Does the Carbonite remote access feature allow me to view any file or email individually from any computer, similar to the GoToMyPC program?

Posted by kent on March 16th, 2010

The following is an actual user submitted question:

Q: I am considering buying Carbonite and would like to know if I still need GoToMyPC remote access program if Carbonite allows for remote access? Does the Carbonite remote access feature allow me to view any file or email individually from any computer, similar to the GoToMyPC program?

A: Thank you for the question; it's a good one. Both GoToMyPC and Carbonite are invaluable tools for people who are frequently away from their main computer. Both programs allow you to access files remotely, they just do it in different ways. What you're suggesting would absolutely work; Carbonite backs up your emails (at least with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook express and Windows Mail) and you can use the remote access feature to read them. We just tested it, using a Mac to retrieve backed up email on a PC.

There is something to keep in mind, however. Since Carbonite's remote access is only about file retrieval and not remote control, you'll have to leave your email program up and running when you're away from it if you want access to your latest emails. The advantage of a true remote access program like GoToMyPC is that you can check your mail in real time. The other thing we found with our test is that emails are pretty deeply buried in the Windows file structure, so you have to navigate a little way down into the tree.

Are the backup services vulnerable to hackers?

Posted by kent on January 5th, 2010

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question.

Q: Are the backup services vulnerable to hackers?

A: With the usual warning that anything is possible, online backup services are pretty secure. Of the many, many stories we see about web services getting hacked, it's not the online back up services that are getting hit. The online backup services employ encryption before your data is sent, and it's sent using SSL (Secure Socket Layer), the same technology that so many of us trust for banking and credit card transactions. Carbonite, for instance, boasts military grade encryption, and it encrypts your files "twice before leaving your computer." The files remain encrypted as they're stored.

Those who are particularly concerned about their data being unencrypted can choose their own encryption key. We talked about that a bit in an earlier blog post.

Of course the best software encryption is only as good as a user's own security practices. This includes choosing a good account password when you sign up, being alert to phishing scams, and having up-to-date Internet security software installed on your machine (to foil keyloggers that could steal your passwords).

Why is Carbonite paused and how do I activate it?

Posted by kent on December 22nd, 2009

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question.

Q: I have a message that my Carbonite is paused. It gives me two choices.Dismiss or unpause. I click on unpause with no results. Why is it paused & how do I activate it?

A: We're not entirely sure why this is happening. Pausing is generally a user-activated function, and done for a designated period of time. While we can answer questions about our experiences with the service in general, we suggest that you contact Carbonite customer support for specific technical or account issues, as they have more experience with individual trouble shooting.

Updated 12/29: In our comments section, a reader suggested the following fix:

Carbonite may also be paused if you've set up a backup schedule. You can check this by right-clicking on your Carbonite lock icon in the system tray and selecting "Options…", then clicking the "Backup Schedule" tab.

If you select the first option, "Update my backup automatically", Carbonite should unpause and start backing up again.

I am a Carbonite subscriber. My computer recently crashed. I changed from Windows to a Mac. How do I get my service changed to my new computer?

Posted by kent on December 3rd, 2009

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.

Q: I am a carbonite subscriber. My computer recently crashed. I changed from window to A Mac. How do I get my serviced changed to my new computer?

A: We've had a number of questions about transferring Carbonite accounts. We covered that a while ago, and you can read our post on that here. According to Carbonite's tech support, you can use your remaining subscription on your new computer.

Your question did get us thinking about whether you could restore your previously backed-up PC data on your new Mac. After all, Macs and PCs have fundamentally different system architectures. It turns out that it presents a problem for data restoration. According to Carbonite's help section:

Due to the differences between PCs and Macs, Carbonite for Mac handles files and subscriptions in a different way than our PC-compatible products do. That means that users unfortunately cannot restore files between PCs and Macs…

We are working to add support for cross-platform restores and subscription transfers in future Carbonite releases.

Don't worry, you're not totally sunk. Until Carbonite works out that detail, you can use a little work around to restore your important PC documents on a Mac:

1) Log onto the Remote Access section of the Carbonite web site.

2) Manually restore your documents, music, videos, etc. using the web interface.

This is not as effortless as the one-button restore you get when you're restoring to the same platform, but at least you can get your important documents back. You probably won't get preferences back, since they're managed rather differently on a Mac.

Can I backup my operating system?

Posted by kent on November 10th, 2009

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.

Q: Can I backup my operating system?

A: By default, most online backup services are set to backup documents and other irreplaceable items on your hard drive. In general they do not automatically back up programs or your operating system (or OS, for short). Now, you can have your service back up pretty much anything on your hard drive. While it's crucial to have a restore disk with your OS on it, it's critical that the backup is on a separate, physical installation disk, such as a CD ROM. And it shouldn't just be a copy of your OS; it should be a full restore disk that will install a new OS from scratch. There are three big reasons why, and they're related:

The OS is the foundation of your system. In order to access your online backup service, you have to be using your OS; it simply runs everything. Trying to replace the OS on your startup disk would be a bit like trying to swap out the engine of our car while you're driving it.

Similarly, if your hard drive ever does crash, and your OS goes with it, you won't be able to access your online backup service. You'll have to start up from a separate startup disk. Once you have your system reinstalled, you'll be able to connect to your online backup service and get your documents back.

Now, you might ask why you can't just startup from that external disk, access your online backup, and then restore your OS from a browser running on that external disk. While that may work, a clean install is always the best way. If you've backed up your email, various libraries and preferences (Carbonite does this, for instance, but you should always check to see what your service backs up by default). There are just too many components in the OS that need be installed in a particular way, and in specific places.

I have a Windows XP machine and want to back-up data, then download to new Windows 7 machine. Will this work?

Posted by kent on November 10th, 2009

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.

Q: I have a Windows XP machine and want to back-up data, then download to new Windows 7 machine. Will this work? Thanks

A: Yes, this will work, provided you use a backup service that is Windows 7 compatible. IDrive is the only service we've reviewed so far that claims that its software is Windows 7 compatible. However, any of services that allow web-based interaction should work as well, since they use a web app for the restoration. Backing up your documents, music, photos, and videos will enable you to "restore" them to a new Windows 7 machine.

We will put in our standard warning that this will probably be slower than a direct connection between two computers. A complete backup can take a day or more, depending on your Internet connection. There are a few reasons for this, one of which is that it takes time for IDrive to encrypt and unencrypt your data, a crucial operation for safeguarding your files.

However, if you already have a compatible online backup solution, or you plan on purchasing one, there's no reason why you shouldn't give it a try.

Can I transfer Carbonite to my new computer?

Posted by kent on October 30th, 2009

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.

Q: I purchased your product about a month ago then I bought a new computer because my old one was so stinking slow. Can I transfer Carbonite to my new computer (It even has my old hard drive in it)?

A: It's a great question, but first we should clarify that while we do review and provide links to Carbonite, NextAdvisor.com is a separate company. With that out of the way, here's the answer to your question:

In short: Yes. That's the great thing about a subscription-based services like Carbonite. I found these instructions on the help section on Carbonite's web site. I'm assuming you reformatted your drive when you put it on the new machine, so the first step probably doesn't apply to you. The main thing you need to do is access your Carbonite account online and transfer your subcscription to your new computer, but here are detailed steps:

1) If the computer that Carbonite is currently installed on is still in use, Uninstall Carbonite (using Add/Remove Programs from Control Panel). Otherwise, proceed to step 2.

4) Follow the instructions to download and install Carbonite

Again, some of these steps will depend on whether or not you reformatted your drive. And if you did reformat the drive, you can use Carbonite to restore the files that were on your old machine.

Are online backup providers responsible for keeping customers' data unencrypted?

Posted by kent on August 28th, 2009

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way. This question comes as a follow-up to a question asked earlier this week: If an online backup service provider is subpoenaed, would they have to hand over your data?

Q: As a data storage provider, if forced to turn over a clients data and it is encrypted, and me as a data storage provider that does not have any means to obtain my clients encryption code; I would just essentially be turning over jibberish. How does this play into the whole scenario?

A: Last week I noted that online backup providers must cooperate with search warrants, meaning they must hand over data, unencrypted to law enforcement if subpoenaed. I also noted that Carbonite requires that data not be encrypted, prompting a reader to ask if online backup service providers were required to screen for encrypted data.

I'm glad you asked because your question sent me back to the Terms of Service for a deeper read. It turns out that Carbonite only prevents you from using "the Carbonite Products or Services to decrypt data encrypted by others" as well as disallowing you to "permit others to Use the Carbonite Products or Services to access or decrypt data stored on servers provided by Carbonite…" Specifically this seems to refer to an unauthorized use of Carbonite's own encryption methods (which it uses to securely pull the files from your computer).

So, that entanglement is avoided, and I apologize for that misreading on my part (it seems obvious now). Still, it's important to note that these services are not routinely scanning your files for inappropriate content. That would actually make them liable for everything on their servers, a horrendous and unmanageable burden. Carbonite says it may decrypt your files if "it reasonably believes it must do so in order to comply with a law, subpoena, warrant, order, or regulation…" It may also due so for trouble shooting purposes.

If an online backup provider was subpoenaed, would it have to hand your data over?

Posted by kent on August 27th, 2009

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.

Q: I have a question about online backup services. In both civil and criminal lawsuits, we have all heard or read about an individual's computer contents being used as evidence, and if the crime or individual is "newsworthy," the contents splashed all over the news.

A: That's a great question. First, I should say that I'm not a lawyer and this does not constitute legal advice, but I do spend a lot of time pouring through Terms of Service (TOS) agreements and have worked with legal departments at online service providers in the past. This morning I spent some time with the TOS's of several of our online backup providers.

My entirely non-legally binding findings are: Yes, if your online backup provider was subpoenaed to hand over your data, they would have to do it. Your online storage is, as you suspect, just like the drive on your computer when it comes to a search warrant. Furthermore, the backup service provider does not want to (and legally cannot) store data that they know to be in violation of the law. If the provider were to do anything to disguise your data (i.e, through encryption), they would be in breach of the law. In fact, at least one provider (Carbonite) expressly prohibits you from making your data unreadable, since it would prevent investigations.

In my professional experience, online service providers are sticklers for subpoenas, and will not hand over customer data without a proper court order. While they are required to help out law enforcement, there are consequences to violating a user's privacy (both in terms of public relations and litigation).

But, as you suggest, once that data does get turned over, the genie is out of the bottle. Still, the same would be true if you backed up your data on an external drive and it was discovered during a court-ordered search of your house.

For more on online backup services, check out our reviews and comparisons.

Does Carbonite offer remote file access?

Posted by kent on August 25th, 2009

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.

Q: Your comparison chart and program details table for carbonite says "No file access except for full system recovery", while your review says "Carbonite now offers Remote File Access, so you can access any single file from any computer that has web access."

A: It looks like you caught a little misprint in our online backup services comparison chart. Yes, at one time Carbonite only offered full-backups, but they now offer remote access to your files from any web browser. This makes it not only great for online backup, but also extremely useful for anyone who's ever needed to access a file remotely. With Carbonite, you're not only keeping your documents safe from hard drive crashes, but making sure your files are always available to you when you need them.

Carbonite gives you unlimited storage for $54.95 per year, and runs on Windows Vista, XP, and Mac OS X (10.4 or above).