Thombar Loc: Hominy, OK

I used it many years ago and did not like it. If I remember correctly it was difficult to retrieve my files and I also thought there was little storage for the cost. That said, it was many years ago, I think when it first came out, and things may have changed/improved...

banjonut Loc: Southern Michigan

Been using Carbonite for about 3 years now. Cannot really give it a review since I have yet to need it. But it's there if I do.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Nope. Interesting name, "Carbonite." Not a real chemical, i.e., Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate, or Polycarbonate Plastics. But me thinks, I do, the name comes from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back! The Force shifted it did there. They "perserved" Hans Solo in "carbonite" to transport him. He looked like a graphite statue!

Preservation is likely the point.

CooledgeR Loc: Sunny (Hot) Arizona

Sounds like something I'd like to do if I was savvy enough to understand fully what you are describing. Is there a "Backup for Dummies Using Raid 0" anywhere that lays out the steps, etc. in really simple Kings English? :roll:

RICHARD46 Loc: New Jersey

Crash plan unlimited backup including external drives been using it for years.
$50 a year

ragatazz Loc: Michigan

I am using Carbonite. Have for the last 3 years. Very happy with the service. Very convenient to be able to access documents and pictures from my phone or anything anywhere. No complaints at all.

ikaush Loc: Medford, MA

The external drives are ridiculously cheap now. You connect external drive via ultra highspeed USB-3. This allows both easy access and easy backup.

You also can have your own cloud at home via Wi-Fi. Check with stores like BestBuy or MicroCenter -- for about $200 you can have a 2 terabyte network disk that is a dedicated computer and drive in one piece.

rugerbearcat Loc: Newport Beach, Calif.

Been using Carbonite on our Dell desktop for almost 3 years with no problems. An added bonus for us is when we are out of town we can access any of our files, such as banking, credit card, and personal data via our little satellite laptop we take with us via Carbonite's site. Therefore, if the laptop's ever stolen or lost, there will be no personal data such as banking, credit card, or personal stored on it. . .

BTW: Also, we back up monthly to a 2TB external drive which goes into a safe deposit box at my bank.

BigGWells Loc: Olympia, WA

I have used Crash Plan going on 3 years now. It took about 7 days to upload everything, but not one hiccup. I have buddys that use Carbonite and the same for them. Both are equally priced.

DragonTom Loc: California Central Coast

Probably but I've been dealing with computers since the 1960's and have lost track of the "For Dummies" series of books. :-)

Basically, there are several RAID levels. The simplest is RAID 0 where you have two disks connected to a controller that writes to both at the same time and periodically checks to see that both disks have the same information on them. Higher levels will have more complex routines that use checksums and other algorithms to write data across multiple disks and be able to both check the accuracy of that data and also fix any errors that are seen. So, a RAID 0 setup will basically give you a double backup and if one of the disks goes bad you can replace it (maybe even hot swap with the device running in some cases) and the internal software will then copy from the good disk to re-make a redundant backup. In my case, the device (a Trendnet server -- there are many others) is also an FTP server on my local network (i.e., behind the router) and I have a backup program that gives me the ability to back up to an FTP server rather than to a device that looks like a hard disk in Windows. With the latter your backup is always at risk for a malware attack as the malware can "see" it but can't see the FTP device.

It's actually easier than it sounds. Here is a link to a video that shows the software I use. Again, there are many others...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8O7LJ_z6aE

bobburk3 Loc: Maryland

I agree with sodapop. Excellent service. But if you ever have to download all your files from carbonite it is very slow. it could take days to get all your files back to your computer. I think you can pay extra though to get a faster download though.

CooledgeR Loc: Sunny (Hot) Arizona

Many thanks!

fantom Loc: Colorado

I am in my third or fourth year with then and have found everything very professional and reliable. They have had excellent customer service also---politely helping me with my stupid questions.

Bellisari Loc: Long Island, NY

Fantastic and I've had to use it twice and no problems, you may also want mirror back with them. That can be a life saver