Susan is on the Warpath

I have been "pimping" (for lack of a better word) Carbonite's online backup service for over 2 years now, to clients and friends. I would venture to say I have persuaded dozens of clients to sign up for their service, and it hasn't been all bad. It has saved the files of several people whose computers died spectacularly, and considering most of them would have had no backup at all without it, it has been an admirably cheap solution.

BUT.

I have just discovered their appalling, pitiful excuse for customer support, and a loophole they've provided for themselves in the Terms of Use that none of us ever read; basically, they can delete your files if your computer doesn't connect to the carbonite service for an undetermined length of time. Your computer dies, and you don't get a replacement quickly and re-establish your carbonite account? Say goodbye to 5 years worth of family photos. Your internet goes out for a week? Too bad. You'd better hope that your computer doesn't die before you can get back online and let carbonite rebuild your entire backup from scratch!

It costs $19.99 to get "priority" phone support; ludicrous, if the product that I am paying for won't work, even after following all of the online support. It took over 20 minutes of painfully slow online support chat to discover that my client's backup had simply been deleted - after several "did you try this?" comments from "Ralph", I finally asked point-blank "DO YOU SEE MY DATA ON YOUR SERVERS?" 5 minutes later, he finally responded that the data had been deleted.

So now I am on a mission - to warn all of my clients and friends that Carbonite.com is an unreliable and basically dishonest service, and they would be better served to switch to either SugarSync.com or Mozy.com, as I intend to do myself. Both are well reviewed and have good value for cost, while carbonite is only #9 out of 10.

Backup, please, I beg you!

I deal with various and sundry computer disasters/inconveniences every day, and there's nothing more tragic than a crashed, truly irretrievable hard drive with no backup. I have had a client who lost years of family photos - all digital, none printed out! - when her hard drive crashed. That's going to be a 3 year gap in pictures of her children, barring the kindness of friend and family who have copies of their own. 3 years of financial data in Microsoft Money, gone. (to her credit, she THOUGHT it was backing up daily, but she was mistaken)

So I've been telling people to get backup drives, and some do, but even then it can be inconsistent. That's why I was really happy to hear about online backup services from my all-knowing Brother-In-Law Cy, The One True Computer Guru Who Knows More Than I Could Hope To Learn In My Lifetime. He recommended Carbonite and Mozy, two online services that backup your computer with a minimum of trouble for a nominal fee. I generally go with Carbonite because it's just SIMPLER, and only costs $50/year.

Carbonite is really gorgeous - ridiculously easy to set up, backs up any changes or additions on your computer any time there's a lull, and the most wonderful part of it is the fact that it doesn't require any hardware or effort on your part, after the initial setup - it just runs in the background on it's own. Plus, it's stored in absolute security on a remote server, which means if there's a fire or theft or act of God, the backup will be safely ELSEWHERE, until you have a new system on which to restore all of your precious files, settings, and emails.

Use this link to download a free 15-day trial subscription to Carbonite, and get an extra free month of service when you buy. I haven't been this enthusiastic about a product in many a day!