Spiney Loc: Reading, PA

I have been with Carbonite for 2 years now. They recently sent me an offer of 2 free months if I renewed early. The offer expired at midnight June 30th. I was reading up on other options when I noticed it was 11:50pm so I stuck with the devil I know rather than switch to IDrive. Carbonite is unlimited storage, IDrive is 1gb for the same amount $59.00. There were two things I liked about IDrive: no limit to amount of PC's or drives and 1x a year they will send an external drive for you to backup locally and then send to them to archive. Oh 1 more thing, important if you delete something locally they don't delete it on their end unless you request it.

I hesitated because while PC magazine chose them as their editors choice and Radio Computer expert Kim Komando now recommends IDrive, I read much negative feedback on their customer service. Several reported that backups were smooth but when they tried to download they had issues.

So far my Carbonite backups have been flawless. I need to call and find out what happens if I replace my 1GB HD with a 2GB or larger. If I keep the current data on drive designation D: even though it's a new drive will that cause an issue with my existing backup. The drive has to be at least 8 years old. I think it's been good to me because the computer is left on 90% of the time and it's plugged into a quality UPS. Then there's Newton's Law, a body in motion tends to stay in motion. They say the initial surge of turning on a PC is the hardest on a hard drive. BTW it's a Western Digital Black series 1gb 7200 rpm.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

Carbonite. Also no limit. And if it's available to you as an Internet provider, Verizon has the same upload and download speeds. You can choose super-speed for a few extra bucks. I think it is 100Mb/s. >Alan

aellman Loc: Boston MA

I have used Carbonite since they started. A couple of interesting details: They hold deleted files for 30 days, and there is some kind of grace period after the expiration date. Check with them if you're considering re-upping. Their customer service is U.S. based, very responsive, and you never wait more than a few minutes to talk to a human being. >Alan 0

DJphoto Loc: SF Bay Area

I looked at them all and read some reviews. I considered Carbonite, but they don't allow file sharing, and I share photos with family and friends all the time. There were issues with all of them and seemed to be no "perfect" solution. I went with 1TB at Dropbox, even though it was the most expensive ($99 per year) because I know and like the interface and feel comfortable that they will be around a long time. I have a copper DSL line, so my upload is painfully slow; it's probably going to take 4 months or so to get it all uploaded. The 1TB will probably be adequate for a year or so, then it will be $149/year for 2TB. Considering how important my data is, I'm OK with the cost.

Someone else mentioned the impact while uploading. When you're browsing, you are sending data up, so when you are browsing and uploading, it slows both of them down a bit. I have been doing my uploads in "chunks" so if I want to upload some recent photos for sharing, I do it when I'm not uploading. This is especially important now that I have a DSLR, since the files are large. Dropbox uploads the smallest files first, so when I'm uploading other smaller files, it won't get to the new files until it finishes the smallest ones. I start a "batch" of uploads when I go to bed that will take about 8 hours to upload and then upload the rest of the day as it makes sense. Uploading to this forum while I'm also uploading to Dropbox is noticeably slower due to sharing the bandwidth.