Carbonite Introduces iPhone App
January 26, 2010
If you’re a Carbonite online backup customer, they’ve released yet another way to get at your files when away from your computer. The company has released a Carbonite iPhone App (it works on iPod Touches as well).
From the CEO of Carbonite:
The Carbonite app gives me access to the backed up files from each of my computers, even if the computers are turned off. And I don’t have to be logged into a Wi-Fi connection or lug my laptop with me. It displays my photos, documents, and other important files and allows me to share any of my backed up files with someone else via email, right from the app. It’s fast and super-simple. I’m really proud of this Carbonite app and I hope you all will find it as useful as I do.
Any Carbonite customers want to comment? Have you tried it out? Do you see the trend towards getting to your files on a mobile device a useful one? Let us know in the comments.
Carbonite Remote File Access Lets You Get Your Files From Anywhere
September 8, 2009
Most people know that Carbonite is a good solution for backing up your PC or Mac. However, what a lot of people don’t know is that you can also access your backed-up files on the go.
A while ago, Carbonite rolled out their new Remote File Access feature.
To access it, go the Carbonite homepage. Up at the top right you will see a link for Remote Access.
Once you’re in there, you can see the files have backed up for your computer(s) and you can navigate the tree view.
There are a few limitations to this. A few types of files can’t be accessed or downloaded via remote file access:
- Windows Encrypted Files
- Mac Package Directories (such as the application packages in the Applications folder)
- Files backed up by Carbonite version 2.3 or earlier (if you started backing up with Carbonite in late 2007 then you have 3.0 or higher).
When you’re using online backup, is having remote file access like Carbonite an important feature for you? Or would you prefer a vendor not have it at all?
Do You Know Where Your Online Backup Is?
April 9, 2009
Recently I came across this tweet from Ross L. Kodner and he brought up a good point – one of the benefits of an online backup is having your data safe and sound.
If you live in a city that is prone to earthquakes, hurricanes, etc., it kind of defeats the purpose to have your online backup residing in the same city as you.
To that end, I have put this list together of where common online backup vendors have their data centers. Not surprisingly, none of them were willing to give this information on request so this is mainly pieced together from some Google-fu. Therefore, I can’t 100% say for sure that it is accurate, but you get the general idea.
Here is the list:
- Salt Lake City
- Dublin
- (likely other EMC data centers)
- Boston
- Beijing
Jungle Disk (S3)/Dropbox
Jungle Disk and Dropbox both use Amazon’s S3 service. While Amazon generally does not disclose where their data centers are, the following are the edge locations for CloudFront, their CDN, so it stands to reason that S3 data is stored there too.
United States
- Ashburn, VA
- Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
- Los Angeles, CA
- Miami, FL
- Newark, NJ
- Palo Alto, CA
- Seattle, WA
- St. Louis, MO
Europe
- Amsterdam
- Frankfurt
- Dublin
- London
Asia
- Hong Kong
- Tokyo
Jungle Disk (Rackspace)
Since Jungle Disk was acquired by Rackspace, they have started offering storage in Rackspace’s data center too.
- Grapevine, TX
- London
- Hong Kong
- Chicago
Like I said, this list is likely incomplete. If you have any additions or modifications, leave a comment below.
Where is your data?
Mozy and Carbonite Reaching Out To Abandoned HP & Yahoo Customers
March 11, 2009
In the last few weeks, two online backup services, HP Upline and Yahoo Briefcase have both announced that they are closing.
While some have said that this is a sign that the online backup market is not sustainable, both Mozy and Carbonite have been clever and used it as an opportunity .
Nate from Mozy has posted a blog post entitled “Hey Upline Users, We Love You!” giving a discount code to ex-Upline users.
Dave Friend, co-founder and CEO of Carbonite, has posted two blog posts: one on Yahoo Briefcase and one on HP Upline, discussing the decision to close both.
By the way, I really appreciate the fact that Dave personally blogs and shares his insight. It’s great.
What do you think, is Upline and Briefcase a sign of things to come, or is it just separating the wheat from the chaff?
How to Backup Your ScanSnap Profile Settings (On Windows)
December 15, 2008
Recently I posted about how to backup your ScanSnap profile settings if you are on the Mac. Here is how to do it on Windows.
The ScanSnap settings are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\PFU\ScanSnap.
Obviously, “yourusername” would be replaced with your Windows username.
If you can’t see the “Application Data” folder, go up to Tools | Folder Options and set it to be able to see hidden files and folders.
Each of those “PFUSsMon0000x” folders corresponds to one of your profiles, but I would recommend backing up the entire ScanSnap folder.
If you use a backup system like Mozy or Carbonite, make sure you add the ScanSnap folder to be backed up. Otherwise, just copy the folder somewhere.
In case you’re wondering what PFU is, that is a subsidiary of Fujitsu and it is them that developed the ScanSnap.
Hope this helps to protect your ScanSnap settings. Let us know if it does.
Carbonite CEO and I Join The Idiot Club
November 4, 2008
Dave Friend, the CEO of Carbonite, wrote a blog post the other day about his experience actually using his product.
According to a recently released survey by Compuware, most data loss is attributable to either user negligence or malice. Only 1% of data loss is due to hackers. I loved the headline on this story: “3/4 idiots, 1/4 bitterness.”
I have to confess to being part of the “idiot” crowd. Three weeks ago I left my laptop sitting on my seat when I got off the train in New York. I remembered it just in time to see my train, with laptop still aboard, disappearing down the track. Except for occasionally recovering individual files that I accidentally delete or overwrite, I haven’t actually had a PC disaster since starting Carbonite 3 years ago. So, aside from the pain of having to buy a new laptop, it was fun to use my own product to get everything back. I was really proud of how well it worked.
Something similar happened to me a few weeks ago. I was at the Vancouver airport and took the shuttle bus to the parking lot. I went up to the front of the bus to tell the driver where I was parked and chatted with him a bit. When we stopped, I jumped off and waved goodbye.
It was then that I realized that I had left my backpack with my MacBook Pro (aka my third child) and my car keys (!) on the bus. I turned around and started running back, but luckily he was still sitting there and I was able to get my bag back.
When we think about backing up our files, we always think about hard drives failing or fire or theft, but you also have to remember the idiot factor. I sure do now.
New Version of Carbonite On The Way
October 15, 2008
A new version of Carbonite (3.7) has been announced.
Here is the PR-speak:
“We spent a significant amount of time talking with customers for this upgrade of Carbonite,” said David Friend, founder and CEO of Carbonite. “We’ve always had the goal of Carbonite being the simplest online backup to use and we’ve been lauded for our success in that goal, but we are seeking perfection for the day-to-day experience of using Carbonite. We found that our users had some great feedback that, when implemented in Release 3.7, makes Carbonite even easier to use.”
Carbonite also spent time honing performance for version 3.7. Through a series of improvements to the way Carbonite monitors computer resources, Carbonite will offer better system performance during the initial scan and backup upload.
It will be released over the next few weeks. As soon as I get more details on what is actually in there, I’ll post more.
Source: Sys-Con
Offline vs. Online Backups – Which is Better?
July 6, 2008
There has been a lot of debate lately about “living in the cloud” and whether to keep data and applications locally or stored out on the Internet with backup services like Mozy or Carbonite.
Which is better for backing up your documents?
Online Backup
Pros:
- The data is (hopefully!) encrypted
- Depending on the service you use, you may be able to get to your files via the Internet which can be very handy
- If you have a fire, flood, or theft, your backup is offsite so you don’t have to worry about it
- Chances are, your backup provider will have a much more advanced setup than you do with respect to replication etc.
Cons:
- You don’t have direct control over your data
- If your provider goes out of business, what happens to your data?
- If you have a lot to upload, it could take a very long time to transfer the data
- If your internet connection is down, so is your ability to backup/restore
Offline Backup
Pros:
- The data is totally in your control
- Its on your network so access is fast
- If it is a portable drive like a MyBook, you can take it to another location
- You don’t have to worry about uptime/downtime or your internet connection.
Cons:
- If you have a fire or flood, your backup might be damaged along with your computer
- If you have a theft, and have a portable hard drive, your backup could be stolen
- Hard drives fail (boy do they), so depending on your setup your backup could bite the dust
After all that, which is better? It depends on your needs and how nervous you are about storing your data on someone else’s servers. Personally, I am a big fan of online backups but that is just me.
The good news is, you don’t have to pick one or the other. Back up your critical files to an external hard drive, and then also send your most critical files up to Mozy or Carbonite. The best of both worlds!
How do you do your backups (or do you? 
). Do you trust online providers? Let us know in the comments.
What Software Do I Need?
July 6, 2008
Possibly None
It could be that you already have all the software that you need. If you have a ScanSnap or other scanner, it will come with software to scan and possibly even convert it to a searchable PDF.
It might even come with some simple document management software.
If you have an external backup like a MyBook or a Time Capsule, it might already have software to do backups for you.
However, if you want to “take things to the next level” and have a full document management workflow, there is software out there that can help.
Manage Documents Like A Pro
Mac users are spoiled for choice when it comes to document management software. Here are a few favorites:
DEVONthink is called a “Personal Information Assistant”. There are a number of different flavors, but the one that works best with the ScanSnap is DEVONthink Pro Office.
It manages documents and classifies them and files them automatically, and has very advanced OCR and searching technology .
It automatically takes documents from the ScanSnap and turns them into searchable PDFs.
Yep is an iPhoto-like file PDF browser that allows you to add tags to documents in order to manage them. It will assign tags based on the folder that they’re stored in, and then you can of course add your own.
PDFPen is a PDF editing solution that lets you add comments, highlighting, signatures, move around pages, and other general document management stuff. It’s kind of like a scaled down Acrobat for 1/6 of the price.
For Windows users one solution is Microsoft OneNote 2007
OneNote is a “digital notebook” that lets you bring in documents, images, media, etc. For documents, it will OCR them and allow you to search through.
Another Windows program is Home Document Manager. Home Document Manager will scan, organize, and make your documents searchable.
Stay Safe – Backup
There are a ton of backup programs for Windows.
For local backups, SyncBackSE is a favorite.
If you want to go the online route, there is Mozy and Carbonite. Here is more information about online backup solutions.
For Mac, OSX Leopard comes with built in backup software called Time Machine. You can use that with any external hard drive, or use a Time Capsule.
The online route for Mac users is a bit more limited, but Mozy is an extremely popular choice. The best part is that the first 2 Gigs of storage is free.
Do you have any other software for managing paper and documents that you can’t live without? Sound off in the comments.
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