I also directly back up some critical documents as an encrypted file in a hidden directory on my Web server.

So for me to totally lose my data, all of the following would have to happen at or about the same time:

1. The RAID array dies in such a way that my data recovery partner can't even recover it (or the computer is stolen or destroyed).

2. Ditto the external drive, to which the RAID array is backed up.

3. My Web server suffers an irretrievable data loss.

4. The Web server backup is also destroyed.

5. The online backup company goes out of business.

I think the chances of all of these things happening at the same time are pretty slim. And if they ever do, then maybe it's time I move to that shack in Montana we were talking about in another thread....

-Rich
 
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