I’ve used a couple of the major online backup services since I started my web design studio in 2005. The first one I used for about a year. As with all of them, the initial backup took days to run (in the background while I was doing other work) but afterwards was totally unnoticeable as it went about its business.
Thankfully, I never had to retrieve anything from it for several months. Then there was one file I needed… the retrieval process was easy and fast. Whew.
But then about six months later, my old Dell finally died. I went to the online backup service with my laptop to pull my files while I was building a new machine…
This time, a totally different story. I kept getting disconnected from the service, and when I could get in and work for awhile, the screen that shows my files just sat there grinding. I let it run for most of the workday because I had plenty of other things to do, but nothing ever happened.
I wrote support. I never got a response. I asked for my money back and for my account to be closed. No response to that either – 48 hours later. I finally heard from them after posting about my experience in my blog, but by then it was too late.
I found Carbonite when looking for a replacement. In the last year, I’ve had to use their file retrieval service about a dozen times. Every time it’s gone super-smoothly. Easier than the last company (I can do it right from the desktop instead of having to go to their website).
And when I’ve had a customer service question, it’s been answered promptly.
I like Carbonite so much that my web hosting company NOCO Hosting is now partnering with them so I can offer it at a 10% discount to my hosting clients. If you’re in the market for a good online backup service that’s easy to use and affordable, please visit NOCO and learn more. I wouldn’t recommend any service that I hadn’t used myself.
