# Online data storage safe?



## kindle zen (Mar 18, 2009)

anyone here use one or more of those online data storage companies for storing your computer documents and such?  i was considering such a site but know very little about if there are any cautions that need to be considered.  they're supposed to be very secure but then again i just don't know enough to feel safe about them but i'm tired on having my portable hard drives go kaput without warning.

any comments welcome, thanks


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I believe our computer guru Verena (Pidgeon92) uses one of the online services, not sure which one.  I would have it as an additional backup along with a local backup to disk.

Betsy


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

If it doesn't exist in three places, it doesn't exist.

Thus, I have my hard drive, a backup hard drive, and online storage.

For online storage, I use Carbonite. I did have to do some restoring recently when my hard drive went bad, and it was very easy to download my saved files from Carbonite.


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## suicidepact (May 17, 2009)

Online data storage is a great idea, but as Sidekick users can testify, http://www.pcworld.com/article/173470/microsoft_redfaced_after_massive_sidekick_data_loss.html they aren't always reliable or secure. Apparently those users did get their data back, but buyer beware. 
I am aware that I might be comparing apples v. oranges, but my point is that even this type of backup can't help if their server happens to be down, or you don't have internet access at that crucial time, so keep local copies too! I use the free (2 gig) version of Dropbox http://www.getdropbox.com/ and find it works well on both Windows and Mac.
Kindle Zen, if you'd like (or anyone else for that matter) I can send an invite that will get you an additional 250 mb. for free, and in the interest of full disclosure will also get me an additional 250 mb. as well. If you're interested PM and I'll email you an invite! But please, make a local backup also!


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

I agree with Pidgeon and Suicidepact, online is a great 3rd location for your files. My favorite tech personality, *Leo Laporte*, also recommends Carbonite.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

mozy.com is another reputable backup site.

You said you were concerned about security - is that the confidentiality of your information, or that the backup will be there when you need it?


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I signed up for the free trial of Carbonite (after listening to Leo Laporte) and found it won't work with Snow Leopard yet.  

Mike


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## Anju  (Nov 8, 2008)

So y'all are saying I need more than my Time Capsule for back up?  hmmm  Guess I better go check out Carbonite.  I'd hate for all my pictures, recipes and books to disappear.  Don't have anything else of particular value on my mini.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

jmiked said:


> I signed up for the free trial of Carbonite (after listening to Leo Laporte) and found it won't work with Snow Leopard yet.


Interesting.... I downloaded my backup files from Carbonite onto my Snow Leopard MacBook - using the Carbonite software - that worked fine.... But my uploads do come from my Leopard iMac. I just checked the website, and this is what it says:



> Carbonite plans to add support for Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) in November.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Anju No. 469 said:


> So y'all are saying I need more than my Time Capsule for back up? hmmm Guess I better go check out Carbonite. I'd hate for all my pictures, recipes and books to disappear. Don't have anything else of particular value on my mini.


Absolutely..... My biggest fear is a house fire.... Then everything is gone.


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## Anju  (Nov 8, 2008)

pidgeon92 said:


> Absolutely..... My biggest fear is a house fire.... Then everything is gone.


You are smart there pidgeon92, but all, I mean all the houses here are built of concrete blocks, or brick, very little wood or combustible material is included. Saying that there is furniture made of wood that could really mess up hard drives with smoke, or water. Thanks for the justification. I might wait a few more days until Carbonite works with Snow Leopard.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

For those worried about losing a local backup due to fire or flooding or whatever, and concerned about online backups, you can also do a secondary backup to disk/DVD and store the backup somewhere else such as the safe deposit box or a friend or relative's house.  External hard drives are relatively inexpensive these days.... you can have two and swap them out every couple weeks (or whatever time frame's worth of data you're willing to lose.)  Just keep one somewhere else you can visit regularly or else you won't do the swapping.  Just a thought.

Betsy


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## Guest (Oct 17, 2009)

So glad to see this thread! My hard drive AND motherboard died last week. (Fortunately my laptop is still under warranty so it was repaired for free) and even though I backed up regularly on USB drives one of those failed too! Luckily I didn't lose anything really important, but I am defintely going to look into one of these online backup services! 

BTW, those of you with iPod Touches should know that if you have a hard drive failure and your iTunes library is lost, you need to use a third party program to transfer it from your iPod back to iTunes. It won't do so otherwise. Instead iTunes will tell you your library is locked to another computer and give you the options of totally wiping your iPod or doing nothing. I recommend a free program called SharePod which will let you transfer your library over. 

Love Leo LaPorte! My husband and I watch his live streaming video all the time!


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> For those worried about losing a local backup due to fire or flooding or whatever, and concerned about online backups, you can also do a secondary backup to disk/DVD and store the backup somewhere else such as the safe deposit box or a friend or relative's house.


Sure, except when you forget. Or get lazy. The great thing about Carbonite and other online services is that the updates are automatic. You don't have to choose which folders to back up (though you have that option), and it all runs in the background. Carbonite is also unlimited backup, you don't have the size limitations of a hard drive/CD/DVD. Only $5 per month, per computer (if you want to back up more than one).

For those running a Mac, I do suggest using Time Machine as at least one backup. When my hard drive died, after I replaced it and installed the system software, it asked if I had a Time Machine backup. I did, clicked yes, and three hours later the contents of my new hard drive was exactly as my old hard drive. Everything was returned, even the applications and iTunes libraries. There were a few minor hiccups, like serial numbers disappearing from a few applications, but zero major problems.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I agree, I love automatic backups.  Manual backups are always another option, though.

I'm going to check out Carbonite, I couldn't get the Mozy software to work on my laptop and I got sick of messing with it.

Betsy


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I'm going to check out Carbonite, I couldn't get the Mozy software to work on my laptop and I got sick of messing with it.


That's kinda funny. I gave up on Carbonite because I couldn't get the software installed correctly, but Mozy worked without a hitch for me! Maybe we should help each other out, Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I'll let you know, Carbonite is working on the backup as we speak...  

Betsy


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I had a free trial of Carbonite with my Acer Aspire One.  I didn't buy it though, because I keep much more on my Toshiba satellite and would have had to pay separately for each of the two computers.  I should consider it for my Toshiba.  I keep all my music files on an external hard drive, but it would be good to have Carbonite back-up.  They didn't offer me a monthly rate but an annual fee of about $50.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

mlewis78 said:


> I had a free trial of Carbonite with my Acer Aspire One. I didn't buy it though, because I keep much more on my Toshiba satellite and would have had to pay separately for each of the two computers. I should consider it for my Toshiba. I keep all my music files on an external hard drive, but it would be good to have Carbonite back-up. They didn't offer me a monthly rate but an annual fee of about $50.


I got my Acer just before the free Carbonite trial, but they offer a free trial anyway.

*Betsy*, how did the backup go?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

So far it's going smoothly.  I had about 32 GB of data to back up on my laptop, it's backed up about 10 percent.

An online backup is a good thing, and automatic backups are really good, but I also believe you need a local backup of any data that you think you might not be able to live without.  For example, all of my contact information is on my computers, I don't keep a physical phone book.  And if my computer crashed, I wouldn't be able to get online for awhile to retrieve that data.  Fortunately, I have three computers and a Palm T/X, all sharing the same contact files, so I do have a local backup.   Plus the software itself prompts me to make a back up everytime I close it, so once a week or so, I save a copy to a disk.

If my computer crashed, I could live with most of the stuff being gone except my iTunes library, my photographs and some of my professional documents.  So I try to make sure at least that stuff is backed up.

Betsy


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> So far it's going smoothly. I had about 32 GB of data to back up on my laptop, it's backed up about 10 percent.


Didn't you start the backup last night? And it's only completed about 10%? I couldn't possibly have 32 gigs on my laptop. It just won't hold that much.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I'll add that there is something on Carbonite's website about being able to access data stored online with another computer...and since I travel a lot but sometimes need files on my desktop, this is a good solution that having a local backup doesn't solve.  So I think my desktop, that has my professional files, will definitely go on Carbonite.

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Didn't you start the backup last night? And it's only completed about 10%? I couldn't possibly have 32 gigs on my laptop. It just won't hold that much.


My laptop has a 150 GB hard drive, most of that 32 GB is photographs that I take while I'm travelling. Carbonite warns you that the first backup will take several days which I expected. Network wireless data transfer is relatively slow compared to wired local, and initial backup of a hard drive this size would take overnight if I were doing it to a local drive. Subsequent incremental backups will be relatively quick as it will only copy items that have changed.

I should add that it wasn't working overnight, I shut the laptop down at about 1:30 am. The backup resumed this morning when I started it up.

Betsy


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

Not only that, but I'm pretty sure Carbonite intentionally keeps the back-up limited to only a portion of your available bandwidth so you'll still be able to use your internet while it's working.


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## carlobee (Jul 21, 2009)

wow. thanks for all of these tips i've read! it will sure really help me with my search for an online backup. i guess i'd have to try Carbonite and Mozy.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

911jason said:


> Not only that, but I'm pretty sure Carbonite intentionally keeps the back-up limited to only a portion of your available bandwidth so you'll still be able to use your internet while it's working.


I'm sure that's right as I've been able to surf the net quite well. Video is a little rough, though.

Betsy


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## kindle zen (Mar 18, 2009)

thanks for all the help and comments.  just starting trying out carbonite and thus far it's working out well.

thanks again kz


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

23 per cent of my data is now backed up--7.4 GB out of 32.  Again, I did not leave the laptop on all night, so we're talking about about 18 hours a day.  One thing that's cool, Carbonite states that little dots will be on the icons indicating the backup status.  That's the first thing I noticed this morning.  Some of the icons have a little green dot (backed up) and some a little yellow dot (to be backed up).  Cute!  And useful.

Betsy


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## Athenagwis (Apr 2, 2009)

Great thread!  I personally use www.mozy.com.  I chose them over Carbonite because they will send you DVDs of your back-up if your computer crashes, whereas at the time, Carbonite would only do a download.  As you can see how long it takes to upload, if my whole computer crashes, I would rather be able to have them overnight DVDs for me, then wait 2 weeks for my 100+ GB of data to download.  

I also use Mozy as a way to access my files from other computers (as Betsy mentioned), and it works great for a small amount of files.  If I want some stuff on my husband’s computer, I can do a “restore” online and download it to his computer.

I have also noticed that they say anything that you delete on your computer will be deleted from their hard drives after 30 days, but I have accessed stuff I deleted 6 months ago from them.  Of course I am not counting on stuff I deleted to be there that long since it’s not guaranteed, but it was a nice surprise when I went looking for a certain file.

For most of my files I only have them on my computer and Mozy, but for my digital pictures I have them on my computer, an external drive, Mozy, and I burn them to DVD and put them in my fireproof box.  I would be sick to my stomach if I ever lost my digital pictures!!  So I make sure I have many multiple copies of them.

Cheers!
Rachel


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I'm going to try Mozy too and let you know what I think of both.  I tried Mozy before on this laptop and it wouldn't work...will either try it again on this laptop or try it on the netbook.

Betsy


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

Don't forget that download speeds are typically *much* faster than upload speeds. So in the event your system crashes and you need to download your back-up, it wouldn't take nearly as long as it did when you initially created the back-up.

Here are my results from www.speedtest.net



So you see that my download speed is nearly 10x faster than my upload speed.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Apparently, most of my hard drive is being taken up by programs and not data.  Less than 2 gigs needed to be stored.  I started the backup this morning about 10am and I'm 37% done.  It might be done before midnight, although it's now backing up photos, and I think that's a slower process.


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## jpmorgan49 (Feb 10, 2009)

I have 80GB of pictures, that's a bunch. I backup to a external drive but I want to go off-site too.  I tried Carbonate on my Windows XP computer and it kept "Blue Screening" so I un-installed.  I think I'll try Mozy.
jp


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

So far Carbonite is working fine on my XP computer, and Mozy kept hanging up when I tried it before.    42% done, and I've had it on and off since I started.  It just picks up fine where it left off.  Mozy was supposed to to that but didn't.  Although I'm going to try them again.

Betsy


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

The dreaded blue screen of death. <shudder>

I have XP also and so far, Carbonite is running fine.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I decided to give the Carbonite free trial a...well...trial on my WinXP notebook. Seems to be working fine. I've got just under a gigabyte of data saved, most of it uploaded over about a 12 hour period. (I left the 'puter on overnight.) Seems to be functionally suitable, and I'll probably go ahead and buy a subscription. (You ***** Kindleboards enablers!   )


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Hey, if we enable people to keep their data safe, that's a GOOD thing!

Betsy


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I'm 78% done with only 10 files left to backup.  Started about 10am.  Should be finished before I go to bed.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

jpmorgan49 said:


> I have 80GB of pictures, that's a bunch. I backup to a external drive but I want to go off-site too. I tried Carbonate on my Windows XP computer and it kept "Blue Screening" so I un-installed. I think I'll try Mozy.
> jp


jp, be sure to let us know if Mozy works for you! and how it works.

Betsy


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I shut down last night before the backup finished.  It was working on large video files and I didn't think it would be worth it to wait up.

Took another two hours this morning and the backup is done.  

One thing I noticed is that it doesn't backup files on external devices.  I plugged in a thumb drive with video files that I wanted to backup and carbonite didn't even notice it was there.  I have them on a thumb drive because I don't want to use up any more room on my hard drive.  

I also wanted to move a lot of my photos to a thumb drive, but if carbonite detects that they are gone, they might remove those files from my backup as well.  

Not sure if this is going to work for me or not.  Thoughts, anyone?


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Gertie, Carbonite is only going to back up files from one drive; if you want multiple drives backed up you will be charged for each drive.

If your main hard drive is getting too full, I suggest you have it replaced. You can get 1 terabyte internal drives for less than $100.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

pidgeon92 said:


> Gertie, Carbonite is only going to back up files from one drive; if you want multiple drives backed up you will be charged for each drive.


Okay, that makes sense. Thanks.



> If your main hard drive is getting too full, I suggest you have it replaced. You can get 1 terabyte internal drives for less than $100.


My laptop is too old to spend so much money on it and that's the computer I use the most. I think I'll just copy those files to my netbook or my desktop and that will give me backup storage.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> My laptop is too old to spend so much money on it and that's the computer I use the most. I think I'll just copy those files to my netbook or my desktop and that will give me backup storage.


If I were you, I would use Carbonite to backup the files of your largest hard drive. If that is your desktop, then definitely backup the files you want to archive on your desktop's hard drive, and then those most important files will be backed up there _and_ on Carbonite, for an extra layer of protection.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

pidgeon92 said:


> If I were you, I would use Carbonite to backup the files of your largest hard drive. If that is your desktop, then definitely backup the files you want to archive on your desktop's hard drive, and then those most important files will be backed up there _and_ on Carbonite, for an extra layer of protection.


Thanks for the advice, Verena. I think that's what I'll do.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

That Carbonite only backs up one drive is a deal breaker for me.  I keep my music files on my external hard drive and they wouldn't fit on my notebook hard drive.  Bad enough that I can't cover my two notebooks with one fee.  Maybe I should buy an extra external hard drive, one that is more portable.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

^^^ It'll back up all the drives you want, but you need to pay for them separately.... Myself, I think $5 per month per drive is a fair price to pay for the piece of mind that a remote backup gives me. I don't just have personal files to back up, I have all of my business documents as well. In the event I have a house fire, or some other catastrophe, there is no way I could rebuild any of that data. What is worse, it wouldn't affect just me; it would affect my clients, my tenants and my business partner, and would screw up my tax preparation royally.


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## Athenagwis (Apr 2, 2009)

mlewis78 said:


> That Carbonite only backs up one drive is a deal breaker for me. I keep my music files on my external hard drive and they wouldn't fit on my notebook hard drive. Bad enough that I can't cover my two notebooks with one fee. Maybe I should buy an extra external hard drive, one that is more portable.


FYI Mozy backs up all drives including external for the one price, just make sure it's plugged in every time you back-up or it'll think you "deleted" those files. This is a big reason many people choose mozy over carbonite actually.

Rachel


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## angelad (Jun 19, 2009)

Its safe as long as you are not storing your social security files.  Nothing is really safe, if a good hacker would want to hack you he will no matterwhat.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Athenagwis said:


> FYI Mozy backs up all drives including external for the one price, just make sure it's plugged in every time you back-up or it'll think you "deleted" those files. This is a big reason many people choose mozy over carbonite actually.
> 
> Rachel


That sounds better for me. Do you have any way of knowing when they will backup? I have a four port hub, so I can keep both my thumb drives plugged in at once.


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## Athenagwis (Apr 2, 2009)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> That sounds better for me. Do you have any way of knowing when they will backup? I have a four port hub, so I can keep both my thumb drives plugged in at once.


I believe you can set the time it backs up, but I actually turned off the automatic back-ups myself, I just tell it to back up before I go to work about once a week. I never know when my computer will be on or what I'll be working on so I have jsut made it a part of my weekly habit to hit back-up. But if you don't trust yourself to do it weekly (cause a back-up is no good if it hasn't been done in a month!!  ) then like I said, I believe you can specify the times it will back-up, and you could just make sure your drives were on then. Also if you make the mistake of backing up without one in, I think if you plug it in and do another back-up within 30 days your stuff will not be deleted off the back-up, so there is a bit of a safe guard there.

HTH!
Rachel


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Athenagwis said:


> I believe you can set the time it backs up, but I actually turned off the automatic back-ups myself, I just tell it to back up before I go to work about once a week. I never know when my computer will be on or what I'll be working on so I have jsut made it a part of my weekly habit to hit back-up. But if you don't trust yourself to do it weekly (cause a back-up is no good if it hasn't been done in a month!!  ) then like I said, I believe you can specify the times it will back-up, and you could just make sure your drives were on then. Also if you make the mistake of backing up without one in, I think if you plug it in and do another back-up within 30 days your stuff will not be deleted off the back-up, so there is a bit of a safe guard there.
> 
> HTH!
> Rachel


Sounds like this might be right for me. When I checked this morning, they give you 2 gigs free. Over that, they charge $4.95/month. When I did the Carbonite backup, I only had 1.7 gigs, but there are a lot of files they don't back up during the free trial.

I'm going to try it tomorrow and see if it gives me any problems.


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## Athenagwis (Apr 2, 2009)

Cool!  I know everyone has different criteria for what they need, which is why different companies have different specs.  I have found that Mozy is great for me for numerous reasons.  I currently have 110 GB backed up there and for $4.95/mo I am very happy!! 

Rachel


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## scott_audio (Oct 19, 2009)

i use rsync.net, i've not heard of mozy, i'll have to check them out.


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## Mom of 4 (Oct 27, 2008)

OK, I need help!  
I have been trying to do a Carbonite backup, but it seems I have to disable my Norton firewall to do this.  Does that seem right?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I use McAfee and did not have to disable my firewall. You may have to give the specific program access to your computer in Norton, particularly if you have very strict security settings.

EDIT: It sounds like Carbonite/Norton problems are fairly common if you do a search on the Internet. Here's one discussion:
http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&message.id=63433

One common solution many will offer is to stop using Norton.  I don't use it anymore, myself.

Betsy


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I use McAfee and did not have to disable my firewall. You may have to give the specific program access to your computer in Norton, particularly if you have very strict security settings.
> 
> EDIT: It sounds like Carbonite/Norton problems are fairly common if you do a search on the Internet. Here's one discussion:
> http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&message.id=63433
> ...


Okay, now I'm depressed. I really want to dump MacAfee and go with Norton. MacAfee causes me so many problems. It updates two or three times a day and uses up to 80% of CPU sometimes up to two hours at a time. Twice today I got a message that my computer wasn't protected, had to run a fix, which didn't fix my protection one of the two times.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

There are many, many choices other than Norton and McAfee.  I'm also going to get rid of McAfee when my trial runs out.  Somewhere here we had a really good thread about antivirus software...I'll try to find it.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is very good, I use it in standalone mode to run scans every now and then on my system.  I don't know how goo it is as an "always on" system.

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

AVG is also a good program.

Betsy


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## Mom of 4 (Oct 27, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I use McAfee and did not have to disable my firewall. You may have to give the specific program access to your computer in Norton, particularly if you have very strict security settings.
> 
> EDIT: It sounds like Carbonite/Norton problems are fairly common if you do a search on the Internet. Here's one discussion:
> http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&message.id=63433
> ...


Thanks for the quick response! You are always so ready to help and thoughtful!!

Unfortunately, I pre-paid Norton and still have another year covered, and I am way to cheap to switch! 
I guess they (Norton) are really pushing (forcing) me to use their own on-line backup. 
Price is about the same, I just hate being forced into it!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Have you tried Mozy? Many like it and find it works better on their computers.
http://mozy.com/

Betsy


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> There are many, many choices other than Norton and McAfee. I'm also going to get rid of McAfee when my trial runs out. Somewhere here we had a really good thread about antivirus software...I'll try to find it.
> 
> Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is very good, I use it in standalone mode to run scans every now and then on my system. I don't know how goo it is as an "always on" system.
> 
> Betsy


Thanks, Betsy. I've put off this decision for too long, and now AT&T is forcing me to use McAfee, which I already have. On top of that, they want to charge me $5 a month for the privilege.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Gertie--

how are they "forcing" you to use McAfee?  I've never heard of an internet provider forcing a particular antivirus.

Betsy


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Yeah. . .that seems odd.  Comcast provides MacAfee free of charge. . . .I have no complaints.  But I could certainly delete it and load something else of my own if I wanted to.

Actually, we have used others but, at some point, we decided that the differences between the various companies was no longer great enough to spend money for a 'name' one.  So we use what's free.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Thanks, Betsy. I've put off this decision for too long, and now AT&T is forcing me to use McAfee, which I already have. On top of that, they want to charge me $5 a month for the privilege.


This does not sound right. I have been using AT&T DSL service since 2000, I have not come across this.

I second the recommendation for AVG. It is free, it works, and it doesn't cause the wreak the same havoc as Norton or McAfee.


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

Microsoft just released it's own totally free Anti-Virus. It was recommended by Leo Laporte who I mentioned earlier in this thread, he said it's better and faster than any of the other free anti-virus solutions. So I dropped Avast and installed this. Pretty happy so far...

*http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/*


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

pidgeon92 said:


> This does not sound right. I have been using AT&T DSL service since 2000, I have not come across this.
> 
> I second the recommendation for AVG. It is free, it works, and it doesn't cause the wreak the same havoc as Norton or McAfee.


I went back and read the e-mail from AT&T again. I think the $5 charge is for businesses only. I'm going to have to call them and get some clarification.

Thanks for the info about AVG. I'll look into that.


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## scott_audio (Oct 19, 2009)

IMHO AVG free is the best choice for Windows - Norton and McAfee are as invasive as fleas and use up way too many resources.  Anything more than free is inordinately expensive for me


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

scott_audio said:


> IMHO AVG free is the best choice for Windows - Norton and McAfee are as invasive as fleas and use up way too many resources. Anything more than free is inordinately expensive for me


I like your description. About ten minutes ago, I got another McAfee message that my protection needed fixing.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

911jason said:


> Microsoft just released it's own totally free Anti-Virus. It was recommended by Leo Laporte who I mentioned earlier in this thread, he said it's better and faster than any of the other free anti-virus solutions. So I dropped Avast and installed this. Pretty happy so far...
> 
> *http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/*


I read about this. . . .what I've seen seems to say that it does the job pretty well.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I read about this. . . .what I've seen seems to say that it does the job pretty well.


I installed Microsoft's spyware protection a couple of months ago. It scans once a week, and so far, has kept me spyware free. I run Spybot once in a while and it never picks up anything, so MS must be doing the job.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I use Kaspersky anti-virus protection since last March when I had to have my laptop repaired after it was attacked by a malware virus while I was running Webroot anti-virus/anti-spyware software.  It costs more, but I haven't had any problems since my computer was fixed.  I asked the Geek Squad member what he recommended and that was why I chose that one.

I have McAfee on my netbook and hate it.  Have to click "fix" to be protected almost every time I log into the netbook (I don't go on it every day) and doesn't fix very quickly.  It's one of the reasons I don't use the netbook as much as I thought I would.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

mlewis78 said:


> I have McAfee on my netbook and hate it. Have to click "fix" to be protected almost every time I log into the netbook (I don't go on it every day) and doesn't fix very quickly. It's one of the reasons I don't use the netbook as much as I thought I would.


I'm glad I'm not the only one with that problem. I thought it might have something to do with my laptop being five years old and not having enough RAM to handle more than one program running.

Don't you hate that spinning red arrow?

Several months ago, I got an email from McAfee about the problems I was having. Apparently, they were getting a lot of complaints. Well, for only an additional $49.95, they would be happy to install a fix.

Gack.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> EDIT: It sounds like Carbonite/Norton problems are fairly common if you do a search on the Internet. Here's one discussion:
> http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=nis_feedback&message.id=63433


Ooh, maybe that was my problem a couple of years ago. I've dumped Norton since then, so maybe I'll give Carbonite another try.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I uninstalled McAfee and downloaded the free Microsoft anti-virus.  It ran a scan in several minutes, not several hours, and found an item that had to be cleaned.  So far, so good.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try Mozy.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Athenagwis said:


> FYI Mozy backs up all drives including external for the one price, just make sure it's plugged in every time you back-up or it'll think you "deleted" those files. This is a big reason many people choose mozy over carbonite actually.
> 
> Rachel


I just backed up with Mozy. I have no way of knowing if it also backed up my external drives, even though they were plugged in. I went to advanced configuration, and it listed the different types of files, but the only drive listed was the C drive, and no way that I could see to list the external drives. Can you tell me how to do that, Rachel?

At the end, I got a message that there was an error with one file that couldn't be backed up. Also, Carbonite backed up 1.7 gigs and Mozy only did 1.1.

Mozy is doing another backup in about 10 minutes, and I'm going to set it at fastest backup speed and leave it to run overnight.

Overall, I'm happier with the Carbonite backup process, but if Mozy will do more than one drive, I'll stick with them.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Mozy doesn't backup removable storage disks, so I'm out of luck there.  Carbonite backed up more data than Mozy; 1.7gigs as opposed to 1.1gigs.  That's an awful lot of files.  I'm going to cancel Mozy and go with Carbonite.


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## jpmorgan49 (Feb 10, 2009)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Mozy doesn't backup removable storage disks, so I'm out of luck there. Carbonite backed up more data than Mozy; 1.7gigs as opposed to 1.1gigs. That's an awful lot of files. I'm going to cancel Mozy and go with Carbonite.


That shouldn't bother me because my external drive is my "on-site" backup. I don't want that backed up anyway, just my two internal drives.
jp


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## Athenagwis (Apr 2, 2009)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> I just backed up with Mozy. I have no way of knowing if it also backed up my external drives, even though they were plugged in. I went to advanced configuration, and it listed the different types of files, but the only drive listed was the C drive, and no way that I could see to list the external drives. Can you tell me how to do that, Rachel?
> 
> At the end, I got a message that there was an error with one file that couldn't be backed up. Also, Carbonite backed up 1.7 gigs and Mozy only did 1.1.
> 
> ...


I haven't actually tried backing up an external drive, but I know you can. So you have the external drive plugged in, then you go to the screen where you tell it to back up, there is a button there that says "configure", once that comes up it lists out all the drives you have available for back-up. Is this where you were looking?

Check out this too: http://support.mozy.com/docs/en-user-home-win/faq/concepts/external_drives_faq.html
Rachel


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Athenagwis said:


> I haven't actually tried backing up an external drive, but I know you can. So you have the external drive plugged in, then you go to the screen where you tell it to back up, there is a button there that says "configure", once that comes up it lists out all the drives you have available for back-up. Is this where you were looking?
> 
> Check out this too: http://support.mozy.com/docs/en-user-home-win/faq/concepts/external_drives_faq.html
> Rachel


Yes, that's what I looked at. The only drive listed was C drive.

I had also looked at the link you provided. It appears to me that Mozy will backup external hard drives, but it will not backup thumb drives.

The main reason I'm going with Carbonite is it backed up way more files than Mozy did.


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## siva12 (Mar 1, 2012)

911jason said:


> Don't forget that download speeds are typically *much* faster than upload speeds. So in the event your system crashes and you need to download your back-up, it wouldn't take nearly as long as it did when you initially created the back-up.
> 
> Here are my results from www.speedtest.net
> 
> ...


hi you can also test the speed of your internet at http://www.ip-details.com/ they provide you good results
test your speed and compare it with other results.


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