We currently keep deleted files in your backup for 30 days. After that, we’ll purge any files that are no longer on your computer.

If you want us to remove a backed up file from our server sooner, just right-click on it and select ‘Don’t back this up’ from the Carbonite menu. Carbonite will delete the file from your backup after 3 days (we wait a few days just in case you change your mind).

If you’d like to restore a recently-deleted file, just open the My Computer directory and double click on the blue lock icon to open the Carbonite Backup Drive.

The Carbonite Backup Drive contains a mirror-image of the backed up folder structure on your computer, including files that were deleted within the past 30 days or, if you are a trial customer, until 15 days after your trial has expired, whichever is shorter. Just right-click on the file you accidentally deleted and select Restore; your file will be restored to its original location in anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Recovering small amounts of data (a few files here or there) will probably take only seconds or minutes. Restoring all of your data will take longer and depends on how much data you have and the speed of your Internet connection. Most internet service providers will allow you to download about 600-800 MB per hour, or roughly 14-18GB per day. For an average user, complete data restoration is likely to take at most a day or two.

When your restore finishes, you’ll see a pop-up message above the Carbonite lock icon in your system tray.

To check on the progress of the files you’ve selected to restore, open the Carbonite InfoCenter by double-clicking the lock icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen and click on the Restore Status tab. This tab will show you what percentage of your selected files has been restored so far, and which file is currently being restored. To see which files have already been successfully restored, click on the ‘View File Recovery Log’ link, then open the ‘Completed’ folder. You can also see which files are still queued for restore by opening the ‘Pending’ folder.

It’s easy to retrieve and restore any file or folder from your backup with just a few clicks.

To recover any file or folder from your backup

Step 1:
Double-click on the Carbonite Backup Drive shortcut on your desktop and open the Backed up files folder. Then navigate to the file or folder you want to retrieve from your backup. (If you don’t see a link to the Carbonite Backup Drive on your desktop, you can find it in your My Computer directory. If you do not have a Carbonite Backup drive at all please see the above link to restore to a new computer.)

Step 2:
Right-click on the file or folder and select Restore. It will automatically be downloaded from your backup and restored to its original location on your computer.

If you want to restore a file or folder to a new location on your computer, right-click on the file or folder and select Restore To. Then within the Browse for Folder window select the target location you would like to restore to and click Ok.

If you would like to restore a previous version of a file please see How many versions of a file does Carbonite keep? for further instruction.

To search for files to restore by name or last modified date:

1. Open the Carbonite InfoCenter by double-clicking on the lock icon in your system tray.
2. Click on the ‘Restore Files’ tab.
3. Click on the ‘Search for Files to Restore’ button.
4. Start typing in all or part of the file’s name, or use the date fields to narrow down files by their last modified date.
5. To restore a file, place a check next to it and click on the ‘Restore Selected’ button.

You can also click on the filename to open the file in the Carbonite Backup Drive.

If you need to restore everything in your backup to a new or repaired PC, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log in to your account and reinstall Carbonite. Go to https://www.carbonite.com.au/Manage/restore.aspx, and log in using your email address and Carbonite password. Continue to follow the prompts on the screen.

Step 2: Restore files from your backup
When you’ve successfully reinstalled Carbonite on your new PC, you’ll see the Carbonite Restore Wizard. You can use the Restore Wizard to restore the files in your backup to your new PC. When the popup appears, click on the Yes, help me restore files now button as shown below. (If you select No, I’ll do it Later you can restore your files at a later time by double-clicking on the Carbonite lock icon in your system tray and selecting View Restore Options. The option to Restore All of my files will relaunch the Restore Wizard.)

You then have two choices, to Restore all missing files to their original locations (Recommended), or to Restore my files to the user account(s) I select.

The recommended option to Restore all missing files to their original locations will guide you automatically through the process.

The second option Restore my files to the user account(s) I select allows you to restore user accounts to different user profiles than the ones from which they were originally backed up. Before beginning the restore, make sure your user account has been created on the system. After you make your selections click Continue and Start Restoring Files.

Once you have selected files for restore, Carbonite allows you to set the priority of the files being restored. To do so, open the Carbonite InfoCenter by double-clicking on the lock icon in your system tray. Click on the Restore Files tab, then click ‘View Recovery Log’. Open the ‘Pending’ folder, and right-click on any file to change its restore priority by selecting ‘High Priority (Restore Sooner)’ or ‘Low Priority (Restore Later)’; or, select ‘Cancel restore’ to stop restoring the file.

To cancel a restore that has already started, open the Carbonite InfoCenter (by double-clicking on the lock icon in your system tray) and click on the Restore Status tab. If you’ve selected files to restore, you’ll see a button that says ‘Cancel Restore in Progress’. Click it to cancel all files queued for restore.

To cancel restoring a single file (or a few files), open the Carbonite InfoCenter and click on the Restore Files tab, then click ‘View Recovery Log’. Open the ‘Pending’ folder, right-click on the file (or files) you wish to remove from the restore queue and select ‘Cancel restore’.

If you decide to cancel your restore, it’s important to remember to restart the restore process within 30 days (or if you are a trial customer, within 15 days after your trial has expired) to ensure you restore all of your files before they would otherwise be deleted.