When I set up my Windows Home Server I configure the normal Windows Server Backup task to backup the server folders to a USB disk. That’s nice for normal backup/recovery. But that doesn’t protect my data (documents, books, whitepapers, and thousands of photos) against fire and theft. Sure, I could probably swap disks and store them offsite. But I know how poor my discipline with doing that in the past was. I need something automated for off-site backup.
So I decided to try Carbonite. It’s one of the few online personal backup solutions that will work on WHS. There’s a 15 day free trial so I signed up for that, and I added the offer code from the TWiT Security Now podcast – that gives you an extra 2 months free in addition to your 12 month subscription (unlimited storage for less than $60/year!!!!).
The install was easy. The configuration wizard walks you through the few steps. You’re warned that files like video will not be backed up. I’m OK with that – I have no personal/holiday videos because I’m a still photo man. Targeting a folder is easy – use Windows Explorer, right-click, and select the add to backup option. I had two schedule choices: constantly backup changes or schedule. I went for the first option.
OK, the flaw: I have 20GB per month limit and I’m on ADSL. It’s going to take a very long time to get all of my photo collection backing up to the cloud. I’ve been incrementally adding folders, starting with My Documents, and then I added some of my older photo folders to test. All worked well. I’ll continue testing, and then decided next week if I’ll pay for the service.
My estimate on my photos folder alone is about a week, when I start using my projects folders , well, I estimate at the 3GB per day that it seems to tell you is standard , that it will take 3 months to back up everything. Gonna give it a while, bought a subscription, but CO.UK did not accept my TwIT code.
I went to the .com site. I have 300+ GB of photo files. Gonna take me a while to get them backed up 🙂
Hi Aidan,
I suppose you’ve seen this NB:
“With your Carbonite subscription you get as much space as you need for your backup. However, for exceptionally large backups – 200GB or more – backup speed will slow noticeably after the first 200GBs have been backed up.” – taken from http://www.carbonite.com/en/home/online-backup-software
It would be great if you tell us your opinion after a month or so – personally, I am interested.
It’ll take me a while to get up there – I’ve got their daily cap and my ISPs monthly cap to deal with.
How are you liking it so far? I have been researching solutions for a while to backup my photos and projects but I have not actually tried any of them yet. I do not have a strict “cap” but my upload bandwidth is limited to where i would only upload about 3.2gb per day, is there a way to tell Carbonite to cap its upload bandwidth to not max that speed out?
I think there is a 3GB cap in place by Carbonite. I haven’t seen a throttling setting, but you can set a time/schedule to restrict it to backing up to a timeframe of your preference. So far, so good for me. I’ve 11 days left in the trial.
Aidan what version of Windows Home Server are you using? I am assuming your are talking about WHS 2011 and not WHSv1?
Thanks,
Andres
Hi Andres,
Yes, it’s WHS 2011.
Aidan.
how do you install carbonite on WHS? I am having trouble, and am trying to get carbonite to install on a HP MediaSmart server
I just did a normal install on my WHS 2011 machine.
Hi Aidan,
Just to inform you – you might be interested in CrashPlan (http://www.crashplan.com) – there is no filesize limit, no req to have the files on your computer (or else they will delete them), no speed throttle… At the moment I am evaluating the 30 day trial, so far uploaded around 27GBs (from 1TB) for around 13 hours and maybe I will be able to upload all the data before my trial expires 😀 The only limit I know is that you can only download 250MB on a single WEB download session – how does this stand next to Carbonite?
Before you consider Crashplan I would recommend reading this page in their forums.
https://crashplan.zendesk.com/entries/20826261-servers-down-again
BTW, thanks for posting that Carbonite works with WHS 2011. I just purchased WHS and was concerned that my ongoing Carbonite subscription was going to be wasted as I had trouble finding anyone that said they were using it.
I appreciate it.
Would like to know if you have this still working? Also can you backup all data ex. your PC backups? I am thinking of purchasing Carbonite though want to make sure you haven’t found any snags with Carbonite and or WHS2011 (Are you using StableBit?)
Yup, still working.