PCMag Review: Carbonite Online Backup

By Michael Muchmore

Carbonite Inc

http://www.carbonite.com

• Type: Business, Personal, Professional
• OS Compatibility: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Tech Support: Toll free M-F 9-5 ET

Carbonite tries to make remote backup simple and affordable. Setting it up is a breeze, and restoring a file here or there is also a snap. But restoring a lot of data to a different PC presented some obstacles.

Clearly marks backed-up files. Easy to install. Unlimited backup for under $50 a year for personal and business use. Good toll-free phone support included.

No restore from file/folder’s Windows Explorer entry. Interface could use work in places. Restoring to a different machine was troublesome at times.

This online backup service aims to make your files as indestructible as the fictional substance for which it’s named. You know, the stuff they used for freezing Han Solo at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.

My testing shows that the service’s claims are far from fictional. And the price is attractive, too: Carbonite makes no distinction between personal and business use, as most other services do.

The low price of under $50 a year gets you unlimited storage, though the service will be less interesting to businesses, as it lacks support for network drives. Carbonite’s focus on the layman is clear, too, in its goal of making online backup dead easy. It largely succeeds, thanks to a simple strategy and a relatively clean interface.

But the interface is unevenly polished. And restoring large amounts of data to a different machine (which you might do when your hard disk has crashed or you’ve lost your PC to a fire)—especially when going from Windows XP to Vista—presents some obstacles.

Read the Carbonite Online PCBackup full review