Comments on: Carbonite Sucks for Giving Only 15 Days Free

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 23:30:31 +0000

For me, Carbonite is a disaster and has caused me to waste countless hours and lose valuable data. Several months ago, I clicked “Back Up Now,” walked away, and later saw that Carbonite had instead gone into “Restore.” I had countless files that I had killed a year or so ago infused everywhere (I thought they killed files 30 days after I did so on my computer). Thinking that I maybe hit “Restore” by mistake, I spent a lot of time removing all the old files, hit “Back Up” again to save my newest files, and Carbonite went into the Restore mode again! A guy on the help line took control of my computer, uninstalled and reinstalled Carbonite (which I told him I had already done), clicked “Back Up” and – again – it went into restore. He said he would send a message that “Boston needs to write special software for you because your computer is unique.” (Really? What’s unique about Windows Media Edition Service Pack 3?) I again called help and was escalated to someone who admitted the problem was on their end. After a fix, the system took back ups again. Two months later, after recovering from a complete crash, I hit Carbonite’s Restore function. What I got wasn’t a mirror image of what I had on my computer but it instead looked like this: (1) Word files and bookmarks that I had deleted more than a year ago were mysteriously restored again; (2) Word files and bookmarks that I had created in the Spring and Summer of 2011 and were still active for me – which means they should have been backed up every time I modified them – were missing from Carbonite’s system (a fact confirmed by another Carbonite person who couldn’t find them even though I gave him the names of some of the files); (3) a few of the missing files were buried deep within the bowels of Carbonite’s system and were found only because I paid a computer guru to find them while he was making sure my computer was working right again; and (4) a smattering of Word files & bookmarks created last month were missing. There was no rhyme or reason as to which files were restored. Since I always do backups, including the day before the crash, Carbonite’s failures were inexcusable. I’ve dropped Carbonite from my two computers, saving me $59 a year for each. I spent $100 on a hardware-backup system for both computers, which saves me money. I will never use Carbonite again.

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:54:32 +0000

Carbonite hosed me. After I paid for a year, I uploaded tons of stuff, then moved and that computer didn’t have Internet access. However I have an iPhone and NEVER did I get a renewal notice (though I got other emails from them.

Now they tell me they deleted everything.

Nice way to treat their customers – like how stupid not to give a few tries at renewals before trashing everything when someone gas put their whole life on your servers? I’d have re-upped in a heartbeat if asked, but they didn’t give a squat.

CARBONITE DOES SUCK!

By: Howard Kroymann

Howard Kroymann — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:19:11 +0000

I’m in a 30 day trial. Most of the app is good. The company is very responsive. I like the controls for background operation, for seeing which files are backed up, which are pending, etc. All good stuff.

But I have found three things I don’t like:
1. It won’t back up currently open files.
2. BEWARE: There are MANY very common file types that it will NOT back up – to protect us from ourselves. I don’t need a nanny.
3. I cannot see the history on a file or folder and restore it as of a particular date.

#2 and #3 are deal-killers for me. #1 may be a difficult for any backup system.

By: Stan Hoffmueller

Stan Hoffmueller — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:57:45 +0000

Carl,

Forgive me, but,

“It did not save even Word Documents (in normal placement for a PC), then I was told once I purchased that it would.”

For the life of me, I can’t figure out what that sentence means.

By: Carl Strohmeyer

Carl Strohmeyer — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:29:16 +0000

I am also not happy with Carbonite, their customer service is not good and dishonest. It did not save even Word Documents (in normal placement for a PC), then I was told once I purchased that it would. This did not happen and it only saves when manually forced to do so.
Carbonite stated I could not get a refund as I had the trial period to use Carbonite. This is dishonest as Carbonite does not automatically back up as advertised and their methods of of selling their product is dishonest

By: Marty

Marty — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:08:49 +0000

So if I lose my car keys I can blame Ford? Ha!
The previous user Jo is incorrect; Carbonite keeps any file in your online backup for 30 days after you delete it from your PC…even multiple revisions of a file. I know what I’m talking about because I have 400GB backed up to Carbonite, totaling 1.1 million files at my business. Sure I have to restore a deleted or overwritten file a couple times a month…that’s the nature of working on computers. I would never go with Iron Mountain–way too pricey for online backup. SafeEvault is much less costly, which is someone I also use for online server backup.

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:02:22 +0000

I am very unhappy with Carbonite. I was told it backed up my computer and if I lost files that could be restored so I foolishly stopped doing a manual back up of my computer to another hard drive. I accidentally clicked on save as instead of open. The file was lost on my computer but I didn’t get too upset because I was using Carbonite and assumed I would get the file back. WRONG. Since I didn’t use the file daily it was overwritten on their end as well and I just took hours to retype in the contents of the file which was a year’s worth of work. I contacted another company who is well known as is Carbonite but more for business, they laughed when I told them that Carbonite lost the file. This company backs up daily as well but they don’t over ride previous editions. Someone at a business that I am aware of did the same thing I did, used Iron Mountain and got their Excel file back with no problem. He like I didn’t use the file on a daily basis. Carbonite is great if your computer crashes, you get your files back but God Forbid you delete a file, it’s gone.