[JMac]

Hmmm..

Maybe they can explain how they do math, also.

The backup status of my notebook that I started yesterday:

Your Backup contains: 1,140 MB (29,090 files)

Awaiting Backup: 962 MB (428 files)

Whoa - before I even got those numbers posted, it changed and is more correct now.

Your Backup contains: 1,140 MB (29,090 files)

Awaiting Backup: 1,662 MB (428 files)

Seems to take quite a while to calculate.

[JMac]

Hmmm..

Maybe they can explain how they do math, also.

The backup status of my notebook that I started yesterday:

Your Backup contains: 1,140 MB (29,090 files)

Awaiting Backup: 962 MB (428 files)

Whoa - before I even got those numbers posted, it changed and is more correct now.

Your Backup contains: 1,140 MB (29,090 files)

Awaiting Backup: 1,662 MB (428 files)

Seems to take quite a while to calculate.

[dan.carter]

So, let me see if I understand this. No one at the company can look at data without upper management. And I'm supposed to believe that my data is more secure being looked at by upper management? Why would anyone in the company EVER be allowed to access MY data for ANY reason?

And we wouldn't want to store our really important information at this offsite location? Then what is the point? Isn't our mission critical information our first concern?

Keep in mind, if one person in this company found one piece of your data they wished to profit by, it could be delivered around the world to thousands of others in a second.

[Phillip Dyson]

I've been mulling the need for a backup strategy in my head for quite sometime. Privacy is one of my concerns too.

One possible solution that I can see is to create encrypted backup archives on my side then have those uploaded to an online backup site. Of course that means my backups are always large bulk transfers.

[JMac]

Originally Posted by dan.carter

...And we wouldn't want to store our really important information at this offsite location?...

That is correct - at least for me.

...Then what is the point? Isn't our mission critical information our first concern?...

Yes, and what is truly critical for me I can backup easily myself. Without exposing it online.

The sheer volume of my digital photos and music makes MY local backups quite large and unwieldy. Presently I backup all to an external drive, plus I make two sets of DVDs (currently 8 DVDs per backup set): one set is stored locally in my office. I keep them in a Disc Stakka unit by Imation. The other I drop off at my bank - I had a "free" safe deposit box with my accounts there that was not being used otherwise.

As I said, the critical info can easily fit on one DVD. So Carbonite is certainly worth a try for me.

[encece]

Giving it a try. Right before my Hard Drive crashed on my laptop, I had luckily boght and copied all of my data to a 200GB External Drive.

After I bought a new internal drive for my PC and re-installed windows....I decided to not put the data back onto my PC. So I was looking for a backup solution.

This would fit the bill BUT....I am unable to backup data from my External drive. It will not accept my request to flag it for backup.

I already emailed support but has anyone else had this problem?

[JMac]

What backup software are you using? What OS version? What kind of external drive? File system on the drive?

Gotta give us a clue!

Edit: Hey, we're neighbors! I'm right near you in Ridley Park!

[ctmagnus]

Does it work with drive-letter integration? Ie, is it able to integrate with backup solutions such as Handy Backup?

[Swami Kumaresan]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Hmm. Interesting. In my talks with Carbonite, that never came up. Perhaps I'm reading it wrong, but it seems to be focused more on the monthly usage of bandwidth. As in, your first month your account usage will be high. In month three, if you were to suddenly add another 100 GB worth of data, that would cause a red flag on Carbonite's end and they'd talk to you. That doesn't seem to unusual to me, and I'd think that if there's a legitimate reason for the customer adding that extra 100 GB of data, Carbonite wouldn't cancel the account. It's an interesting point though and I'm going to ask someone from Carbonite to step into the thread and clarify what that policy means.

All I know is that I have about 70 GB total uploaded, and I'm very happy about it. :mrgreen:

(You realize though that 99% of Carbonite's customers are not going to have 100 GB of data to back up though, right? They'll lose money on someone like me, but make money on someone like my in-laws who only have about 3 GB worth of data to back up. That's how companies like this make money, it all averages out.)

I work for Carbonite and Jason is generally correct. Frankly, we don't really want his 70GB :wink: but we're happy he told his in-laws about us. At this point our average user has about 5GB of data. Carbonite is perfect for the home user, student, road warrior etc. who has about 1-15GB of data they need to back up. Does that mean we'll cancel Jason's account? Of course not. We'll lose money on a few people, make money on the rest.

Every now and then we get someone who tries to send us 300GB or something - they usually quit when they realize their cable modem is going to take 9 months to complete their first backup! We probably wouldn't keep an account like that around today at $5/mo. In the future, since storage and comms cost are dropping so rapidly, larger users will become more profitable. So in a year, when Jason's account is 120GB, our costs would have fallen to compensate. (If you just did the math on 70, 120, 1 year etc...I made those up


So why do we say unlimited storage? Is it a trick? No, it really isn't. Why would we say unlimited only to cancel accounts right after someone signs up. THE REASON we say unlimited is that the average PC user (none of you is probably in this group) doesn't really know what 1GB is. That's why Apple markets the iPod saying "stores 10,000 songs". We want to keep Carbonite as simple as possible. Simplicity and price are our advantage. If a user has to worry about tiered pricing etc. it just adds complication which turns most people off.

[JMac]

Hi Swami.

I'm using a trial for two or three days now, on my notebook, and it's still at 93%, so you're correct, it would take several months for a 100 - 120 GB backup.

I also notice that it initially throws an error when I start my notebook up, then resumes working normally. I would guess that it is activated too early in the startup sequence - trying to back up before my internet connect is fully up.

I also notice that it is difficult to see if it is truly backing up what I requested. It claims to have about 2.5 GB for a total backup size, but I am trying to backup about 8 GB. Unless this is due to a compression factor.

Thanks for such a useful product, Swami. Much appreciated!

[JMac]

OK, I seem to have uncovered a major issue with Carbonite. At least it's a major issue on my system.

I've been using the Carbonite trial on my notebook PC, which is connected to my desktop PC wirelessly via my home network, for a few days now. At the same time, my desktop PC has suddenly been throwing error messages at me and refusing to respond. (I was really glad for a while that I am getting a new PC built and it will be ready in about two weeks.)

The desktop would stop responding - first, I cannot open any new programs. Then it won't open any new Windows dialogs at all. After a few restarts I would finally get it going, but I could not diagnose the issue.

Event viewer showed the same few errors over and over: all with the event ID 32 or 59. They read as follow:

• Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC80.MFCLOC could not be found and Last Error was The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.
  
  
• Resolve Partial Assembly failed for Microsoft.VC80.MFCLOC. Reference error message: The referenced assembly is not installed on your system.
  
  
• Generate Activation Context failed for C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.VC80.MFC_1fc8b3b9a1e8e3b_8.0.50727.42 x-ww_dec6ddd2\MFC80U.DLL. Refernce error message: The operation completed successfully.

I researched the errors and found that they refer to RAS and/or PPP problems, but only for Windows Server 2003-based computers with Terminal Server enabled. Which was confusing as I am running XP Pro on both my PC's.

After several iterations of this problem suddenly appearing and then disappearing just as quickly, it finally dawned on me that this was only a problem while my notebook was up and running - and of course connected to Carbonite. As soon as I shut down the notebook, these errors on my desktop PC would immediately resolve.

I can replicate this at will; Start desktop PC, all is well. Start notebook PC, Carbonite starts, and the desktop goes to crap. Shut down the notebook PC, the desktop suddenly is fine. Start the notebook and shut down Carbonite and the desktop first goes nuts, then is cured as soon as Carbonite is shut down.

This drove me crazy... OK, crazIER - because the special hotfixes available from MS are only to be used on a Windows Server 2003-based OS, and I at first was not suspecting a connection on my networked notebook PC to cause such massive issues on my desktop PC!

I haven't notified Carbonite about this yet, but I will right after I post this. More important to let you all know about it first.

Has anyone else run into any such strange problems on a PC that is networked to the PC you are running Carbonite on?