Online backup vendor Carbonite has recently rolled out an update to their client software, Carbonite 4.0.
Sadly, the Carbonite 4.0 update is for Windows only, but the company has stated that the Mac version is in the works.
If you’re an existing Carbonite customer, they’re in the process of rolling out the update. If you’re not, they have a 15 day free trial if you want to check it out. The free trial will let you back up everything except video and music.
I decided to check out the new version and see what the highlights are, so here are some of the key points:
- A Restore Manager gives you an interface to restore specific files based on a number of criteria
- Custom Setup to give you more control on what is backed up when, and lets you manage your own encryption key
- Restore Options to let you choose which files to restore first and to help you migrate operating systems
- Versioning to let you restore different versions of changed files
- Some other miscellaneous changes
Restore Manager
The new Restore Manager lets you specific files, browse your backup drive, or just restore everything.
You can use file search to find a name, date, or type of file.
You can also, of course, browse the drive to find your files that way.
By the way, if you delete a file, Carbonite only keeps it for 30 days. Something to keep in mind.
Custom Setup
Carbonite says that 95% of their users just stick with the defaults, but they’ve introduced a more streamlined custom setup section for the power users.
You can:
- Customize what is backed up
- Schedule and manage the backup times
- Manage your own encryption key
The encryption key setting is great for people who want it so that no Carbonite employee can get at their files. (Of course, on the flip side, that means that they can’t help you get your files in the event of some problem).
Just in case you didn’t know, here’s how you can tell what’s being backed up: a green or yellow dot on the file or folder means it’s being backed up. No dot, no backup
Restore Options
You can restore all data with some options:
- Priority file restore: You can choose which files get restored first. This is a good option if you need to do a big restore but don’t want to wait for certain critical files.
- Migration wizard: If you are restoring to a new operating system, for example you backed up on Windows XP but need to restore to Windows 7, chances are your user information and directory locations have changed. The migration wizard will help you map this.
- Summary report at the end: If you want a report of what was restored, you can view it and print it out (but as a DocumentSnap reader, you wouldn’t do that would you?)
Versioning
If you’ve messed up a file and want to restore a previous version, you can do so. Just search for the file in Restore Search and then choose which version you want to restore.
Other Goodies
They’ve streamlined the Info Centre to give it a more clean and clear look.
If you have multiple computers, you can give each machine a nickname so you know which files are from where.
There are other things, but these are the main changes. Any Carbonite users out there on 4.0 yet? How do you like it? Drop a note in the comments and let us know.