Everyone should back their data up in case their computer suddenly fails or is even lost or stolen. Many will back their data up on mediums like external hard drives, but it requires a certain amount of disciple to remember to hook your laptop up to one. Another problem with backing data up on such mediums is that they can be corrupted or lost. Since the advent of fast internet connections, it has therefore become possible to back data up on to online backup services.
There are two main online backup services: Mozy and Carbonite. Both offer a similar service: they upload files differentially and incrementally (as they are updated or made) to a server and those files can then be retrieved. Both are now also available for Windows and OS X. Prices are similar, although Mozy does offer users 2GB free of charge.
Carbonite offers a 15 day free trial, where you don’t even have to input your credit card information. This, like a regular subscription, allows you an unlimited amount of storage. Unlike a paid user, free trial users can’t upload music or movies, quite understandably. Paid users have no issue though.
I personally use Carbonite, but wouldn’t advise anyone against Mozy. Carbonite was quite simple to set-up, my only complaints are that it didn’t automatically configure the OS X firewall or my ports and a few minor user interface issues. I expect that it is much more polished on Windows, as their OS X version is a recent release.
Carbonite also provide remote access, so you can access your backed up files anywhere. This is useful if you need a file off your home PC at work, for example.
Uploading is fairly fast. After I configured my firewall and ports correctly, I managed to get a couple of gigabytes uploaded in one night. That is impressive considering I’m on a relatively slow (2Mbps downstream) ADSL2 connection.
Carbonite’s customer support solved any of my problems but I felt a lot of the dialog was scripted and for some reason it all seemed a little impersonal. Still, they provided me with solutions in a reasonable timeframe in a courteous manner.
Now, pricing. Carbonite is $55/year and Mozy (for home users) is $4.95/month. However, it is possible to easily save 20% on this through using Subscription.com . A couple of extra clicks can save $11 on Carbonite and 15% on Mozy. Go through this page for a Mozy and Carbonite offer code. I did this and found it a remarkably easy process.
Disclosure: Subscription.com reimbursed my purchasing a Carbonite licence under the condition that I reviewed it on my personal weblog. I was in no way required to show bias or blog about Carbonite on gHacks, I simply chose to as it’s a good service.
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I will try Carbonite, just because the name!
After using Mozy, I found JungleDisk and Crashplan to be much better products.
I’ve ready many reports that Carbonite’s “unlimited” is not really unlimited. Apparently “unlimited” means that if you go over what they consider “normal” storage your account will be revoked. Can anyone else confirm this? I found a bunch of posts on this by searching for Carbonite reviews.
I wrote a nice article in the past titled when unlimited means limited: http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/03/when-unlimited-means-limited/ Not about Carbonite though as they probably did not exist back then.
Yeah I think carbonite is great too, but dosen’t this worry anyone else?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10202498-92.html
I think Carbonite is the best since they have remote access. You can get a Carbonite Offer Code and save even more money:
at http://www.subscription.com/carbonite/
Carbonite sounds great but it lacks some important features for me, since I mostly backup external HDD, network drives and USB drives from both my Pc and Mac. Most providers don’t have these features but this wasn’t a problem for SafeCopy (www.safecopybackup.com). It allows me to do the above features plus I can share the same account for both my Mac and Pc. I’m very happy with it and it’s worth checking out.