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Once logged in, you can reinstall Carbonite, transfer your Carbonite subscription from one PC to another, restore lost files and install a new 30 day Carbonite trial.
Carbonite’s data centers are guarded 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Personnel access to our data centers is controlled by multiple biometric scanners and electronic keycards with pin codes. All activity is monitored through closed-circuit television (CCTV). This hardened infrastructure protects our customers from disruption caused by external factors such as power loss, weather events, or unauthorized access.
The Carbonite icon will turn green once your initial backup is complete, yellow if your initial backup is in progress or if your backup is out-of-date, and red if there is a problem. Double-clicking on the icon will open up the Carbonite InfoCenter which will give you more detailed information.
Please note: After your initial backup, your Carbonite icon will stay green if your backup is operating normally, even if you have files pending backup.
Carbonite is also available for all Intel-based Macs running OS 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.5 (Leopard).
Carbonite reduces its packet size from 8,000 bytes to 1,400 bytes and sends only one packet at a time instead of streaming multiple packets.
Carbonite is very easy to set up and use, requiring little or no ongoing user involvement. Our service is always on and continually backing up files on your computer whenever it is connected to the Internet.
Time & Hassle — If you have to think about backups, you probably won’t ever get around to doing them. That’s why only 2% of home computers are backed up regularly. In addition, most computer users do not know where all of their important files are stored on their computer and would therefore otherwise miss critical information if they were selecting specific items to be backed-up. With Carbonite, you download our software, and leave the rest up to us.
Cost — If you backed up your computer daily to CDs, you’d go through hundreds of dollars worth of CDs a year. Outboard hard drives cost $150 and up. Traditional online backup services cost at least $100 per year and offer only limited capacity. Carbonite offers unlimited storage capacity for just a few dollars per month.
A note on CD backups: some people wrongly assume that backing up files to CD offers a permanent solution. However, the nature of chemicals used to manufacture recordable CDs gives them a much shorter lifespan than store-bought albums. In fact, even recordable CDs that are stored in dark, temperature-controlled rooms usually won’t last longer than a few years!
Peace of Mind — Are all of the files you care about protected from theft, fire, flood, and other natural disasters? With Carbonite, you know for sure that data you’ve lost can be recovered. And because Carbonite is always on, continually detecting new data and changes to existing files on your computer, you never have to worry.
Security — With Carbonite, nothing leaves your computer unless it is encrypted twice – once with your encryption key and again as it travels over the Internet. When you register, you create a user ID and password and only you will be able to unlock the encrypted files stored by Carbonite. You can also rest assured that Carbonite won’t share any information about you or your data with advertisers or other third parties.
If you would like to view the backup status of an individual file or folder, first locate the file/folder on your computer. You can locate files by opening folders such as My Documents (called “Documents” on Windows Vista and Windows 7), My Pictures and My Music. If the file/folder is located on your desktop, you can view its status there.
A file/folder’s backup status is indicated by the presence of a small dot on the bottom, left corner of the file/folder’s icon. If the file/folder does not have a dot, it has not been selected for backup by Carbonite.
The backup status of any file or folder can also be found by right-clicking on the file or folder and reading the description in gray at the top of the Carbonite menu.
Click the ‘Set Options’ button, and uncheck the option that says ‘Show colored status dots on my files and folders.’
If you choose to disable the dots, you can check the backup status of your files by browsing the Carbonite Backup Drive in your My Computer directory.
Recover Mode essentially freezes your backup so that you can restore your files; it prevents Carbonite from thinking that you have deleted all your files. Once you have restored your backed up files to your new/repaired computer, Carbonite automatically exits Recover Mode and begins to back up your new files.
When Carbonite is in Recover Mode, the lock icon in the system tray turns blue with a red cross, and an alert is displayed in the InfoCenter to advise you that backup has been suspended. You may discontinue Recover Mode by de-selecting Recover Mode on the InfoCenter ‘Set Options’ tab. You can keep Carbonite in Recover Mode for as long as you need to, but your backup will not be updated while you are in Recover Mode.
It is important to remember to complete the restore process within 30 days or, if you are a trial customer, within 15 days after your trial has expired; whichever is shorter, to ensure you restore all of your files before they would otherwise be deleted. If you leave recover mode after 30 days (or 15 days after your trial has expired) any files that have not been recovered will be deleted.
While Carbonite is paused, the lock icon in the system tray will turn gray with a red paused symbol to remind you that Carbonite is paused. To stop Carbonite for long periods of time, select ‘Disable Carbonite’ instead.
When Carbonite is disabled, the lock icon in your system tray will turn gray with a red ‘X’. You can reenable Carbonite by right-clicking the lock icon again and unchecking the ‘Disable Carbonite’ option.
You may want to disable Carbonite if you need to use another program that requires the Volume Shadow Copy Service, such as a disk defragmenter, or if you are traveling with your computer for an extended period of time without access to the Internet.
Click the Windows Start menu, then click on ‘My Computer’ to open the directory. (Note: ‘My Computer’ is called ‘Computer’ in Windows Vista.)
Double-click the blue lock icon to open the Carbonite Backup Drive.
You can also back up individual files ASAP by right-clicking on the file and selecting “Back up this file as soon as possible.”