I’ve mentioned Carbonite on a couple of occasions, specifically in relation to the service’s mobile app. Carbonite is a backup service that is slightly different than Dropbox and Google Drive in that it’s designed to back up files from a specific computer, rather than be a sync service between computers. You can access files from anywhere, but it’s more of an afterthought .
A few months ago, the brilliant nature of Windows Update corrupted the user profile on my laptop, and eventually left me having to make a new profile. That meant that while all the files and programs were still there, all settings and preferences were wiped. Leave it to Microsoft to do more damage with an update than I’ve ever had any malicious software do. Anyway, I ended up switching everything over to a desktop computer I bought from a friend a while back, and simply leave the laptop as a mobile only device.
Most software was easy to move over, but Carbonite wasn’t. It’s designed to work on a single computer, not multiple. I could transfer the license over, but not simply add another computer without paying for it. The reasoning behind this system has to do with how Carbonite allows you to upload as much as you want as long as it’s from the internal hard drive of a single computer, rather than give you a specific amount of storage. That’s great for people with desktop computers with terabytes of files, but not as much for someone who originally signed up for Carbonite to keep a few dozen gigabytes of data safe.
As the months went by, more and more files made their way to my desktop computer, just as Carbonite kept spamming me with emails warning me that there had been X weeks since the last update. I started storing the files I used a lot in my Dropbox folder, which was upgraded to 100GB not long ago when Dropbox decided to do something about the competition from Google Drive. Finally, the other day, I sat down and moved the rest of the files that Carbonite guarded over to my Dropbox folder.
The difference is basically in where I store the files on my computer. Whereas Carbonite can grab files from anywhere on the computer and back them up, you need to store everything inside the Dropbox folder in order to get Dropbox to back up files. That’s not really an issue, and I just put the main Dropbox folder directly on the main drive and then have multiple folders inside it. I have my photo folder, where archives of images going back 25 years now share the same folder as dynamic folders that automatically get updated as my two Android devices take pictures or screenshots. The music folder that was once the Carbonite-backed up iTunes folder is now a normal folder full of MP3 files, where a Favorites sub folder of that folder gets automatically synced to and from my phone. The Various folder contains things like save files from Android games, backup files from various apps, and a few files connected to Tasker profiles I have. It’s all one big happy family living right there in my Dropbox folder.
Carbonite is a great service, but the lack of a Dropbox-like sync service becomes a problem when you have more than once computer. With Dropbox’ new pricing, it’s a lot more affordable to use it as a backup service for all your files than it used to be. The third party Android app Dropsync, which is what handles all those Android-related folders I mentioned above, is also a big point in Dropbox’ favor, without it even being an official Dropbox product. There’s also the issue of pricing, as Carbonite has simply increased prices over the years despite the fact that competition has gotten more intense. $59/year is great if you want to back up 5TB from internal drives, but not so great if you want to back up 50GB. Had I been able to pay $20/year to back up 100GB from a single computer I would have at least considered staying with the service, but that’s not how Carbonite works. Somehow I feel that’s going to be its undoing.
Dropped Carbonite too a few week ago. I installed a SSD drive and did not want it to use drive space.I asked could I move the storage file to my data drive and was told no it has to be on the C: drive ,bye-bye Carbonite! I also use Dropbox.
Dropbox isn’t $20 a year for 100GB either tho, it’s $10/month or $100 a year. Isn’t Google Drive’s pricing a lot more competitive? I think they have plans starting at $3 or $5 a month… I’m a big fan of Dropbox, but I’d never consider their paid plans in light of current alternatives. I’ve only kept using it because I already had 22GB for free thru referrals and other bonuses (which got upgraded to 44GB for free for two years after I bought a new HTC phone) and because it’s a bit more polished and integrated into various apps/services than Google Drive. I use my Amazon Cloud account for long term backups, since it’s cheap, $25/year gives me 50GB and unlimited music uploads/matching… Downside is it’s not easily accessible from mobile devices, it’s really just a storage location, nothing’s automated. I have my free 44GB Dropbox account and my free 25GB MS Skydrive account if I need sync/automation tho. You can store stuff outside the Dropbox folder without having it there btw, look into dynamic links or system links (also called junction points).
Indeed Dropbox isn’t $20 for 100GB, but it’s also more powerful than Carbonite. It doesn’t care how many devices you use it on, is integrated into more services, and have third party options like Dropsync. While the reasons I pay for Dropbox over Carbonite or Google Drive are due to third party support rather than something Dropbox has done (they’re lazy bastards tbh), it doesn’t change the fact that I think it’s worth $100/year. I wouldn’t pay more than $20/year for carbonite at this point however
I wasn’t arguing for Carbonite, obviously, just curious why you chose Dropbox over something like Google Drive which gives you 100GB for $5 a month or 25GB for $2.50/mo. That’s a far cry from $100 a year and it would add up by quite a bit after a few years… Looks like you’ve stuck with it for the same reasons I have, it’s just worth more to you. I actually hope Dropbox introduces a lower priced plan at some point, just so that people have more choices and it can compete with Google Drive better… I’d hate to see it stagnate but I won’t hesitate to switch if it does and/or Drive gains parity in integration. I kinda like that Dropbox keeps the service super simple and leaves it up to others to build on it thru the API tho.
Blah, that was meant as a response, hate the comment system here… You can add quite a few GB to those 100GB with little effort btw, I’m sure you’re aware of most of the easier to score bonuses (adds up to like 1.8GB), but the referral bonus is pretty easy to max out too and I believe it’s doubled if you have a paid account… So you could raise your DB capacity by like 33%, up to 132GB. I maxed out my referral bonus (16GB) after spending like $20 and all of one weekend, there’s various tutorials out there but the gist of it is basically putting out a Dropbox ad using Google Ads (ironically) and using your referral link. I was a skeptic, specially when a few thousand people had done it before me (figured the ad would either not be effective or it’d compete with similar ones), but it worked amazingly well. If you have a Google Ads voucher from an ISP or web hosting company you could get it done for free (that’s where my $20 went, signed up for service justto get a $100 voucher which I used to max out the referrals on my DB account and my sister’s).
I would switch in a second if Google Drive could replace what I use Dropbox for completely, but it can’t. Quite frankly it pisses me off that I’m willing to pay Dropbox that much more money because I like how well third parties have integrated it, but it will probably be a while before Google Drive catches up in that regard. Not sure I trust google either…they have a tendency to do stupid things more often than not.