Back Up Your Valuable Data with Carbonite

Technology is progressing each day. People are now relying more on their computers, laptops and mobiles for their day-to-day work and thus are saving gigabytes of data. Digital data is more personal than ever. We now keep our pictures, videos, important documents and every other small thing saved on hard disks, SSDs, memory cards and other digital media. But have you ever thought about what will happen if disaster strikes and in front of you, just in an instant, everything, and all your important data just vanishes into thin air because the damn drive failed on you without warning? Now what? How will you recover all your precious memories which were saved as pictures and videos? How will you recover your important work-related documents? Maybe you should have kept a backup of your data. But to be honest, most of us are too lazy to complete regular backups manually.

Wouldn’t it be great if there’s a service which will silently back up your data to the cloud and when disaster strikes, with a click of a button restores all your data back? Just like magic! Well, today we will be reviewing one such online backup solution, Carbonite. Let’s dive in to find out how it works and if we can rely on it with our precious data.

Carbonite: A Brief Overview

Carbonite was founded back in 2005. Since its launch in 2006, Carbonite has helped customers safely back up more than 300 billion files and recover nearly 20 billion files, which might have been lost forever! Carbonite automatically backs up files on your PC or Mac and keeps them securely at its data centers.

carbonite

Once installed on your PC or Mac, it continuously monitors your files for changes and automatically backs them up when you’re connected to the internet. After a full backup is complete (which might take a while depending on the size of your data and your internet upload speed), you can get access to them from virtually anywhere. You can also use free Carbonite mobile apps to access, enjoy and share your files from your smartphone or tablet.

Getting Started

Simply visit Carbonite website and click the Download Free Trial link. You will be presented with a 15 day free trial form. Simply fill out the sign up form; you don’t need a credit card for the trial.

Tip! Use offer code SUNNY13 during trial sign up and get 2 bonus months when you purchase.

After you have filled out the form, click on the Start Free Trial button to start downloading the program.

The download is around 10 MB in size, so it may take a minute or two to complete, and you can then start the installer.

carbonite backup

After it unpack and does some background staff, you will be presented with the option to personalize your Carbonite subscription. Fill in the details the wizard asks for and click the Next button.

carbonite backup

Now you can customize backup settings. For most users, keeping the Automatic button selected is recommended. If you are a power user, you can change the advanced settings by selecting the Advanced button. Click on the Next button to continue.

carbonite backup

After everything is set up, Carbonite displays a review window for you to check if everything is okay. You can always click on the Back button to change anything here. Click on the Start Backup Now button to let Carbonite automatically protect your pictures, documents and other important computer files by backing them up automatically to the cloud.

carbonite backup

Backup Options

If the main program window is not displayed, right-click the system tray icon and select Launch InfoCenter. You can change what you would like to back up by clicking on the Settings link on the left of the window. Under settings, click the Edit Settings link which is beside Online Backup. You can tick the boxes next to how you want Carbonite to back up and then click Save.

carbonite backup

From within the InfoCenter you cannot select the folders or files you want to back up. For that, you have to open Computer (or My Computer) and double-click on Carbonite Backup Drive. Double-click on Backed up Files; right-click on the drive or folder that you want to include in your backup, select Allow backup.

carbonite backup

To exclude a folder or file from backup, select Do not back up. You can also do the same from within Windows Explorer context menu. Carbonite encrypts everything before the data leaves your computer and is stored to the cloud.

Restoring a Backup

Should something go wrong with your computer, recovering your backed up data is a very simple process. Click the Restore link to the left of the program. You have three ways by which you can restore data.

carbonite backup

You can search for particular files to restore them. You can use wildcards to search for files by extension too. This option is useful to restore individual files or folders.

carbonite backup

You also have the option to browse your backup and select which files and folders you want to restore. Using this option you can also restore a earlier version of a file; Right-click on a file which is backed up and select Restore Previous Versions.

You obviously have the option to restore all your files at once. When you select to restore all your files, an easy to use wizard starts up to help you restore your data. Simply follow the wizard to get back all which was lost!

carbonite backup

carbonite backup

Wrapping Up

The online backup features available in Carbonite are very extensive. But if you would like to be able to continue using the service, you’ll have to subscribe to a plan before your trial expires – there are various plans available and details are available at Carbonite.com. Unlimited backup space for one computer starts at $59/year. If you run a small business, Carbonite has plans that will back up all of your computers, servers and external hard drives for a low, flat, annual fee.

This is just one of many online backup tools that are available. If you think you’ve found a better one, or if you have any tips about safeguarding your data, let us know in the comments below.

I participated in this sponsored post with Burst Media, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Please refer here for my complete disclosure. Advertisement

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