Carbonite comes to the Mac: Hands free online backups
If you are among the 43 percent of computer users who lose irreplaceable data every year but still haven’t learned to back up, here’s a $50 solution that promises to keep you golden with minimal set up and zero user interaction thereafter.
Carbonite is a well regarded automatic online backup service that has, until this week, not been available to Mac users.
Features are said to include:
• Automatic Backup—No schedules to set, no backup jobs to run
• Carbonite run automatically whenever and wherever you’re online
• Unlimited storage
• Manage bandwidth usage with Bandwidth Saver
• Easy File Restoration with the Restore Assistant
• Once set up (about five minutes), Carbonite is completely automatic
• Secure and encrypted
• $49.95/year (15 day free trial)See also: Referral program—”For every friend who buys a subscription you get 3 months free”
That was easy…
Unless backing up is easy and utterly transparent to user, it just doesn’t get done. That said, how easy is Carbonite to use?
Well, downloading, installing and configuring (one step account registration required) Carbonite takes about five minutes. The default configuration backs up your “users” folder and, as noted above, you get unlimited storage.
Upon starting Carbonite, the application stated that I should expect 2 to 3 gigabytes of backup per day (max) until my data is fully mirrored online. Thereafter, keeping my data up to date will require significantly less time per day and, of course, less data transfer.
In my case, Carbonite identified 11.47GB of data in my users folder. If my 60+ GB iTunes Library was stored there as well it would be backed up.
Thereupon, in the 90 minutes or so since Carbonite started running (Roadrunner 7Mbps / 384k cable), it managed to upload about 100MB. At this rate, it will take perhaps four days to finish the initial back up and, barring tragedy, that’s acceptable.
Keeping track of which files have and have not been backed up is simple—green dots mean finished; yellow dots in progress and red dots haven’t started.
So, is it worth $50 per year? For me, I got the back up habit a long time ago and have multiple external drives, which contain everything from preferences and network settings to documents and email, as well as media files (music, movies, photos, etc). Further, my iTunes and iPhoto libraries get backed up to DVD annually and this approach hasn’t let me down. Still, the way I do things cost hundreds to set up and requires my active participation.
That said, if you aren’t in the habit or have failed to get the back up religion, Carbonite certainly makes it easy to protect your data and keep it safe without your assistance (or hindrance).
How do back up your stuff? Share your path to your back up Zen state below…
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March 7th, 2009
I have found that the BackUPMAX Online Backup service for Mac and Windows has far more features and better security. It can even help locate a lost computer and erase sensitive data from stolen computers by remote! Here’s a link to a secret page with a free six month account: http://backupmax.com/2996
BackUPMAX was written by these guys: http://remote-backup.com and they sell software that can put anyone into the online backup business with the same kinds of features as in your article.
March 12th, 2009
Backblaze also offers an online backup service for just $5 per month or $50 per year. However, Backblaze:
* Backs up all data automatically (not just your “Users” folder)
* Backs up external drives
* Allows you to access your data online
And has been called the simplest online backup solution by Cnet, US News, TechCrunch, a myriad others.
Give it a try free: https://www.backblaze.com