Backup Answer - backup services & software guides and reviews, online backup guides and reviews

Carbonite - Video Tutorial - How to install?

OK, OK, OK,

Many people tell me, so you are recommending Carbonite but we afraid from doing it on ourself…

So I decided to create a new section to the www.backup-answer.com site.

Video Guides & Tutorials!

The first one to be published is a step by step tutorial about how to install our favorite online backup service - Carbonite.

I hope we will publish it in the site by tomorrow but for now you can watch it here on the blog:

Carbonite - How To Install?

Backup Answer - Complete NEW Site

After a few weeks of hard work it is finally here. Our new site about online backup.

Because…

IT IS TIME TO PROTECT YOUR DIGITAL LIFE

The new site is easier to navigate, has great design and its full of content!

Whats in the new site:

• In-depth reviews of online backup providers (Carbonite & Mozy and much more soon).
• Full online backup service providers directory.
• A complete backup guide (FREE) for online backup and a step by step e-course.

Soon to come:

• More in-depth reviews.
• Full detailed comparison for the best online backup companies.
• Video tutorials
• and much more.

You are all invited to register and finally easy protect your digital life.

Carbonite Complete Review - Editor’s Choice - Best Online Backup Service

Carbonite is definitely the best backup service for home and small business on the internet today. It is a simple and very friendly way to protect your data. It is also reliable, secure, and has the best restore (recovery process) procedures as compared to all its competitors. Once you install Carbonite client on your computer and set it up, you can really be confident that your backup is:

• Updated
• Complete
• Automatic and
• Secure

You will never have to worry about data loss again!

Some more features of Carbonite you should know about

• Extremely easy Setup. Just a few clicks and you’re done.
• Security is great. All files are being encrypted before transfer, and transfer itself is through SSL 128. This lethal combination makes the high level Carbonite security comparable to what you would get with online banking or online bill-paying services.
• Initial backup, especially if you have large amount of data, can take a long time. This is true for all the online services. It also depends on your computer and the speed of your internet connection.
• Incremental backup enables a fast daily backup after the initial backup is complete.
• The restore procedure is really wonderful. Carbonite succeeds in thinking about practically everything, and makes all type of restores very simple and easy.
• Overall, Carbonite service will give you complete peace of mind; it gives you excellent return for your money.
• To top it all, you can sign up for a Carbonite free account to test it for yourself.

Read the Carbonite complete and thorough review.

Carbonite Video Review

Try Carbonite for free

Try Carbonite for free

Mozy Home Complete Review

General

Mozy is a simple (although not as simple as Carbonite), smart, and economical way to protect your data. You simply install Mozy client on your computer, set it up, and then never worry about data loss again.

Here are some of the salient aspects of Mozy

• Setup is quite easy.
• Initial backup, especially if you have large amount of data, can take a long time, extending into days or even weeks. Of course, much will depend upon whether you are a home or a business/office user, and consequently the amount of data you would have to backup in terms of volume.
• Incremental backup enables fast daily backups after the initial backup is complete.
• Security is good, all files are being encrypted before transfer, and transfer itself is through SSL 128, which is one of the most secure methods available today
• Backup supports open/locked files, much like the Outlook you are probably familiar with.
• Restore procedure for a new computer is very weak. In fact this is the weakest feature of Mozy service, and more could have been done on this count.
• Overall, Mozy service will give you peace of mind; it gives you excellent return for your money. You can sign up for a Mozy free account to test it for yourself.

To read Mozy complete review click here.

Online Remote Backup – What you must checkout?

Once you finally understand that you have to backup your files, there are some very important keys to good backup to checkout. Others are less important, but cannot be ignored altogether.

Sign up and get the must have guide: “5 Crucial Backup Mistakes And The Way You Can Avoid Them“.

Let’s start with the most important issues to check regarding your backup service.

• Simplicity Of Use -If the backup process will not be VERY simple and easy, you and I will not do it. We will not back up our files unless it is super easy to do.
• Cost -If the cost for the backup is too high, there will be no backup, as the mental hurdle becomes insurmountable.
• Storage Capacity - The backup should be able to protect all the files you need. Once you chose what folders needs to be backed up and which one doesn’t , the rest is routine.
• Security - These are your most important files, finance, pictures, music files and so on. I am sure you want your files to be kept in a very secure place.
• Credibility - The service and company should be strong enough so they will not disappear one day with your important files. Length of service, testimonials from online communities and from friends and fellow users are the best way to determine this.
• Peace Of Mind - The main reason to backup is to have complete peace of mind. If one of these backup keys does not apply, you will not have the peaceful sleep you wish to have.

According to my tests and reviews, Carbonite and Mozy provides all the benefits so you will gain an excellent backup solution once you start using either one of them.

Additional issues:

1. Sharing capabilities - Some people would like to be able to share their files with another person. This is a “nice to have” feature because it might ruin the backup process, if not included as a part of the main software.
2. Synchronization capabilities - Some online services and some offline software provide the ability to synchronize between two or more computers. BeInSynch provides this type of functionality.
3. Supported operating systems - You must check that your operating systems supports the software you chose.
4. Customer support - In general, when you need customer support it means you are in stress and confused. You need the fastest support you can get.

To Summarize:

There are some very important issues to check out before you decide about your backup service. You can just follow my choice and use Carbonite - the very best online backup service today.

What are your backup options?

When I decided to check out my backup options, I learnt that there are several options, and each option has some specific techniques that everyone should know about for creating a successful backup.

First Option - Local Backup

Local backup is every type of backup that will keep your backup data on physical media available close to you. This can be:

1. Additional internal hard drive.
2. External hard drive
3. CD/DVD-ROM
4. Magnetic Type media
5. Local Network backup

Advantages:

These types of backup are:

1. Very handy, and until lately it was the simplest to do.
2. It psychologically feels safe to have your original as well as backup in your physical possession.

Today, I will suggest anyone who backs up his data using this option to think about it as a partial solution at best. I use this option, I am backing up my main PC data to my laptop every day and I also back up once a week to an external hard drive, but all this is only my SECONDARY backup solution.

Disadvantages:

On the other hand, the system suffers from certain flaws.

• All these types of backup will not protect your data completely. Some very dangerous threats still exist:
  • Theft
  • Fire
  • Natural disasters like earthquakes, floods and more
  • Manmade disasters like terrorists attacks, war
• It is mostly NOT a fully automatic backup. It depends on many human behavioral activities in order to be thorough and updated.

Second (Better) Option - Online Backup also known as Remote Backup

This is in my opinion the best solution; it covers all the disasters can happen

Advantages:

1. Automatic - Most systems will require just a short setup, and from that moment on they will be fully automatic.
2. Resides in a safe place - the same as keeping your money in the bank, away from home. It is better to keep your data in a safe place and not at home or at your office, where it is likely to suffer from the same physical calamity that may befall your main storage system.
3. Unlimited storage - Some of the systems will enable you to backup unlimited data, and this gives you peace of mind.

Disadvantages:

This short answer is: NONE.

The longer answer might include the psychological issue that many people still feel that if their data is somewhere out there it is less safe than near them. The truth, believe me, is exactly the opposite. This streak of distrust in others would have to be overcome.

- As usual, I will be happy to get your comments

Mozy on NBC

Hi,

I found this short news report from NBC in YouTube:

To open your free account with Mozy click here.

Second Best Backup Service - Mozy

After my recovery from my disaster I knew that this will be the last time, from now on I will be completely backed up. I made a thorough research and my first decision was that I need an online backup (I will explain this in a different tutorial), I knew I might have a local backup as well, but only as an addition to the main backup that must be online. In short, only online backup protect you from ALL the disaster possibilities like theft, fire and so on.

My research conclusion was unambiguous, Mozy give me the best protection for the lowest price, no question about it. I will write down full reviews about many backup solutions, services & software, and I will write down a complete review about Mozy as well, but I thought you might want to know what is the bottom line, and the buttom line is that Mozy is number one, for home users, small businesses and freelancers for sure. Backup for larger businesses is more complex and the competition is tighten.

Update: After reviewing many backup services, Carbonite is the best. You can read Carbonite full review here.

What so good about Mozy:

1. Very simple to use.
2. Unlimited space/quota.
3. Unlimited time FREE trial 2GB.
4. $4.95 monthly payment for UNLIMITED quota.
5. Completely automatic.

Read the Mozy Home full review.

What do you need to backup?

One of the issues regarding backup is - What is it that you need to backup? What are the most important files for you to backup?

Well, the answer for this, in my opinion, is EVERYTHING. What I meant is every file you have, whether you think if it is important or not, is important some way or the other to your functioning.  I even say that all the files in “My Documents” should be backed up. You can create a folder outside of “My Documents” and call it “Temp” or whatever, and put there all your UNIMPORTANT files. Look up  “Who need backup?”  for the type of files you surely need to backup:

• Emails and Contacts. If you keep them on the local LAN and don’t use Gmail/Yahoo/Live Mail etc’.
• Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint files - All Microsoft Office suite files should be backed up.
• Pictures - I backup every single picture I take.
• Video files - Same as pictures.

This list is obvious, but I must say again, there are services today that give you very large quota or even unlimited quota to backup. So don’t hesitate to use them - backup everything you can.

A Summary:

• Create a folder outside of “My Document” of your ‘Not Important’ files.
• Try to keep all the rest of your files in your “My Documents” folder.
• Backup your complete “My Documents” folder.

Coming Soon - An even more advanced guide about what you should backup.

- As usual, i will be happy to get your comments