Need to Restore Files from Carbonite Backup? It’s Easy!
If you’re still researching whether or not the Carbonite online backup utility is right for you, you should know that the process to restore files from Carbonite is fairly easy even for the non-technical users. Carbonite has made their place in the online backup services market by offering one of the most affordable services available and making it so streamlined that you don’t have to be a computer whiz to understand it. The process for restoring your files is made even easier by a software wizard comes with the Carbonite package.
If you are ever faced with the task of restoring your files after reformatting your hard drive or after a computer crash, the first thing you would need to do is download the Carbonite software again. As soon as you do this, the setup wizard will ask you to choose from two options – restore your files later or restore your files now. If you opt to restore them immediately, you will then be asked if you prefer the files downloaded to their original locations, or choose specific files for specific users. Most users would choose option one but even the more advanced option is not that difficult to follow.
In restoring files from Carbonite, you also have the choice to restore a single file or an older file version. To do this, first you would need to go to My Computer, where Carbonite is listed as a virtual drive. Open the drive and go through it just as you would any other computer drive. You should be able to find all your files there. Once you locate the particular file you want to restore, highlight it, and click Restore to download it back to its original location. You may also click Restore To to send the file to another location. If you want to restore an older version of a particular file (up to three months back), click on Restore Previous Version.
However, you are also bound to discover some drawbacks to Carbonite as well. You will not be able to restore files from Carbonite very quickly if they are huge. A file that is a few hundred megs could take hours or even days depending upon the speed of the servers. Carbonite servers can be fairly slow, but that is how they are able to offer such an affordable price. In the event of a system crash, where you lose all of your data, you may not care if it is slow so long as you get all of your files back. However, if you need to restore an important document very quickly, you may be left waiting for a bit.
Carbonite online backup is not perfect. Nevertheless, it offers us good value for money considering we get a service that allows us to recover our lost data. Other companies can charge us 10 times higher than what Carbonite asks for and are a lot less user-friendly. While some of us may never have to restore files from Carbonite, the monthly subscription fee is still cheap insurance for the safety and security of our files and our own peace of mind.