• Important! If you attempt to register and do not get an email within 5 minutes please check your spam box. This is especially true for Microsoft owned domains like Hotmail, Outlook, and Live. If these do not work please consider Gmail. Yahoo, or even AOL email which works fine.

Is there a better online backup than Carbonite?

BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
I had a free 2GB account at Dropbox which I was using to store our a forum backup and all the mods and stuff, but it recently broke the 2GB limit for a free account. So I started looking at prices... Dropbox is like $100 for 50 GB and $200 a year for 100 GB of storage... If I'm going to pay I'm going to want to backup everything- videos, music, pictures, and I'm well over 100 GB...

I see Carbonite is like $50 a year for unlimited storage... much better deal it seems. The catch is by default Carbonite won't backup videos, exe's. and other files- but you can override these on a filetype by filetype basis... which is annoying because there's like 100 extensions it won't backup by default. I don't see why they won't have an "Allow all" option for those of us who know what we are doing.

I'm trying their free 15 day trial now, but I could easily be switched to a better backup before I pay if one is out there. I want something with an unlimited storage (or at least 250 GB) for $100 a year or less, that allows all folders I specify to be backed up. Extra points if it can detect when I'm not using the computer and backup then, which Carbonite also doesn't seem to do.
 
BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
That looks pretty cool...

IDrive retains and allows you to restore the last 30 versions of all files backed up to your account, to any location on your local computer. Better yet, your storage is computed only for the most current version; historical versions are stored free.
Click to expand...
But would be $150 a year for me... still will strongly consider it though, thanks. :thup2:
 
J

Justin

Damn.
VIP
RhodeIslandRed said:
unlimited isn't as unlimited as you might think...
Click to expand...
My host says I have "unlimited" space. I realize that the real limit there is the drive space they have in their data center. I should just start uploading massive ZIP files or something to see if I can hit the wall. :jump:
 
RhodeIslandRed

RhodeIslandRed

The man, myth and legend©
Justin said:
My host says I have "unlimited" space. I realize that the real limit there is the drive space they have in their data center. I should just start uploading massive ZIP files or something to see if I can hit the wall. :jump:
Click to expand...
An account I had with godaddy was unlimited but IIRC about 200mb was the largest file I could put there.... :rolleyes:
 
J

Justin

Damn.
VIP
RhodeIslandRed said:
An account I had with godaddy was unlimited but IIRC about 200mb was the largest file I could put there.... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I just queued up a 2.5GB ISO image to upload via FTP to my host and it was accepting it just fine. I wish it was faster though, usually tops out around 300-500 KB/s
 
BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
Meh... SafeCopy was showing even slower uploads than Carbonite. They have a better interface though.
 
BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
Meh... Carbonite has been running over 24 hours now, I am only 20% through a ~60GB initial syncing I wanted to do. Haven't even touched music or movies/videos yet.

I guess it will me OK once the initial syncing is done but this is crazy.
 
BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
We are now 4 days into what has been almost constant uploading on Carbonite... even with a 25 up/25 down internet connection carbonite uses only a fraction of the available bandwidth.

I am at 43% of just under 90 GB and I haven't even started uploading my music yet. :eek:
 
twylie

twylie

VIP
BirdOPrey5 said:
We are now 4 days into what has been almost constant uploading on Carbonite... even with a 25 up/25 down internet connection carbonite uses only a fraction of the available bandwidth.

I am at 43% of just under 90 GB and I haven't even started uploading my music yet. :eek:
Click to expand...
They throttle large initial backups; be patient. FWIW, I have been happy w/ Carbonite for our small office. As close to set and forget as it comes. I've restored 2 laptops using it and it's worked as advertised. I do wish there were easier ways to manage file types rather than find and enable each one.

Wasted monies to upgrade your FIOS.

How Carbonite Allocates Bandwidth

The average Carbonite user backs up between 3GB and 4GB per day, but the speed of your Internet connection is the primary limiting factor for the speed of your backup. For example, a FIOS (fiber optic connection) user will back up and restore at a much higher rate than a DSL user. A cable user may backup and restore slower during peak Cable usage times. Additionally, Carbonite slows down while you are using your computer to avoid interfering with the important activities you may be performing.

Carbonite allocates more bandwidth to new users doing a typical initial backup of less than 35GB, and less to users after their backup exceeds 200GB. Once your initial backup is complete, updates to your backup usually take only a few minutes each day.

Our bandwidth policy is allocated into three tiers as shown below. This allows us to ensure that all users are able to backup their most important data as quickly as possible. Actual speeds may vary depending on your Internet connection, your computer's configuration, other Internet-enabled software you may be running, and how often you use your computer. The current maximum upload speeds are as follows:

The first 35GB of data can achieve upload speeds of up to 2 mbps (megabits per second).
Between 35GB - 200GB of data can have the upload speeds reach up to 512 kbps (kilobits per second).
200GB or more of data can be uploaded at up to 100 kbps (kilobits per second).


Note: The speeds indicated above are the maximum speeds that can be achieved. Most customers up to the 200GB mark tend to back up around the average of 3GB - 4GB per day.

While Carbonite offers unlimited backup, users with more than 200GB of data selected for back up will find that completing their initial backup will take a longer period of time. However, you can select for your important documents to be backed up first. After they have been backed up, you can then add any additional files to your backup. To add or remove files from your backup on a Windows computer, you can right-click on the location you wish to add or remove and select Carbonite; Back this up (to remove items select Carbonite; Don't back this up). For Macs you can manage your backup through the Carbonite Preference Pane.

This only affects back up (upload) speeds and not restore (download) speeds. Carbonite can typically handle download speeds of up to 10mbps regardless of how much data you are restoring. This also depends on the speed of your Internet connection, how fast your computer operates, length of time your computer is connected to the Internet, and how much you use your computer.

Carbonite can restore data at up to 10mbps, although most consumer Internet connections are slower than this. If your Internet connection provides download speeds of 10mbps and the only activity being performed by your computer is your Carbonite restore process, it is possible to restore as much as 100GB per day.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
Carbonite's bandwidth policy really sucks but since I'm actually paying less for more with FiOS now it still wasn't a waste.

I installed iDrive last night and it plowed through 2.5 GB in a few hours even with carbonite running at the same time. Much faster than carbonite.

The problem I see however is the backup got to 99% last night and the program froze... I had to kill the app via task manager and restart it to finish it off this morning. I have another 2GB folder uploading this morning to see if it's going to bug out again. Also a pain with iDrive is it takes a long time to "calculate" files that need to be backed up rather than just backing them up.

If iDrive runs OK I will probably just buy the premium account on them and cancel carbonite... we're at 45% this morning, it's unlikely I will make it past the 100% mark by the time the trial ends, especially if I tried to backup everything I really want to backup.
 
Big AL

Big AL

Cool Dood.
I understand you are talking about an online back up but why not use the money to buy an external HDD. I got a 1T for under A$100.

This is plenty to store a lot of back up. The Juot backup you can store in the compressed GZ format and it will only take up a small amount of room.

The other benefits are that it seems more secure than having other online sites storing your information.

I think you can now get USB 3 HDD so the transfer would be a lot quicker. And you are not dependent on your internet connection.

With the very large amount of storage area that is available now on external HDD. I cannot really see any use for an online storage that costs you more and is subject to the whims of said storage organizations.
 
BirdOPrey5

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
I have local backups too... But an online backup is invaluable in case of catastrophic issues... House fire, theft, unlikely series of events, etc... I'd feel better knowing my data was somewhere outside my local area.

Plus it's not like I even have anything highly confidential either, I wouldn't care all that much if security was compromised...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top