Carbonite Online Backup

For those who haven’t heard about this yet, the Carbonite for iPhone app has already been available for Carbonite users and iPhone owners since early this year. Now you may not always have your laptop with you 24/7 but I’m pretty sure you’re practically joined at the hip with your iPhone. So forget about going home to copy that presentation you have on your desktop because now there’s a much more convenient way for you to access important files even while on the move: get them through your iPhone.

So if you’re not yet altogether convinced about going online for your storage solutions, here’s yet another great reason to consider jumping into the online backup bandwagon, particularly with Carbonite Backup. With the Carbonite for iPhone app, your documents, pictures, presentations, or anything you have entrusted to Carbonite’s servers, are literally right at your fingertips!

Here are the things you can do with Carbonite app on your iPhone or iPod Touch:

• Browse through all the files you have in your Carbonite account.

• View your word documents, presentations, PDF files, pictures, and videos right on your iPhone or iTouch.

• Share any of these files with colleagues, friends, or family members. The documents will be sent as email attachments.

• Access cached files offline or even without Wi-Fi or 3G connection.

Don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch? Not to worry. You can still access your files by simply logging into your Carbonite account from a remote location through the Remote File Access feature. Just remember that for both features, files from your initial backup, your most recent backup, and those requested for immediate backup are accessible.

And what’s the best thing about these value-added services from Carbonite Backup? They’re absolutely free. You simply have to pay the affordable $55 yearly subscription fee and get to avail of Carbonite’s reliable online backup and storage service, plus Carbonite for iPhone app and other services the company has to offer. Now, that’s online backup at its simplest – and best.

Your say

Carbonite has announced the addition of iPad support to its mobile application for remotely accessing files. The Carbonite app allows users to log into their Carbonite account and browse through files that have been backed up using the service. In addition, many file types can be opened directly within Carbonite or attached to e-mails for quick sharing. The iPad release also makes use of caching, creating a quicker browsing experience that loads recent files faster than previous releases. The software is available as a free app in the App Store, but to access all of the features users will need a Carbonite Online Backup account. New customers can try a 15-day free trial or subscribe to a one-year account for $55.

Your say

I’ve felt the sting of lost data before, so when I found out that Geek Choice was offering Carbonite off-site data backup services I knew it was time to start backing up my data properly. Like many people I’ve promised myself over and over that I would start keeping backups of my data on flash drives or floppy disks, but I never kept up with the hassle of backing up every time I changed a file.With Carbonite, though, my data is safe even if my resolve wavers.

Carbonite is completely automated backup software. It runs in the background as I do my work. I’ve had it running for a while now and I haven’t had to even think about it since the initial backup finished. It just works. I can see it’s working with the small green and orange dots next to my files, showing me what’s backed up and what’s not. The thing that’s really got me impressed is the speed. While copying over folders full of images and other information, I can watch the green dots catch up with my progress in a matter of minutes.

Off-site backup is always the safest option for your data if you can manage it. I know that no matter what happens to my computer, my local network, or even my home that my data will be safe. Now I can have that piece of mind without trying to set up my own off-site backup or paying a fortune. And now that Geek Choice offers this great service, you can have it installed on your home computer or your entire business network by an expert technician. Safe, easy, and setup by a Geek you can trust – what more could you ask for in a data backup solution?

Your say

When it came to backing up my data I always had the attitude that “hey my computer isn’t going to crash” it won’t happen to me until of course that day it did happen to me. Ok no big deal right? I can get my data back right? Well what if you can’t and you don’t have your important files backed up? Well you are shit out of luck my friend all because you failed to do one simple thing and backup your hard drive.

There is no reason especially if you are running a small business that you shouldn’t have some backup in place. You can backup to a zip drive, cd rom, removable usb drive or online backup company like Carbonite where they offer Affordable online backup for your small business. Only $54.95/year for unlimited backup. Try it free!

I recently had several of my blogs hacked and was able to restore it back immediately because I had my database and wordpress files backed up.Don’t let all your hard work go to waste by losing everything you worked so hard. Backup your files as often you can and utilize offsite backup companies like Carbonite.

Your say

Recently I had some free time and decided to satisfy my curiosity on whether or not my Carbonite’s online backup program was all it was advertized to be. And because it was I decided to mention it again in a Good Boot.

Carbonite automatically backs up the most important files on your computer and stores them in a secure, offsite location.

Those files include but are not limited to: AppData Local, Locallow and Roaming, Contacts, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Music, Pictures, Programs and Videos. Files that can be easily recovered from any computer.

Carbonite is novice-friendly, installs quickly and easily, works in the background to update your backup without slowing down your computer, “double-encrypts” files so only you can see your files, retrieves your backed up files over the internet with its remote access and “just in case” does not delete a file for two weeks after you delete the file from your had drive.

To retrieve one, several or all your files you simply click on Start > Computer and scroll down to the Carbonite folder. It opens and displays like any Windows Explorer folder all your backed up folders and files. In addition there’s a folder displaying files pending backup.

Carbonite also provides an e-mail warning if for whatever reason a week passes without it being able to back up your data.

As an example: I seldom use our user group laptop between meetings. If I do not boot it for over a week I’ll receive an e-mail sent to my desktop computer alerting me that there has been no recent updated backup of the data on the laptop.

The cost is only $54.95 per “year” for unlimited backup space with no limit on file size.

The only complaint I’ve received concerns the length of time it takes Carbonite to initially upload data. It’s true that depending on Carbonite’s access to your computer and the amount of data to be uploaded, the initial upload may take several days. But once the initial upload is complete, updating the backup is so efficient you’ll not be aware of it.

Carbonite offers a 15 day risk-free, no credit card required full version trial.

I’m not suggesting you forgo backing up to an external hard drive. However keep in mind an external hard drive is nothing more than a hard drive in a box, subject to the same hazzards that can corrupt your computer’s hard drive.

For me Carbonite has become my data security blanket.

Here’s wishing you a Good Boot.

Your say

The time has come when you may no longer need to lug a laptop around to get work done. With about $50 worth of apps, you can turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a true mobile powerhouse.

Brush up on a PowerPoint presentation. Catch up on all your e-mail. Access important files stored on your desktop PC right on your phone. I have six great apps that will help you do this and more. Find links to apps mentioned at www.komando.com/news.

TECH TIPS: Ask Kim

Documents to Go

Do a fair number of presentations or editing Microsoft Word or Excel files? Documents To Go ($10) is right up your alley. It lets you view, create and edit Word and Excel documents. The professional version ($15) adds PowerPoint support.

You can synchronize files with your Windows PC or Mac over Wi-Fi. Or, send and receive files via e-mail. You get a healthy set of features, but not all that are available in Microsoft Office. Files sent from your desktop retain their formatting. You’ll see graphics and tables, along with comments and footnotes/endnotes. The app can also be used to view PDFs and iWork ’08 and ’09 files.

TapIt4Me

The iPhone’s keyboard can be difficult. You’ll want TapIt4Me ($5) for composing documents or long e-mail messages.

Start by creating “snippets.” A snippet consists of a phrase and an abbreviation. When you type the abbreviation, TapIt4Me replaces it with the phrase. For example, “brb” is expanded to “be right back.”

Use the notes feature to compose a message. Expand a single abbreviation, or create an entire e-mail message from several abbreviations. Then, copy and paste the note into another app. The app includes a number of snippets. You can edit, delete or keep any or all of them.

Print n Share for advanced printing@

At some point, you’ll want to print content stored on your iPhone. Print n Share for advanced printing ($7) lets you print files and Web pages. Or, print contacts, e-mail messages and photos.

Print n Share works with any printer available to your computer. You can print from your Wi-Fi network, or use your cellular connection to print from afar.

Carbonite

Access your online backup files on the go with Carbonite’s iPhone app. (Full disclosure: Carbonite is one of my national radio show’s sponsors.) The app is free, but you’ll need to subscribe to Carbonite.

The way the app works is simple. Carbonite on your desktop backs up your files to Carbonite’s servers. You can then access all of these files on your iPhone. View photos, brush up on a PowerPoint presentation or review documents.

The app also lets you e-mail files directly from your phone. That makes it easy to share and access files anywhere. Access your files over cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

ScanR Business Center

ScanR Business Center Pro ($25) turns your iPhone into a scanner and fax machine. Since it requires a camera, iPod Touch users won’t reap its full benefits.

Use your iPhone’s camera to scan documents, business cards and more. Then, convert them into PDF files. The PDFs are searchable, so you can search for specific text within finished files.

Once you scan a document, fax it to anyone around the world. Or, use a nearby fax machine as a printer. Faxing is free. Your scans and faxes are stored online. You can access them from any Web browser or iPhone. You can also convert scans to editable documents via scanR’s site.

Dropbox

Dropbox (free) makes it easy to transfer files to your iPhone. It works with Dropbox’s online service, which synchronizes files between computers. A 2-gigabyte account is free.

Access your Dropbox account on the go. View files and download them to your iPhone for offline viewing. Changes made on a computer are synchronized to your iPhone.

You can share links to your Dropbox files with others. Or, take photos and videos with your iPhone and upload them to Dropbox.

Kim Komando hosts the nation’s largest talk radio show about computers and the Internet. To get the podcast or find the station nearest you, visit www.komando.com/listen. To subscribe to Kim’s free e-mail newsletters, sign up at www.komando.com/newsletters. Contact her at gnstech@gannett.com.

Your say

I kept reading about all of these different viruses and whatnot out there that were ruining people’s computers. I kept thinking that it would never happen to me, but then I got a virus on my computer. It was not that bad but it made me realize that I was not immune. So, I started using carbonite to back up my data. I knew that if I did nothing then I was risking losing a lot of valuable information. I feel a lot more comfortable knowing that my information is safe and even if I do get a virus, it will be all right.

Your say

Carbonite claims that Carbonite Pro will differ from their consumer offerings by providing business-specific features, including SSL data encryption, automatic backup, and data administration services.

As Carbonite CEO David Friend explained in a statement, “Now we have a version of Carbonite that incorporates everything that these small-business users have been asking for: no per-PC fees, administrative tools that are simple enough for any office manager to use, the ability to back up external drives and priority support.”

According to Carbonite’s numbers, more than 100,000 SMBs already use Carbonite’s consumer product, which provides unlimited backup for $54.95 per year per computer. With Carbonite Pro will come a tiered pricing structure following a month-long free trial. The prices range from $10 a month for up to 20GB to $250 a month for 300GB to 499GB. Carbonite insists there are no licensing or setup fees.

Users will be able to access and manage their files via their Carbonite web acount. A central administrator dashboard monitors the activity. Carbonite also claims the user files are encrypted before leaving a user’s computer. Carbonite’s Restore Wizard walks users through data recovery, step by step. An administrator can deny specific access and disable accounts should an employee leave the company.

Your say

Hopefully Earl’s link will work for you. If it doesn’t invest in an USB external drive enclosure that matches your drives dimensions. Take the Drive out of the dead computer and hook it up to a computer that is functional. The other computer should recognize it and allow you to browse the directory structure and move any files that you want to make sure to have a copy of. You then have two options you can either Buy a new HD and reinstall Windows or you can reinstall on the old HD just keep in mind everything will be wiped out.

I also Highly recommend a service such as carbonite. It is important to continue to have backups locally as well but they do and will fail at the wrong time. The nice thing with Carbonite and other services like that, they have invested in the infrastructure to have multiple layers of redundancy so the likely hood of them loosing your data is very very slim.

Let us know if you need any more help. I know there are several of us IT guys out here.

Your say

Carbonite version 3.7.6 was released over the weekend. This now means that Carbonite is fully compatible with Windows 7. In addition, all users also get enhancements to the restore window, providing more ways to search for files that need to be restored.

All new trial users will automatically be given Carbonite 3.7.6. Users on older versions can upgrade by logging into their account and reinstalling Carbonite. A prompt to upgrade will go out to all users over the coming week.

Your say

Data backup companies are wasting no time touting their new, upgraded Windows 7-compatible backup systems for desktops, laptops, servers and online storage. But little or nothing has been upgraded in the actual backup apparatus—it’s virtually all in the user interface.

With the official launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 on Oct. 22, the requisite announcements from myriad companies with products that support the new operating system are coming fast and furious.

This certainly holds true for a growing number of data backup companies that are wasting no time touting their new, upgraded Windows 7-compatible backup systems for desktops, laptops, servers and online storage.

Microsoft includes its own backup system in Windows 7 with the System Image and Backup feature. However, many users prefer their own trusted third-party backup software, and just about all the most well-known providers in the sector have announced upgrade versions that support Windows 7. These include Symantec’s Veritas, Arkeia Software, BakBone Software, Memeo, Connected, Dantz, RepliWeb, Seagate i365, Iron Mountain Digital and iDrive.

But this raises some questions: What exactly are you getting when you buy a “Windows 7-supported” backup system, whether online or not? How much difference does the operating system make?

And exactly how much of a marketing opportunity is this, anyway? A big one, apparently. Plenty of people believe that as soon as the new operating system comes out, they need to go out and buy a new “optimized” backup for it. This is certainly not always the case.

“The short answer: It doesn’t really matter what OS you’re using (we support XP, Vista, Win 7 and Mac OS),” David Friend, CEO of Carbonite, told eWEEK.

And were whatever changes Carbonite had to make for Windows 7 all about UI?

“Pretty much,” Friend said. “For example, the Win 7 Explorer has a different API, so to put our little green dots on files and folders required some code to be rewritten.”

But that was it.

So outside of a little extra code written to make the UI meld correctly with Windows 7, there is really nothing new in Windows 7 backup—no matter how splashy the “Win 7-optimized” ads and marketing materials may appear.

Your say

Every time my family travels on Home Office Highway, I load up a flash drive with documents, files and notes for stories and columns in progress.

This year, except for a flash-drive built into a card reader for my camera, I brought no portable drive.

All my documents, files and notes were / are stored in the Cloud. Notes for my columns, interviews for pending stories, even all the notes related to our destinations, RV parks and other trip details were stored either to Google Notes, Gmail or Google Docs.

About a month ago, I subscribed to Carbonite. This online data back-up and retrieval service not only is good for data security. Remote access makes all my documents and files accessible for any Internet-connected computer anywhere. I can fetch documents, images, videos – the lot.

Is this a leap of faith? Road warriors and teleworkers work from The Cloud without a second thought or moment’s hesitation. Their office is the hotel room or executive suite or home office or driver’s seat. Their server is The Cloud. No cause for pause.

Get used to it, peeps. This type of faith is just a harbinger of experiences to come. Soon, in the not-too-distant future, everything we need to work (save the Internet connected PC itself) will be hosted in the Cloud. Our applications (Office, Open Office, art and design applications) and the data we create with them will be hosted on servers Out There. That’s already the case with so many of the social networking tools we use: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube – they’re all out there, just waiting for our user ID and password.

Increasingly, our data’s out there, too. If you blog, most blog entries are written and permanently stored exclusively on the blog engine.

All of these documents, data and applications are Out There and accessible via the Internet. On this year’s Home Office Highway, we moved further into The Cloud. But the reality was, we rarely strayed from civilization. Take a trip miles from the nearest cell antenna or deep into a canyon or dense woods, those places where Internet signals weaken and service grows spotty, and you could be lost – adrift and removed from the precious Cloud.

This this year was no true leap of faith. I had faith that all my stuff would be nearby — as the Cloud would be, too. Take that trip farther along roads less traveled, where clouds disperse and work yields to release, and I may find that a flash drive stuffed with docs would be a welcome addition.

Or one whose absence would allow me to enjoy the environs that much more.

Jeff Zbar is on the road with his family in one teched-out, Internet-connected RV-turned-home-office – exploring the American South, visiting small towns and popular tourist destinations – and revealing just how productive a traveling family can be. Driven by Jeff Zbar, the Chief Home Officer, Home Office Highway shines headlights on a whole new “remote” office. Learn more at www.homeofficehighway.com.

Your say

This is a great article on how to backup your Google Apps

So many of us these days are jumping on the Google bandwagon making the most of the ’so many’ services that Google has to offer the home PC user as well as the very small business person. Services like Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Spreadsheets, have you ever considered what could happen to these files (your files) if Google loses them or even denies you access to them? This is particularly relevant if they are personal or business files. I am sure (and I haven’t read them myself) their T/Cs ensure they have every right to determine if the files stay online or not, at the end of the day it’s their servers.

It would be wise to ensure that your most sensitive information is in your control.
Automatically back up your Gmail account

The easiest way to create a local backup of your Gmail account is probably through POP access with a desktop based email application like Thunderbird, which is also free. It is also cross platform and comes with easy Gmail setup already provided. There are others taht you can also use eg MS Outlook.

Obviously you then need to consider backing up your email client to ensure that should your PC die, you data and emails don’t die with it. Using something as simple as Carbonite is ideal for the home PC or small business user.

This is where to go to find out how to backup Thunderbird.

Another simple step you can take is to forward all incoming email to a secondary email account with Gmail. That means you can back up to a secondary Gmail or Yahoo! email address.
Backup Google Calendar

If you’re looking to back up Google Calendar, the best solution is to set up a complete bi-directional Gcal sync using the cross-platform GCalDaemon.

With GCalDaemon, not only can you ensure that you’ve always got a backup of your latest and greatest Google Calendar appointments and events, but you also get to add, edit, or delete those events from your desktop and watch as they sync back to Gcal.

If you are looking for something a little more basic, you can just subscribe to your calendar’s iCal feed to back up your events offline.
Backup Google Docs and Spreadsheets

The long way around this problem is to download them one at a time. Alternatively, if you are using Firefox, it allows you to back up all or select chunks of Google Docs and Spreadsheet files in various formats (including MS Office or Open Office formats, PDF, plain text, or CSV) in one simple step using Google Docs Download Greasemonkey script. The Google Doc Download Greasemonkey script adds a download link to the main Docs and Spreadsheets page that gives you quick access to download your docs in whatever format you want.

You will need to ensure that you regularly perform the backup step and then use something like Carbonite to secure it all.
Back up your Blogger blog

Bloggers can easily back up their Blogger accounts using Blogger Backup (Windows only). Simply point the program at your blogspot URL.

Your say

This is what a small business IT provider had to say in Australia:

Brisbane small-business owner Nathan Oldfield sells water filters online and backs up his business records with Carbonite. He recognised the service’s impact instantly.

“I have an IT background, so I know that the big thing about backups is to have them off-site,” Oldfield says.

“Queensland Water Filters is a very small business … and we could have saved our documents to disc and exchanged them with a mate but it’s a bit ad hoc.

“Knowing that documents are automatically and continually backed up off-site means if you lose something, it’s only about 10 or 15 minutes’ work at most. Then you can get online and retrieve the backed-up copy.”

Oldfield, who also runs an IT consultancy business, recommends Carbonite and similar email backup services to his clients. He has helped clients avoid the situation faced by ma.gnolia.com.

“I’ve never had to use it for myself, touch wood,” he says.

“But a client who runs a web design business had his site hacked. Doing backups to the cloud meant we could retrieve the information for him and get his site back up and running again.”

Your say

Great story, hope it’s true:

I just wanted to share this story to hopefully help others avoid a tragic mistake that so many experience everyday. I am an independent business, doing video post-production work for clients on all sorts of projects, large and small. I had historically backed up my data locally, replicating my hard drives on 2 or 3 external backup drives. About 4 months ago, however, during lunch with one of my clients, he mentioned that he had signed up with a new backup service called Carbonite. He liked the convenience of the service since he could simply let his backups run to a remote site and not have to worry about maintaining anything.

I was skeptical at first, since I didn’t like the idea of sending my critical information anywhere offsite. But my client raised a good point – a lot of Fortune 1000 companies are doing just this – using services such as Salesforce.com – outsourcing IT infrastructure is just the new way of doing things. If you want to compete, I remember him saying, you’ll need to focus on your core business and not have to worry about hot-swapping drives and power redundancy, etc.

Well, I decided to sign up for a trial of Carbonite, and after discovering that the service only costs around 5 bucks a month, wondered why I had spent all that time and money worrying about hard drives. Still, I thought the service had to be complex and would go down on me at some point, as do most online services (right when you need them). To my surprise, however, Carbonite was very easy to setup – it’s a lightweight application that installs on your computer in seconds, and then after a brief setup process where you tell the app which folders and files you want to backup, it does the rest for you. Much easier than configuring windows and various utility apps to replicate folders locally!

Anyways – the critical part of the story came months after setting Carbonite up. I live in the Los Angeles area, which is not exactly known for it’s tropical thunderstorms, but we had a bad storm one winter. I remember watching the TV and then suddenly everything went dead. Not a common occurrence, but I figured that it was just a routine power outage.

I few minutes later the power came back on and after checking on a few things in my apartment I wandered into my home office to do some work. I tried to boot up my computer, and nothing, It was dead. I tried everything and realized that both my computers were fried. So much for my power surge protectors, I later found out that mine was only rated up to 30 volts! So I lost 2 computers and all the data on those.

The crazy part was that I was just finishing up a huge animation project that was a 4 month contract with a major studio. I had gigabytes of files across all my drives that were lost. I took out my laptop and logged into Carbonite, crossing my fingers that the data was still there! To my relief, once I logged in, I found that all my data was there and ready to be downloaded.

Had I somehow lost all that data, I would have defaulted on a $50K+ contract, not to mention the ramifications on my business overall from losing out on a successful outcome with a marquee client. I can tell you that the experience was heart-wrenching, but the relief I felt from seeing all my data there safe in a remote data center somewhere just convinced me that backing up your data is just a good insurance policy that’s worth much more than the $7 a month it costs!

Hopefully my story will help others avoid a terrible outcome when disaster strikes – you just never know when something crazy and unexpected can happen!

Your say