I’ve been a huge fan of Carbonite since they launched. That little, online, behind-the-scenes backup app has saved my tush on at least three occasions. (Disclosure: Because I was an early tester and reviewer I’ve been provided with subscriptions throughout this time). So when I got word that Carbonite was finally out for the Mac (thanks Tamar!), I downloaded that baby as soon as I could.
The release of Carbonite for Mac completes a long cycle for me. Back in 2005, one of the events that got Jeff and me to start Carbonite was my daughter’s hard drive crashing. As a Mac user, she’s been waiting a long time. I’ve been a Windows guy for years, but I now have both a Mac and Windows machine on my desk and I can understand why my kids have migrated to the Mac – it’s a great machine.
Right now small portion of my drive is backed up (I’m notorious for having a lot on my drives), but that’s because I’ve been using my machine. I intend on letting it sit idle all night to complete (or make a serious dent in) the initial backup.
Oh, how does it work?
Transparently.
Essentially, you install it, create a profile for your disk tied to an online account, and pretty much forget it until you need it. Carbonite just securely uploads your files, and changes to files (when you have the bandwidth to spare). Now, when you need the files (on Windows) you just mount Carbonite as and external drive, find the file(s) you’re looking for, and put them back where you want them. It might take a while for large files, but they get there.
You can, obviously, restore a single file or the whole bloody drive (which I did no less than three times on various laptops).
Am I going to cough up the $60/yr for it? You bet I am. Just knowing that my stuff is backed up offsite is a huge relief. I’m not going to stop using Time Machine to backup my machine at home, but redundancy is the mother of reduced computer stress.
So, when was the last time you backed up your files? How about those digital pics?
Thought so. Carbonite.
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