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Carbonite Online Backup - Too Good to be True? Possibly.

Written by Marco Conti Tuesday, 11 August 2009 14:36

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NOTE: April, 11 2010 - I just wrote a new review on Carbonite based on my experience in the last 3 months. Please read that article as well.

I was listening to the Leo Laporte Podcast the other day and he mentioned how happy he was with the Carbonite Online Backup service. Since I have been looking for a good online backup service when I got back home I checked them out and I decided to purchase it right there and then.

After all "Unlimited Online Backup" it's too good of an offer for less than $50 a year (after discount).

Since I have been having issues with some Hard Drives failing on me, and I am planning a major clean installation of Vista 64 on my main computer, I couldn't wait to put my music, movies and documents on a secure online storage. I almost lost my data once already when a "MyBook" WD Hard Drive almost failed. I can't risk a data loss. For $50 a year I certainly cannot justify NOT doing it.

And that's when the comedy of errors started.

But before I start with long and boring account of the events (in case someone is interested or has the same issue), let me just say that ultimately, or at least so far, I have been unable to install Carbonite on my PC. Furthermore I have since found several posts and reviews that makes me think this guys are less than forthcoming in their advertising and that I am just going to ask for my money back. I really wish I could use their service, I really do, but consider this:

Unlimited is not unlimited. I found a blog post where apparently another user (a luckier one that was able to install the program) found out the hard way the meaning of unlimited. Here is an excerpt from Carbonite's own customer support:

Dear Carbonite User,
We regret to inform you that you are in violation of Carbonite’s Terms of Use –> www.carbonite.com/termsofuse Your pending backup size exceeds that of our average user by at least a factor of 10. Your account has been disabled temporarily. You must either reduced your pending backup size so that it falls below 100GB or cancel your account. If you have already purchased Carbonite you may request a full refund. Please let us know how you would like to proceed.

Sincerely,
Carbonite, Inc.

Interesting. Apparently, "Unlimited" these days is defined as 100GB or less. Naturally,since I am in the business I know very well that "unlimited" hosting, unlimited bandwidth and now Unlimited online Backup are but a pipe dream. Until someone starts selling "unlimited Hard Drives" and bandwidth becomes free there will always be a limit of some sort.

However, I have to question the judgment of a company making this "Unlimited" business their main marketing campaign and, in the era of Twitter and blogging, sending a notice like that without figuring that it's going to be republished over and over.

If you advertise "unlimited" you better stick by it and assume those few users willing to spend weeks backing up their 2TG hard drives as loss leaders. The vast majority I suppose will stay well below the 30GB mark anyway. Use their free space instead.

Adding insult to injury

Before I decided to terminate my account, but while I was already quite upset, I decided to add Carbonite to my list of affiliates. Since I usually write reviews of services I try, good or bad I try to get an affiliate deal with them. I am linking to them anyway and if someone wants to buy their service through an article they read on my web site, why not make a few $$ in the deal? No one gets hurt and it allows me to give a discount to friends and family (or clients) when I suggest to them to buy a product I reviewed.

Now, I admit I am not Cnet.com, but this web site gets a fair amount of traffic and my blogs do get some readers. Yet, the automated bot at Commission Junction decided that somehow I was not good enough for Carbonite. I got turned down!

I usually never get turned down and it makes me wonder if I have to offer unlimited blog writing for them to accept me as an affiliate. (of course, now that's a mute point)

In light of my following misadventures, you can see how I am now not a very big fan of this company. I will instead go buy a 2TB backup station and call it a day. In fact, I'll probably get a couple of Windows Live accounts which come with a very fat 25GB of Free online backup each (called Skydrive) and Windows Live Sync, a folder sharing program that works quite well and works using a p2p transfer system (meaning: no storage limits). Take that Carbonite!

Now that you have the back story and a very decent FREE Alternative to Carbonite (and this is no affiliate link), let's go on to my sad experience with this company:

Carbonite frozen installation window

I tried installing again but I got the same results.

2) At this point I decided to contact support. I used their online ticket system and I waited. And waited. And waited. 2 days later I was getting a bit anxious so I decided to send them another email. This time I was far less polite than my first email.
To be fair, this second time around I realized that my initial email probably never got to them in the first place. See, after writing the email and submitting it, you are taken to a confirmation page while the site processes a Knowledge Base search at the same time. Here you are supposed to click on "Continue Submitting" to actually send the email. "Continue Submitting", incidentally is a light grey button with pale blue text and it sits right next to another button named "Issue is resolved".  Way too easy to miss that when you are in a hurry and upset because you have wasted an afternoon trying to install a backup program.

Anyhow, finally I am submitting my (nasty) request for support, but when I get to the next page there is an icon for online support. So I decide to inquire online.

I write out my issue and I get a nice fellow that immediately implies that since I am on a mac ....
Except, I am not on a Mac, and I had already stated my issue was on Vista Premium 64. I am writing from a Mac so in case I need to restart my PC I can keep the support guy online. Strike one for assumptions. And they do support Macs, anyway. I just love it when support asks you questions like that. You just know they are trying to find "something" where they can say "but of course sir, you can't run our fine piece of software on a machine with XYX corp program on it. It must be their fault!"

After setting that straight, I explain my trouble with installation and amazingly he has a good fix. He cannot send it to me via IM because it's too long (according to him) so we have to disconnect.
I get the fix via email and it's barely 10 lines long. It reads:

To repair the HOSTS file within Windows Vista:

1. Click the Start button.
2. In the Open field, type cmd and then right-click the icon at the top of the list (entitled "cmd.exe") and select Run as Administrator. This will open a command-prompt window. You may have to press Continue or Allow on a pop-up if prompted.
3. Within the command-prompt window, type Notepad C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and then press Enter.
4. Delete all text in the HOSTS file.
5. On the first line of the HOSTS file, type: 127.0.0.1 localhost (At this point the HOSTS file should only contain this single line of text.)
6. Select File; Save.
7. Close Notepad.
8. Restart your computer.

I think he could have sent it via IM and waited for me to go through it, but anyway, I follow the instructions and restart my Vista box.

3) Behold! I finally get by the blank installation window and things seem to be going famously.

Until they don't. This time is an alert box saying:

The connection with the carbonite server is down, the cause could be

1. firewall or security software preventing Carbonite from connecting to the server
2. you computer is not connected
3. the server is temporarily unavailable.

Wouldn't you know it!

So I go online again and this time a very long and painful session follows. The support guy repeatedly implies it is something I am doing wrong. Repeatedly I tell him my firewall is deactivated, my antivirus turned off, and so on. The usual story.

Here is a brief example:

   
Agent : "May I know which Internet browser you are using ?"
Me: "Firefox right now But I have every browser under the sun. I am a web developer"
Agent : "I suggets [sic] you to try downloading Carbonite using Internet explorer"
Me: "I did that", I am using Firefox right now, but I downloaded it with IE8"

He basically picked apart every piece of software I have, until he hit on Acronis Disk Director (which has a backup feature). Now I am sure he felt he hit pay-dirt, except that a quick Google search brought up plenty of people using carbonite and Acronis together and very happy about it too.

Finally, he asked me "Do you know about safe Mode?" And that's where we left it off. I am in safe mode now, writing this on my mac. Safe mode takes so long that I was able to write this entire article while my PC was booting up in safe mode. That's why any company forcing me to install their piece of crap software in Safe Mode does not deserve my business, or the one of the readers of this article.

Follow my lead and create a few Windows Live accounts for your online backup and check this software called Gladinet that's supposed to allow you to backup your files online, via ftp and it connects with Skydrive. I cannot fully recommend it yet because I am just now using it on my laptop, but as soon as I check it out in full I'll write a review about it and let you know how it works. So far, it seems pretty well done.

But it is a definite thumbs down for Carbonite, I am afraid to say and I really wanted it to work.

Also, stay away from "Unlimited" offers until they learn to stand by their advertising.

Be well
/cc/ Marco

UPDATE

And the answer is... Yes. It's definitely too good to be true.

Even after running my PC in Safe Mode, the installation of Carbonite hit a snag (it basically does not install in Safe mode, even with networking on - it makes you wonder if the support folks ever even tried it).

Finally, I had to give up.
However, there is a silver lining: I mentioned above a program called "Gladinet". I decided to really give a whirl and I have to say I am impressed.

How would you like to have your Web Server (FTP), your Gmail, Gcalendar, Picasa, Box.net and other miscellaneous "Cloud" apps available on your desktop mounted as a regular drive? And all for about $40?

Check the Gladinet logo at left. I snapped it with SnagIt9, and then I saved it directly onto my "images" folder on my website going through the "Z" drive that the Gladinet program places in your "My Computer". Snip, save, upload all in one shot as easy as saving an image locally. And the best thing is that the program can be installed on unlimited (personal) computers. That means having your files anywhere you have an internet connection. Together with Skydrive, Box.net and Gmail storage (It even supports Amazon S3) this is the killer app I was looking for.

Look for a full fledged review of Gladinet coming soon in the Reviews blog. In the meantime, if you want to save $10 on your Gladinet purchase, send me an email. I have 10 coupons. Just send the email and if I still have any coupons left I'll email it to you. Make sure to use it though because already a few are spoken for.

Well, so much for Carbonite. I wish I could have at least used it. We'll see how easy now is to get my money back. Stay tuned.

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CARBONITE IS A SCAM- TOOK MY MONEY AND CANCELLED ME FOR HAVING 130 GIGS!!

UNLIMITED MY *SS. What a scam. They took my money for a few months, had me spend tons of time getting all set with them, and then cancelled me because I had a measily 130 gigs!! Hard drives are sold in the terabyte today, and I can't back up a 130 gigs? 100% FALSE ADVERTISING. I thought they changed their policy, but those scam artists are still advertising unlimited storage today! What a joke. I smell class action lawsuit.

Aaron , September 22, 2011

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Carbonite Fails to Backup Ordinary Files

Carbonite doesn’t work. It fails to backup normal Office files downloaded from Outlook 2007 claiming they are “temporary files”. They are not. They refuse to respond to my many requests for resolution to this issue. “Never Worry About Your Backup Again” is an outright lie. You will lose files. It’s too bad about their attitude, too. If they were willing to own it, I’d let them work it out, but they just don’t seem to care.

Ole Danielson , February 05, 2011

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Carbonite is not what it says it is. Very misleading advertising.

I installed Carbonite and later had a hard drive start to fail. Got a new hard drive and waited two days for it to back up my files. WRONG!! It did not back up any of my business documents and only one of my contacts folders [25% of my contacts]. I thought I messed up and spent another two days rebacking up my files. What a waste of time. Didn't work. Canceled my 3 year subscription after 6 months and tried to get at least some refund. Nope, wouldn't do it. Carbonite says on their website that it automatically backs up "ALL" your files and you don't have to do anything. Not in my case. I am telling everyone I can to not use Carbonite. What a ripoff.

Steve , September 09, 2010

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Dmailer and Carbonite

Dunno about Carbonite i used it and it didn't appeared as much as i expected . And the backup/restore process was a little to high.
I am using now for like an a year a software called Dmailer http://www.dmailer.com/dmailer-backup.html , their software is free and their online storage is also free only up to 3gb , of course if you need larger packs they have all you need at good prices.

<---------------------------->
Admin Edit (sorry easier than trying to respond)
<---------------------------->
I have checked into Dmailer and indeed it looks promising. One thing it has over Carbonite is that their unlimited plan works for Mac and PC. Carbonite remains very restrictive in your restore options. If you backup your PC you can only restore on a PC and likewise on the Mac. Also, I found out the hard way that restoring even just a GB is a painfully slow process. But then again I have nothing I can compare it to given the size of the data I had to restore.

My Carbonite is about to expire and I may very well try another service to get a better idea of what's out there.

The 2GB free don't really attract me that much, I am waiting for the day my local 7/11 is going to offer 2GB of free storage. And if you consider that Windows Live has been offering 25 GB free for about a year, 2GB pales in comparison (there are caveats, of course).

I backup close to 400GB. SO I will consider a service that is cost effective for that type of storage only. Most aren't yet. Even Amazon S3 would cost me a fortune compared to Carbonite.

Anyway, thank you for bringing this company to my attention. I'll keep an eye on them.

JohnnyBoyClub , June 25, 2010

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Tomnica Data Protection Online Service

If you are looking for an alternative to Mozy, Carbonite, you can check out our data protection service online at www.tomnica.com. Not only does it provide a great backup service, but it also allows you to wipe or encrypt data in case your device gets lost or stolen. Finally, you can monitor your device by using features such as screenshots, webcam image capture and device location tracking. All these services are available in 1 package with a neat web interface. We have a free plan for 1 year. Try it out and let us know what you think.

Laurent Luce
Director of Software
Tomnica, Inc.

Laurent Luce , November 14, 2009 | url

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More about online backup

I wanted to thank everyone for what is a very lively discussion. I also wanted to make sure that no one misunderstood my article for a Carbonite bashing article.

In fact, after reading of the 7500 customer's disaster my heart goes out to the poor devils that were on duty at the time. That must have been a really bad week.

I did not write the article to get back at carbonite, in fact, I have not cancelled my account just yet. If I were able to install the software on my main machine I'd probably keep it.
And my experience with tech support was far from being the worse I have ever had. In fact, all in all they were trying to be helpful. They just fell into the trap so many tech support people do when they try to find anything that would get the customer off their back.
For instance, after I mentioned I had Acronis installed, I could not get the guy to even consider the possibility Acronis was not the culprit.

Instead of saying "it would be possible that XYZ software is conflicting with ours, but I am not sure", they will tell the customer to uninstall a program or try something with the certainty of someone going in front of a firing squad, when in fact they have absolutely no idea of what they are talking about.

As a partial response to the Cloudberry guy (which seems a nice service too) and to Mr. Friend of Carbonite, as sad as the loss of data must have been for carbonite and their users, rather than disqualify Carbonite from my choices of online backup it would probably make it the front runner. As Cloudberry stated, loss of data is rare, for it to happen again at Carbonite would be exceptional. I am sure that by now Carbonite runs the tightest ship in town because they know that another episode of data loss would pretty much put them out of business.

By the way, after seeing the response this article got, I was sort of expecting someone from Carbonite to jump in rather quickly and I was not disappointed. I had noticed that any article mentioning Carbonite usually attracted employees in either official or unofficial capacity. That's also nice to see. It shows they care. And I want to thank Mr. Friend for clearing up the "Unlimited" issue. Although I am still wondering how they can make a profit on anyone with more than 40 or 50GB. I researched prices at Amazon S3 and to backup a similar amount of data as the one I was going to place on Carbonite would have cost me over $50 a month.

I am probably going to inquire if I can "freeze" my account at Carbonite for a month or two until I have a chance to install Vista 64 on my new Raptor 10,000rpm Hard Drive. I am long overdue for a clean install and it is not unconceivable that my woes are due to some setting in my OS. Unfortunately, installing carbonite on another machine is out of the question because all my backups would have to be over the network or I would have to change my entire backup policies and use my Mac instead. I have already lost too many hours working on my Vista to try again.

Thank you all for the lively discussion.

Marco Conti , August 13, 2009 | url

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I had to switch, too...

I hand't heard about Carbonite losing all that data. I do know that I had similar compatibility issues with Carbonite and my computer, though. I switched last year to MyOtherDrive.com and have been real happy with them. Thanks for the article.

Gavyn

Gavyn , August 13, 2009

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Sorry to hear about your frustrations... but yes, we are unlimited

Marco,

I’m sorry to hear about your negative experience with Carbonite. I wanted to address a few points from your post and provide you with my e-mail should you want to discuss anything further.

Yes, that email was sent to a small number of customers during the summer of 2006. At the time, our product had just launched and we had only a couple of thousand customers. Our original plan was to discontinue service to users whose backups greatly exceeded the average backup requirements of all other users. At the time this was similar to policies enforced by cell phone carriers for their “unlimited nights and weekends” plans. However, for our business, this turned out to be a poor plan and we ended this policy very soon afterwards based on the negative feedback we received from the market. Since then, we have not discontinued anyone’s service for these reasons and we have many customers that back up hundreds of GB with Carbonite.

I will be looking into your customer service experience so we can learn from it and improve the experience. If you have any additional feedback, please contact me at david(dot)friend (at) carbonite (dot)com

David Friend , August 13, 2009 | url

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CloudBerry Backup

Sorry to hear about your poor experience with Carbonite. As a vendor of Online Backup service (CloudBerry Backup) I would like to tell you that this is not typical for online backup industry in general. We strive to live on our promises and offer outstanding service to our customers, while stating the costs clearly (we don't have unlimited plans)

Andy , August 13, 2009 | url

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After closer inspection..

For the record, I myself also like to get my facts right, so since my mistake was highlighted I have conducted some extra reading as well. Carbonite did in fact lose 7,500+ customer's data, however, fortunately for them ‘only’ 54 of these customers actually needed their data and couldn't recover it from elsewhere.
So just to clarify, they did actually lose a huge amount of data, but only 54 suffered.
Carbonite were lucky, yes, but does this necessarily mean that it's OK because not everyone lost an essential backup or that in comparison, 54 isn't that high a number? I beg to differ.

Jennifer Jackson , August 13, 2009 | url

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