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This was one of the reasons I also left Carbonite when my one-year subscription was up. I have lots of files that fall into their 'will not backup' category. Most of them, like .exe's, can be backuped if you go to them one-at-a-time, right-click and tell them to, but there are some files in my installation sets that it just wouldn't touch no matter what. I kept asking them for a feature that would allow me to point to a specific folder and have Carbonite backup everything in that tree without regard for extension, but they were not impressed.
So then what's the point? It doesn't help if Carbonite only backs up some of the files needed to install a program. The program won't install with half the files any better than with none of the files. Even if you can scour your drive looking for individual files to tag, isn't that the whole point of software like this... to do it for us?
But there are a few other things that were a problem for me with Carbonite that are worth mentioning. One of the most annoying things about the product is in the way it scans every folder and 'grabs' new files to backup the instant you create them. The result is this...
Do you ever use the 'new' option under the context menu to create new files? I do for a couple of file types, such as text files. If I'm going to put a readme.txt file in a folder, I create it with the right-click/new feature, name it, then hit enter a second time to open it and write my note. Quick, easy and efficient. But here's the thing with Carbonite. It can't wait to get the new file into its system and so it refreshes the folder instantly on the file being created and whips it away in alphabetical order. So you have to go search for your file under the name 'New Text File.txt' and then rename it from there. I have suggested that they just add a 30 second delay to the cataloging of newly created files, but that didn't appeal to them.
That's not the only problem with the constant refreshing of the folders. Ever have a folder with lots of files and want to go through the folder selecting a set of them that you are going to do something with? An example would be a set of photos. You look through the thumbnails, and Ctrl-Click on those you want to copy out to send a family member. But with Carbonite installed, part of the way through your review, it refreshes your folder and you lose your selections. It's infuriating.
The idea of web-based backups is good, so I've checked out a few others. I spent some real time with Syncplicity, but it didn't work out for a variety of reasons. (Cost as well as lost data.) So I'll probably move over to Mozy as well. None of the online solutions are my primary backups. I have all of my files on my new Dell desktop autobacked onto a 1TB Seagate external drive. But there is no substitute for an off-site backup.
I am reminded of a colleague that I spoke with while traveling overseas last summer. He and his wife are both professionals who travel extensively and they both travel separately. Their backup solution was to use the Internet to keep all of their files on both computers no matter where they were in the world. The flaw in that strategy (actually, there are several) came when they were both home at the same time. They went out to dinner and someone broke into their apartment and stole both computers. Oops! The same idea has occured to me with my setup. I am well-protected against a hard disk failure, but if someone comes in and steals my computer, they're likely to grab that external drive as well. $3.89 a month is not too high a price to pay for a little extra insurance.
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