Online Backup system (Carbonite)

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

I have been looking at backup systems for a while. I have a NAS drive in my system that backs up every file within minutes of the file being written but was always running the risk of something like a lighting strike wiping out the computer and the and the External drive and losing everything. I broke down yesterday and signed up for Carbonite. Now a bad deal at all. $59.95 a year for unlimited automatic backup. Easy to set up. there is a automatic setting or you can specify the folders you want backed up. I set mine to backup Users. That way it gets the two separate user accounts on this computer, my wife and me. The initial backup is going to take several days since we both shoot lots of photos but I think after that we really want see much difference in the way the computer acts. What I really like is that I can access all my files from any computer on the internet and also from my iPhone. Great for having my photo library with me all the time.

Anyone else using Carbonite?

 

[PapaST]

I have a client that is using Carbonite. The cost of cloud backups is getting more and more affordable. My suggestion to you, once ALL your data is backed up and it starts its incremental backups do some test runs. Try to restore files AND even try to restore your entire backup. My client has almost 2TB of data and doing a complete restore could take weeks. Honestly I'm not sure why, whether it's the bandwidth that they throttle or the speed in which Carbonite can restore your data. Of course none of this might be a concern for you. I trust Carbonite keeps everything safe and sound, I'm just concerned that if you ever needed to get it, it could take awhile.

I've never heard of any complaints about consumer-side bandwidth being sucked down due to backups... that's good to know.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

I have local backups also. This is a last ditch for full restore. Also the ability to retrieve single files form my phone or laptop is a pretty cool feature. I have tried that from the laptop and my phone already. You get what looks like a explorer file list and go to what you want and download it. Could not be easier. I was syncing all my files between my laptop and my Desktop but my photos were overwhelming my laptop so I deleted all of them form the laptop except for the a few since I do all my editing on the desktop now. My wife still syncs with her laptop and also uses something call Synctoy to sync her school files between home and her school computer. So in essence she has her data on three computers, my onsite NAS drive and now on Carbonite. Her computer at school got fried and the It guy came in and told her they were going to have to replace it and they could not save her files. SHe said no problem and they about passed out. They asked her why she was so cool about losing all her files and she pulled out a USB drive out of her desk and told them that she uses the USB to sync her files everyday. they told her that she was the first teacher they had met that even knew what a backup was. They were quite impressed.

 

[Moab Man]

Used it for years; I like it.

 

[Scott Murray]

My upload speed is crap so a site like this would be no good for me (0.70mb/s) if I am lucky...

 

[hark]

I have not used it but am interested in reading what others think.

Since you mentioned the possibility of a lightning strike, our electrician once suggested having a surge protector installed at the electrical box. That way, any surges coming in from outside will get stopped. We still use surge protectors inside the house in case anything from inside creates a surge.

I thought we were covered until one day during a thunderstorm, there was a snap and an instanteous bright white light (2'-3' in diameter) that exploded just a few feet from where I am sitting in the house. It happened a second time, too, during a different storm. Turns out the ground to our phone lines wasn't working so we had that fixed. It messed up the electrical wires in the outside phone box, but nothing in the house was affected. Fortunately once that was repaired, we haven't experienced any further problems from surges.

If you don't have a surge protector at your electrical box, you might want to look into it.

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

I have not used it but am interested in reading what others think.

Since you mentioned the possibility of a lightning strike, our electrician once suggested having a surge protector installed at the electrical box. That way, any surges coming in from outside will get stopped. We still use surge protectors inside the house in case anything from inside creates a surge.

I thought we were covered until one day during a thunderstorm, there was a snap and an instanteous bright white light (2'-3' in diameter) that exploded just a few feet from where I am sitting in the house. It happened a second time, too, during a different storm. Turns out the ground to our phone lines wasn't working so we had that fixed. It messed up the electrical wires in the outside phone box, but nothing in the house was affected. Fortunately once that was repaired, we haven't experienced any further problems from surges.

If you don't have a surge protector at your electrical box, you might want to look into it.

I have all those but there can still be problems even with them. No system is perfect. I am a belt and suspenders sort of guy. I have always just been obsessive about backups.