Easiest way to backup your desktop
Have you ever stopped to think about what might happen if you lost your all the data on your hard drive? All of those E-mails, music you’ve downloaded, pictures of the kids, documents that you’ve written, school work you’ve created, etc. How much time and money would be lost?
Depending on the scenario, sometimes data can be recovered by taking your hard drive to a specialist (ie. Sector Logics, Fields Data Recovery, etc.) and they can take the platters from inside your hard drive and re-mount them which enables them to bypass the problem if it was a hardware failure. This scenario is relatively expensive compared to backing up your data proactively and having a readily available restore handy.
To accomplish this most people are purchasing external USB hard drives that you can find at Best Buy, Office Max, Walmart, etc. These usually start around $80 and can go all the way to $1,000 depending on the size of disk that you want and/or need. This requires a little bit of technical knowlege to get it setup.
I found Carbonite.com and it has saved my life! This program is easy to install and the only configuration that you have to give it is what to backup. That’s it! No more info than that! It’s realy that easy. It has several great features above the rest:
- Unlimited storage – no matter how many mp3′s or iTunes music you download, no matter how many E-mails you have, no matter how many pictures you’ve taken, it’s all the same price.
- Completely automated – it starts backing up files that are created or changed as soon as a file is created (assuming that it’s in a folder that you told Carbonite to backup).
- Files are encrypted – As Carbonite backs up your files they are encrypted.
- Easy restore – Carbonite offers a very user friendly interface for restores
- Off-site backups – all of your files are backed up over the internet. This provides for protection against natural disasters like tornados, hurricanes, floods, etc.
This has saved me several times when my wife has accidentally deleted files. Within minutes I was able to restore the data. All of this for only $49.95/yr.
Please let me know if you have any experience with this product? Thanks!
Filed Under: Desktop Support
Wow – this is great information… Is there a referral bonus or discount you can get if I sign up under you?
Hey Glen, Great post and some great information here, especially about the Carbonite.com I think I will look into it. I’m hoping it’s easy to install, whereas I’m not a real techi.
@Glenn
David Friend, CEO of Carbonite, here. I wanted to drop a quick note to thank you for recommending Carbonite. Backing up files is so important, yet so few people actually do it. Our research has told us that the majority of people who don’t back up would if they could find an easy solution. That’s precisely why I started Carbonite. Thanks for helping to spread the word about online backup, and specifically, Carbonite. We’re glad to have you as a customer.
Thanks,
David Friend
@jj-momscashblog
We designed Carbonite to be the easiest online backup software to use. It installs with just a few clicks and our default settings are designed to find all the files we consider irreplaceable (photos, e-mails, spreadsheets, etc.) and back them all up automatically. Plus, we put little dots on the files so that you can quickly see what’s backed up and what’s not. There’s nothing new for you to learn and you can be confident that Carbonite will keep your files safe. I hope that you decide to give Carbonite a try– you’ll see just how easy backup can be.
Sincerely,
David Friend
Glenn,
Thanks for the information. I use carbonite and we love it! I told my family and friends and they love it too! So easy and great to know my pics and data are always being backed up with no work!
Thanks,
George Middendorf