Carbonite Online Backup

Will you survive a PC disaster?

I’ve looked over the edge of the “data is history” cliff many times - and it is a frightening place.

Think carefully about how much critical information is now on your computer — photos, files, financial data, music, and e-mail. We know we should back up our data — but we rarely find the time or go through the hassle of manually doing backups. I know I should do backups, but never consistently did them — and I’m a geek guy.

Yet, over my time with PC’s, I’ve lost three hard drives to failure. Scot’s rule of technology is simple: when you desperately need it, it will fail. And hard drives only fail when they are getting data for you.

I’ve tried four different backup programs. I’ve tried backing up to current drives and to external drives. I’ve looked at off-line storage of backups.

It’s frustrating

When it comes to backing up data, I’ve decided there are only four points that matter:

1. Setup the backup once and be able to forget it.
2. As files change, the backup occurs; not once a day or week or month
3. Backing up completes automatically
4. You need an easy way to recover data

It took a long time to find a good service that met these needs.

The search landed at Carbonite

Carbonite provides online backup of your PC data in the background. I installed the program in a few clicks. The program automatically selects standard folders to back up - such as My Documents - and then starts sending these files to their storage area.

You can easily add folders to back up with an easy-to-use interface installed on your PC. Once selected, you are on autopilot.

The proof is data recovery

Many programs tout how great they are at backing up data. Then, when the disaster happens, they utterly fail on the data recovery. Carbonite has been through the data recovery test here. I’ve recovered files, folders - and switched the subscription and downloaded my data to a new PC. Clear instructions, easy to do - necessary characteristics of a great program, but when you are scared all of your data is gone, a critical benefit of Carbonite.

I have three computers in my home network - all backed up with Carbonite. Since I run my life through my computers, I’ve been to the well with Carbonite - and am happy to recommend it.

You can download a free 15-day trial subscription and check it out yourself. And finally have some peace of mind on backing up your information.

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