Back up your data – read our Carbonite review to get the full deets on how this backup subscription works!
Our friends at Carbonite sent us a subscription to try out their back-up service. Since getting an Apple iMac last year, in which I do the majority of my work on – I want to ensure all of my work and photos aren’t lost. This was our first Mac in the family, as our other 2 home computers are PCs. (I have since purchased a MacBook Pro – to work on the go.)
With PCs my husband always runs a back-up system with an additional hard drive. This has worked fine for us, but with the Mac adding another internal hard drive wasn’t an option! I had purchased a Western Digital My Book external hard drive to work with Time Machine to make sure all of my files were safe. This scenario has worked fine for us, until a month ago. I moved my computer to an extremely small desk (it’s my new way of being clutter-free), and guess what there is NO room for? Yep, the external hard drive. So Carbonite couldn’t of come into my life at a better time!
Back-Up Your Hard Drive People!
I read this and as a computer geek I couldn’t believe it. THEN I thought about the numerous calls my husband (who plays the IT guy for our families) gets from our families when hard drives crash. None of them back-up their stuff!
Over half of Americans surveyed have experienced a crash where they have lost their data forever and, unfortunately, learned about the importance of backing up the hard way.* Despite this, approximately two out of every five Americans have either never backed up their computers or have not done so in more than a year. As people look for a way to protect the data from loss due to such things as viruses, hardware failures, loss and destruction, online backup services from Carbonite offer a simple and cost-effective way to do so.
Pricing and Features
Carbonite is reasonably priced at $59 a year. This includes UNLIMITED space. I have a 1 TB hard drive, which around 600 gigs are in use on my iMac. Losing this data would be devastating! The My Book external hard drive cost me around $150 at the time of purchase. I have purchased many external hard drives in my day, and seem to need to replace them every 2-3 years.
Carbonite Review – Backup and Recovery Service
Carbonite was extremely easy to install. I just downloaded, selected what I wanted to back up and the program runs in the background doing it’s job!
Recovering Files
One of my biggest concerns is how do I recover my files from Carbonite.
From the Carbonite application on my computer – I can just find the file or files I need to restore and click RESTORE. Files from the last 30 days are saved.
If your computer is lost or stolen, or if you are needing the file on another computer – you can login to carbonite.com to restore.
This is what I LOVE -> You can download the Carbonite app and get your files from your smart phone (or login to carbonite.com to retrieve when mobile).
Easy – Peasy
Carbonite Security
Carbonite has bank level security for privacy protection of your files.
Downside
I’ve only found 2 downsides to using Carbonite:
- Files over 4 gigs will need to be selected to manually back-up
- Time to back-up the data
Files over 4 gigs can easily be selected for back-up, not a HUGE deal – but something you should know when setting up the service.
The time issue is something that is with the nature of the business and state of the internet. We’re not to super sonic, YET.
Overview of Carbonite
Carbonite is an easy-to-use and affordable solution for backing up your data. Plus, no having to deal with the hassle of a back-up hard drive!
Free Trial
Try Carbonite for 15 days for FREE.
How Do You Back-Up Your Data?