With Carbonite, Protecting Your Important Files and Precious Memories Has Never Been Easier

Being a gadget site, you’ll often hear us throw around terms like “must have” and “the one gadget you can’t live without.”  We can’t help ourselves; we see certain devices or pieces of tech and can’t wait to share them with our readers–it’s what we do. But as hard as this is to admit, at the end of the day, they’re just “things.”  Whether it’s your car getting hit in the parking lot  or the screen cracking on your new iPhone, it may inconvenience you and cost you money, but most things can be repaired or replaced.

I bring this up because we sometimes put so much attention and importance on things that are completely replaceable, we sometimes forget about the things that are not. Of course our loved ones are at the top of this list, but what about more subtle things….like our memories; memories that come in the form of pictures, audio and video? How about intellectual properties such as business documents or your senior thesis? We live in a time when some of the most important things in our lives are now stored digitally; it’s made our lives much easier but at the same time it’s made us much more vulnerable. For this very reason, Carbonite may be one of the best purchases you’ll ever make. Simply put, Carbonite is a service that backs up every file on your computer–remotely. I know many of you have separate hard drives, both internal and external, tasked with backing up your precious files just in case something happens to your computer; I even burn DVD’s of all of my family photos and movies every 3 months as a failsafe. But what happens if there’s a fire? Or a robbery?  I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but while the concept of keeping backups is a good one, keeping them all in the same place is not. This is what makes Carbonite invaluable; because your hard drive is backed up remotely on their servers, your important files and documents are safely stored AWAY from the originals should disaster strike. Of course Carbonite is there for the mini-disasters as well. Who hasn’t, at one time or another, accidentally deleted a file or thrown an important email in the virtual trash? Even though your files are stored remotely, getting them back is a simple click away.

Here’s how it works: After signing up for the Carbonite service, you download a small app to your Mac or PC to get started. This application allows you to sign in and tell Carbonite whether you’d like to back up specific files or your entire hard drive–that’s it. Carbonite then starts copying anything you’ve selected from your hard drive to their own remote servers over the internet. You’ll notice that the first time you back up your computer it may take several days, depending on the amount of data you’re backing up–uploading files is also always more time consuming than downloading. After the initial backup is done, Carbonite simply backs things up every day as you add new information to your computer. One of the things I like most about the service is how seamlessly it works in the background; the software knows when your computer is not being used and uses that downtime to do the majority of the backups. Though you’ll barely notice anything is going on in the background, the software also allows you to pause backups, as well as reduce the bandwidth of your uploads should you need full processing power or faster internet speeds.

I’m also a big fan of how easy it is to retrieve lost files. Unlike Time Machine for the Mac, where you have to choose a specific date and time to go back to in order to get your old file, Carbonite has an easier process. Using their simple menu system, go to any folder on your hard drive (documents, photos, desktop, etc.) and you will find EVERY file that has ever been in that folder since you started doing backups–no need to remember what date you last remember having your file…if it was there once, it’s there now.

Carbonite has done 2 very important things when it comes to customer satisfaction with this type of product: It’s kept the backup and retrieval process simple and manages to do its job without the user even knowing it’s there. Now, for the final part of the equation–cost. I suddenly feel like a late night infomercial about to ask “how much would YOU pay for a product this important?” Carbonite was very smart in this respect as well, keeping the price reasonable and accessible–it costs less than $5 a month…and that’s for UNLIMITED storage. Whether you have to back up a few hundred megs of information or a full terabyte hard drive, Carbonite is a flat rate of $55 dollars a year–a small price to pay considering the peace of mind that comes with it.

I started this piece by pointing out how much we like to throw around terms like “can’t live without” when it come to the world of technology; but considering what a vital role our computers play in our daily lives and how valuable the information inside them can be, Carbonite truly has attained “must have” status for me.

Tags: back up my hard drive backing up hard drives backup carbonite carbonite review carbonite service remote backup