Carbonite

[MikeV]

This was touched on briefly in another thread but this got me thinking....a rare occurance...I thought I would get carbonite to back up my computer so I got a hold of Carbonite and chatted (on line chat) with a rep. I asked , what I thought was a simple question. At first the rep didn't seem to understand my question and after several attempts to explain to her what it was I wanted to know...I found out that the answer is....you can't.
My question....If my computer crashes as most computers will do, and mine has done before...and I cannot go online ...how can I retrieve anything from Carbonite?
Can this be true? seems to me that when a computer crashes, you can't open anything, much less go online. If this is the case, whats the point in using Carbonite?

 

[Greg Pack]

I belive the intent is to access it with another computer, or your computer after it has been repaired.

 

[teamplex65]

If your computer is damaged, stolen or “just dies” and you lose all your files, you can easily restore them to a new computer.

The key here is "new computer".

It looks like carbonite can do 2 things.

1. If you delete a file and want it back, you can restore it using the program on your computer.

2. If you computer completly fails you can buy a new computer, install carbonite, and restore your files that it continually backed up from the failed computer.

 

[MikeV]

That's not much help in trying to restore your one and only computer after it crashes, is it?

 

[teamplex65]

If your one and only computer is beyond fixing then a new computer will have to be purchased and you can restore onto that.

If its just the hard drive that crashes a new hard drive ($100) and a reinstall of the operating system will get you back on the internet. Re-install carbonite and move your important files back onto your computer.

 

[jfmoran]

So..

So, what if you're computer crashes and your hard drive is irreparable and you don't have carbonite backing up your files?

 

[teamplex65]

I think you know the answer to that question

Even if you dont use carbonite I recommend having an external hard drive. They cost around $70 and usually come with a basic auto backup program.

 

[MEP001]

An inexpensive protection for files on a computer is to use two identical internal drives and a mirror RAID array.

As was mentioned in another thread, many people don't know where their files are saved. I've talked to a number of people looking for a file on a computer, and it's surprising how few can browse in Windows Explorer to find something. I always recommend using the "My Documents" folder for all files and backups. Rather than doing any type of full backup myself, I just back up important files manually, and when I need to reformat or upgrade hardware I reinstall the programs and copy the files to the new "My Documents" folder. It should be something the average computer user could and would be willing to do, IMO.