August 22. 2009 13:11

I do agree with your article Dave. However what seems to be missing from Carbonite to enable widespread business adoption of your product is an administrative control panel. If an employee leaves a company (whether SME or larger) and destroys data (accidentally or maliciously) the company needs an easy way to gain ownership of the account and get the data back. I expect that businesses would also want some sort of facility to consolidate subscription payments and management across multiple accounts. Something like the "Skype for Business" control panel (although this is also somewhat lacking in functionality). Is this a direction you plan to expand Carbonite into?

JBC

August 26. 2009 03:35

Hi Dave, I'm a huge fan of your product and I recommend it to friends and family all the time. However, I (and my business) will be moving to Windows 7 (like many people) as soon as it is released in October.

Will Carbonite be ready to move with me to Windows 7 in October? It would be great if you could create a blog post regarding your plans for Window 7 support.

Of course, I've tried Carbonite with the RC preview of Windows 7 and ran into the problems that others have reported (can't browse the Carbonite drive, etc.) so it's clear that some work is needed for Carbonite to work correctly on Windows 7. And no, running Carbonite in XP Mode does not work for me.

Looking forward to your response!

Phil

August 26. 2009 16:10

I would like to share with you my experiences with Carbonite for the last 6 days. It began with Carbonite refusing to back up anything. It crashed my System Preferences panel every time I opened it. I opened a chat session with Carbonite and was asked to send my log files. I did send them. Days later never got a response. I tried several things myself to try to fix your product, none worked. After trying another chat session with Carbonite I got the same response, send in my log files and I did. A few days later I receive the following email.


"Hello and thank you for contacting Carbonite Customer Support.

We apologize for the delayed response. We have reviewed your account with Carbonite. Your iMac named
paul-cootss-imac had a back up complete on 8/24/2009 at 3:29:38 PM. The same pc has uploaded over 101 GB's of data to our servers. Carbonite handles upload speeds of up to 250-350 kilobits per second (roughly 2GB-3GB per day). If you have any questions, please email us or use live chat at http://www.carbonite.com/chat."

The email didn't acknowledge any problems I was having. I responded to the email. I got no response. I uninstalled and reinstalled your product many times in hope of making it work. As I was not getting any support from Carbonite I thought I would try anything to salvage the $50.00 I had already paid you so I made the drastic move to reformat my computer hard drive and install a fresh copy of the Mac OS operating system. That also didn't fix Carbonite. In the meanwhile your company still would not respond to my emails. I tried chat again. And finally get an answer. My backup has a known error which there is no fix for. Here is your company's response.

"Hello and thank you for contacting Carbonite Customer Support.

After reviewing your account, it appears that your backup has a known issue, due to be fixed in an upcoming version of Carbonite.

Currently, the only way to get around this is to de-select your files from backup, wait 4 days, and then re-select them. NOTE: THIS WILL DELETE YOUR CURRENT BACKUP. Unfortunately, that is the only workaround to date. Here's how:

•
Open the Carbonite Preference Pane
•
Click Backup
•
If you have a page telling you what Carbonite automatically backs up, please click Manually manage my backup
•
Select Macintosh HD and then click Users
•
Click Do Not Back This Up

Then, wait 4 days. This is to clear out the backup records that were stopping Carbonite from properly backing up. After 4 days, follow the same instructions above, except click on Back This Up with Users selected. "


Your answer to the problem with your product is to delete my backup and start all over. You had an answer all along but I wasted almost a week trying to make your product work because no one would respond to me. It took me over 6 weeks to get my back up stored on your servers that I paid to use, now I have to start over from scratch. And I have to wait 4 days to begin to re-backup my files. Then I will have to spend several weeks to do it.

All I have to say is that I am speechless. If this is your idea of reliable offsite backup, I respectfully but wholeheartedly disagree.

Paul

September 4. 2009 00:02

Pingback from virturoff.com

Data backup is critical for a small business | Carbonite news

virturoff.com

September 4. 2009 12:31

Dear Dave,

Microsoft released the RTM version of Windows 7 WEEKS AGO.
As you should know, the RTM version is the FINAL and COMMERCIAL version released to the computer manufacturers.

Please, do not tell us that the version is ready but you are waiting some kind of "GO!" message from Microsoft. Maybe you guys are a little behind with the development of W7 compatible version of Carbonite?


There are hundred of thousands W7 users already, and some of them (like me) are Carbonite users.

Do not tell me that I can use the web interface ad interim... What if I have to restore a complete backup? Do you really expect me to select one by one the files on my 25GB backup?

Come on, let's try to be a little serious here...

Thanks,

Claudio

Claudio

September 8. 2009 09:49

Claudio,

Since the RTM release 7 weeks ago, there have been 10 updates so far, one of which was marked important and already caused a compatibility problem for us. The release date is Oct. 22, and Microsoft will not commit to how many additional updates will be released between now and then, but they just released another one today, so it's a safe bet that there will be more. If you need to do a complete restore between now and then, I am told that the "restore all" function in the restore wizard (accessed through the InfoCenter) does work with Windows 7. And if you have an emergency in the meantime, I'm sure we'll find a way to help you.

When Microsoft issues an update, all you have to do is update your PC. We, on the other hand, have to go through a lengthy and very expensive QA cycle. Every MS update has to be scrutinized for possible Carbonite implications. If we have a bug that causes files to be lost, it’s a lot more serious than, say, a bug in a browser or a desktop application. So when the target is constantly moving, it is very imprudent for someone in our kind of business to release prematurely.

Dave

Dave Friend

September 10. 2009 18:37

Dave,

Are there any plans to back up external drives? I store all my data on a removable USB drive then copy to my internal hard drive so that Carbonite backs up the files. Unfortunately, this process doesn't protect me well. Carbonite has saved me more than once. Unfortunately, I have lost work because I accidentaily saved the file(s) to my external drive and could not restore a previous copy.

Regards, Sandy

Sandy

September 30. 2009 11:24

Hi Dave,

I read with excitement that you are looking to launch a Pro version. i am currently looking for a cost effective solution for my business an would be very interested in a progress update please. i would also like to be involved in the BETA testing if at all possible.

Rgds,
Shane.

Shane Gidman