Posted on 10/04/2008 5:50:01 AM PDT by VA Voter
Carbonite is not working on my laptop. OS = IE 7.0.5730.13. It won't backup. The most it's done is 3% BU. I've uninstalled and reinstalled 5-6 times, chatted and talked with tech support. Gotten emails after each uninstall begging me to reconsider. Have had 15 day free trial reset twice. I give up on this product. She'sa justa no work.
Any recommendations on another product would be greatly appreciated.
Go out and buy an external USB drive, and backup your files to it manually.
Say that again
In the past I’ve tried to BU manually but really want an automatic system of some sort.
All you have to do is run ntbackup(start>run>ntbackup) and create a backup job that runs when you schedule it. All you would have to do is plug the drive in, and it will do all of the work for you. You will only have to manually do it yourself the first time, and it will do it all for you every time thereafter.
I hate to see people pay for software and services that basically does the same things a computer can already do for free, if the user knows about it...
Second question: How fast is your upload speed?
Most people with Cablemodem or DSL have decent download speeds (web sites to your computer) but have very limited upload speeds (your computer to Carbonite) of 768 Kbps or less.
When you first sync your computer to Carbonite, the entire hard drive has to upload. If you have 10 GB to upolad, and 768 Kbps of upload speed, it will take:
( 10 Gigabytes x 8 bits per byte ) / 768 Kilobits per second = 104,167 seconds, or 1,736 minutes, or 28.935 hours. How long did it take to upload your 3%?
Now, I'm not familiar with Carbonite, but is there a way to limit the files being backed up to just important files such as your family photos, documents, Turbotax returns, etc? If you have lots and lots of photos, you'll still probably have many Gigabytes to upload.
The good news is, once the initial upload is finished, after that only new and changed files get uploaded, which takes much less time.
Hope this helps.
You may have to give access to the their web site to your firewall software.
I am not sure whether it works with Mac, but I have been using CloneGenius (beta version) for a couple of years now.
It backs up the entire OS partition.
It is much faster than trying to reinstall everything. A 30gb partition takes about 40 minutes to back up (non-compressed). Reinstall, if necessary, also takes about 40 minutes.
CG operates from the CD drive, with its own OS. It reads USB external drives, so it is easy to direct the backed up files to write to USB drives.
USB drives are dirt cheap. I picked up one 320gb Western Digital this week at Walmart for $79.xx
That was my first thought too. I have Carbonite with a cable modem and IE 7.0 and it works fine. he first time did take awhile, but the Carbonite literature warned about that. Now I never even notice it. The other question I would raise is Vista vs. XP. IIRC, there have been problems with Carbonite and Vista.
TrueImage can make a rescue CD. I have actually had to restore using this software and it worked great. Another feature is that you can "mount" the backup images in case you just need to get a particular file that you lost.
Also, if you check Slickdeals.net occasionally there is a deal up there to get the product for $10. I wouldn't wait for it, though. It's well worth the $50 they charge for it.
Do you have two machines? If so, you can download Vembu Storegrid personal edition for free. It would allow you to setup your 2nd machine as a backup server and then it does bit-level backups similar to what Carbonite does.
Buy a USB backup drive (under $100). Online, buy Acronis True Image software and download/install it.
The backup drive will attach to your PC by USB. Acronis will make an “image” of your entire drive, and will also provide a recovery disc in case of emergency (you’ll need a blank CD). Acronis is easy to use and safe. My drive of 76Gb with about 55% used takes 1 1/2 hours to do a complete backup. Incremental backups depend on how often I do them. You can also access the “image” on the backup drive and port files back to your hard drive should you lose or damage one.
It’s the best backup solution I’ve found.
Sounds good! There are so many tools at our disposal these days when it comes to backups, and just all around working on computers. We are certainly MUCH better off than we were just 5 or 6 years ago. Lately, I’ve been playing around allot with Virtualization. This is a very good time to be a geek. :p
The same with DVD backups. I have been tempted to go to an online backup. Still thinking about it.
If you are looking for online backup, try Jungledisk.
I also use NTI Shadow to sync my data to an external Firewire drive.
Carbonite is supposed to be a good program, though. It is probably choking on a file that is in use and constantly changing. Try limiting your backups to data directories. Backing up the entire “Documents and Settings” hierarchy will often include files that will cause your backup software to choke.
I also know about the clone deal. I have been looking at that 320G WD drive.
Do you know how to find out what kind of firewire an installed PCI board will support? I put one in but I don't have the manual. I have tried to identify it through PC Wizard but it won't tell me. The board is pretty much a generic brand. I guess if all else fails I'll have to open the PC.
I have 54 Mbps internet speed at home and office. I don’t know how long the 3% took since it was supposed to be a set and forget process.
After a couple of days it was still at 3%. My XP configuration appears to have mystified Carbonite.
This has possibilites.
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