I have or should say had been a Carbonite user for almost an year but issues after issues finally got to me and the lack of new features that were long promised but never delivered forced me to start looking at the automated online backup again and I am so glad I did, as I’ve found Mozy. I’ve had numerous problems with Carbonite and their customer service was crappy. So I decided to give up on Carbonite even though I had already pre-paid for 2 years – I guess it’s better to lose $80.00 than all your data.
Mozy is similar to Carbonite in some regards but has a much richer feature set that makes it a better offering. Like Carbonite, Mozy installs a small client on your Windows XP/Vista or OS X desktop that runs in the background and backs up files over the Internet using your broadband connection. But that’s where the similarities end. Carbonite is a fairly bare-bones offering which may be ok for most novice users but Mozy offers several configuration options like creation of backup sets, file versions, access to your files via the web and many other features.
One of the best and most important feature that set Mozy and Carbonite apart is the fact that you can actually get your backed files back. Wow! What a concept – I know I know. When I first installed Carbonite, I did several test restores and they worked fine but when I had been backing up for several months and really need to restore something, Carbonite let me down. Mozy on the other hand has never done that. Another awesome feature of Mozy is that fact they don’t really throttle your bandwidth after you’ve uploaded 50 GB. Carbonite seems to limit upload bandwidth to about 2 GB a day and then throttle it down after you reach 50 GB. Mozy doesn’t seem to play any of those games and allows uploads that are supported by your bandwidth. On an average day, I think I was uploading about 5+ GB.
Another recent event that makes Mozy even more attractive to me is the purchase of Berkeley Data Systems, providers of Mozy online backup by EMC Corporation. As you probably know, EMC is the leader is the storage market and owns Documentum, VMWare, and RSA among other technology companies.
So if you are looking for a great, reliable and affordable backup solution for your home computer, you should check out Mozy.
{ 163 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Carbonite’s website tells you how to get rid of it. I’m free of it now. I can’t tell you how much it bogged down my computer. I know other folks who use this and are happy, though. I guess they are “lighter” users than I am. I don’t think it ever finished backing up my files, and that’s what was slowing everything down. If you don’t have so many files, you should be ok.
We just signed up for Carbonite, unfortunately we messed up the email upon originating the account. (our fault totally) We then tried the Carbonite support page, which led us to the on line CHAT.
This has to be worst support that I have ever seen in my life. Admitting that we goofed up, then Sonny P, asked us for the identifying information which I gave. Then was abruptly cut off from the Chat.
OK no problem, I found myself in another 15 min queue waiting. Then a pleasant Dale D. came on line and I explained the situation and that I was disconnected from Sonny. Dale kindly switched me back to Sonny P. this lasted about 30 seconds after explained who I was and that I just needed to get the account straightened out so we could do our back up, the again was cut off.
So, a third time I waited 10 more minutes to reconnected to Dale D. and I was a little short, and as soon as he realized who I was I pleaded not to chat with Sonny P again, but Dale decided to switch me over. After that I ended up in an open chat the indicated Sonny was listening, however never did reply. After 30 minutes of waiting and logging questions just looking to activate our account I ended the CHAT and called my credit card company to block the charge.
I don’t know how a company like this can even stay in business. This is probably the worst customer experience I have ever had. Don’t waste your money, data, or time. If you do pray to god, you never have a problem.
Jean – I am responsible for Carbonite customer service and apologize for your experience. I want to help make this right. Please reach out to me at jeffrey.robison (at) carbonite.com. I look forward to helping you. Jeff Robison, VP Carbonite Support
← Previous Comments
{ 2 trackbacks }