Whether you are a student with school work to store or just someone looking for a place to keep your numerous photos, the best online backup services have a lot to offer you. If you  just want to make space on your hard drive for something else or if you are worried about possible damage to your files, you will find that the best place to  keep them is far, far away. Since most file backup companies have bunkers which are nearly impervious to outside disasters, there really is no safer place  that you can put your important files. But finding the company that works best for you can be a bit of a challenge unless you know what to look for.

First is the price. Most online backup services are priced about the same, around per month, which you can opt to pay monthly or at the discounted annual fee. But that’s just for the basic service. You can also avail of other additional services like network backup for an added fee. On the other hand, there are also online backup services that come for free, for some companies on a limited trial basis, and for others, for a limited storage capacity. While these offers are not uncommon and are done for promotional purposes, be wary of those backup services that are offered at no cost at all. While they need not cost a lot, the online backup solutions shouldn’t come totally free or you would wonder how the company can give trustworthy service.

Getting immediate access to your files may not really be extremely important to you. For instance, if you are simply looking for a space to store your photos in, you do not always need them at a moment’s notice. Nevertheless, if you are a student or a businessman, you need a service which does not ask you to wait for a day before you can retrieve your files. Different companies provide different levels of access to the files that you store – which is why getting one which perfectly suits your needs is highly important.

And then you also have to think about the actual software that you’d need to install on your computer. Is it user-friendly enough for you? Would you have to deal with a lot of technical stuff that you’re not comfortable with. Most backup software are designed to be as simple and convenient as possible for the user but you’d need to find out which you would be most happy to work with. Remember that online backups are there to make backing up your data easier without having to go through hoops for it. The best online backup services make sure you get that.

Lastly, you need a secure service. Most companies offer encryption of your stored information as it travels between your computer and theirs. However, some companies can offer more than that. You can find companies which scatter your files across their services making it impossible for any outsider to decipher any important information. You may also choose to put a password on your files. All these added services work together to give you the top-level security that you need. But to make sure that a service is right for your needs, just read a few reviews, like the Carbonite review.

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For some people, backing up computer information does not seem very necessary. After all, they’re not bankers or government officials with millions of important information to protect. However,  personal e-mails, pictures and notes on your drives should not be taken any less seriously. Just like a banker’s file of finances, every personal file of photo or of just about anything can hold wonderful memories of you and your loved one. Losing these things may not have a great impact on anyone else but you owe it to yourself to protect these important bits of info and backup your computer. Ensuring the safety of your data is very important especially in the digital age when every person can put so much about himself on his computer.

Traditional ways of backing up one’s files have been developed over the years, and for many people, these seemed to work just fine. A widespread backup method used is buying a large stack of floppy disks or more recently CDs, copying your files into them, labeling all disks for organization and for easier retrieval when the need arises, and finally, storing away everything. You somehow manage to successfully make backup copies of your files but it took a lot of time and effort. Plus, with this method, there’s really no guarantee that a few years down the road, you’ll still have files to retrieve. This type of file storage devices are susceptible to damage caused even by the smallest amounts of water, some scratches, or exposure to magnets.

But technology has come a long way when it comes to storage space. Now, you can buy external hard drives which will plug in to almost any computer you can find and work immediately. And all of your data is organized in folders, just like on your home computer’s built-in drive. No more digging through stacks of CDs and floppies. You can also get these drives in sizes that were unheard of until recently. Some drives can hold multiple terabytes of information, more than almost anyone could possibly need. For instance one terabyte drive could store over 200,000 photos at 5 megabytes each.

The thing is though, external hard drives don’t come cheap and while it gives you a convenient way to keep your files safe, not everyone is sold out on using it. Some people think that external drives are good only for those with technical background.

For these types of computer users, a good option for ensuring that your data is safe from all possible causes of data loss would be to avail of online backup services being offered by many companies, one example of which is Carbonite online backup. With this backup method, you don’t need to be a techie because most of these online storage solutions are very user-friendly. And, you get the assurance that your data is being kept away from prying eyes using advanced encryption technology and stored in servers located in a protected area.

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If you’re interested in using online backup solutions and are concerned of the technical difficulties you might encounter, you would be happy to know that it’s really quite simple to restore files from Carbonite. Most of us think that tinkering with our computer hardware needs a lot of technical wisdom. The same is true with a new program or software. With Carbonite backup however, doing data backup and recovering the data when the need arises involves processes that are very easy to follow even for novice computer users.

If you are ever faced with the task of restoring your files after reformatting your hard drive or after a computer crash, the first thing you would need to do is download the Carbonite software again. As soon as you do this, the setup wizard will ask you to choose from two options – restore your files later or restore your files now. If you choose to retrieve them right there and then, you will then be asked if you prefer the files downloaded to their original locations, or choose specific files for specific users. Most users would choose option one but even the more advanced option is not that difficult to follow.

However, if you only want to restore a single file or an older version of a file, you have options there as well. Since Carbonite is listed under My Computer as a virtual drive, you can open it and navigate it just like any other drive. Once you have opened it, you simply have to find the file you want to restore. Click Restore to send it back to its original location or click Restore To if you want to send it somewhere else. You also have to choice to retrieve previous versions of files by clicking the Restore Previous Version option. Carbonite will save older versions for up to three months.

However, you are also bound to discover some drawbacks to Carbonite as well. You will not be able to restore files from Carbonite very quickly if they are huge. A file that is a few hundred megs could take hours or even days depending upon the speed of the servers. Carbonite servers can be fairly slow, but that is how they are able to offer such an affordable price. In the event of a system crash, where you lose all of your data, you may not care if it is slow so long as you get all of your files back. However, if you need to restore an important document very quickly, you may be left waiting for a bit.

Carbonite is far from perfect, but it could be the best option you have. It has its flaws yes, but for the fee they are charging, they are entitled to some. Other companies offer practically the same services, but at a price ten times higher. Plus, you won’t need to jump through hoops when you restore files from Carbonite so on the whole, you get everything you would need from an online backup service.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Forty-three percent of computer users lose irreplaceable files every year. Carbonite automatically and securely backs up the irreplaceable contents of their computers – no matter how much stuff they need to back up. It takes just a few clicks to restore lost files.

A small application on your computer that works quietly in the background looking for new and changed files that need to be backed up is installed by the Carbonite software. There’s no new interface for you to learn — it looks and feels just like part of your computer, and it integrated with your desktop.

Restoring lost files is easy if anything happens to your computer. To restore a specific file or folder, simply open the Carbonite Backup Drive from your desktop. Files and folders are organized in the backup drive exactly as they are on your computer. Right-click and select “restore” once you locate the specific file or folder. The file will be restored to its original location on your hard drive by the software. You will also have the option of recovering a previous version of the file by selecting “Restore previous versions…” or restoring the file to a new location, by selecting “Restore to…”

The way to restore everything in your backup to a new or repaired computer is as follows: go to carbonite.com, click the restore tab, log in to your account and restore your files. The Carbonite Restore Wizard will help you restore all of your files to your new computer with just a few clicks.

Once installation is complete, the Carbonite software looks for files to back up by scanning the hard disk. All file types except executables (such as .exe and .dll), system files, temporary files and video files are automatically backed up by Carbonite. However, any of the excluded file types can be manually added to the backup by right-clicking on the file and selecting “Back this up” from the Carbonite menu. Ninety five percent of Carbonite users prefer to stick with the default settings despite the fact that Carbonite offers a wide variety of options for customizing your backup upon setup.

Popularity: 5% [?]