Carbonite Review

The absolute only thing that has kept me sane through the ordeal of my laptop's hard drive's jump off the deep end and subsequent crash (that you can read about that here) has been the hope of the promise of my Carbonite back up. (Carbonite is an off-site back up system that will back up your computer regulary for only about $50/year.)

Since I purchased the Carbonite back up (and you get a free trial), DH has given me a really hard time about it, calling it "Kryptonite" and saying that it will harm my computer. I have attempted to ignore him and carry on with the hope and eternal optimism that my pretty pink 'puter is protected. (Say that fast three times!)

These past few weeks put Carbonite (and possibly our marriage) to the test. DH went so far to say that if Carbonite worked he would kiss my pretty behind. I told him that he better get ready to pucker up! Of course that led to some (heated) discussion about how it would take him a long time to cover all that ground. But I digress...

When we got home from our camping trip Thursday evening, a little package from Dell was waiting at the front door. I was too tired to worry about installing the new hard drive, so I waited until Friday afternoon while the girls were gone with their Grandmother. Logan took out the bad hard drive and replaced it with the new. I called Dell and was assigned to Rajdeed, my helpful techie who walked me through all the steps I need to get the system operating. He was even nice enough not to notice any possible tears or sniffling while we were on the phone together. We were on the phone for literally several hours, until we finally had the darn thing running again with the factory settings. Rajdeed even went in remotely to install drivers, programs, etc.

After all the trouble (shooting) and reloading of software, it was time to visit Carbonite. Fortunately I remembered my password on the first guess. (My RoboForm password-filler-in-er had also been lost in the Great Crash of '11.) The directions on the Carbonite website walked me right through the process of restoring my files. Then it started working. And working. And working. At 1% with 19 hours to go I could see that a few items were being resurrected. I went to bed that night with the hope that indeed, all would be well. I even dreamed about the puckering that would be coming since I was right and DH was, well, wrong. (Nah-nee-nah-nee-boo-boo...)

At 5 AM Saturday morning, DH woke me up because the Carbonite was done. (I guess he was really looking forward to some early morning kisses!) The screen said that all files except three were replaced and that two files had to be filed somewhere other than the original location. I scanned the list, and four of the five files had "/snapfish/" in them somewhere. I have no idea what the fifth file was at all. No big deal.

Before doing the happy dance, I checked my photos. ALL THERE. Every one of those sweet smiling faces was returned home. Then I realized that I forgot to install iTunes. Does that mean all my music is lost? Crud! No biggie, I've got all the CDs, my iPod is fully loaded, but off to iTunes I went. After two downloading attempts, ta da! There they were! All my music was immediately back in my library!

At this point, DH is trying to get me to come back to bed, but I am too busy with the laptop to fool with him. My RoboForm was back, even my favorites were back on my internet toolbar! Hallelujah happy day! The only thing that Carbonite didn't replace was my Solitaire score, so I was at 100% wins for a very short while. That's okay, my current win percentage is still way better than it was B.C. (before crash).

Let me know if you'd like to purchase a ticket to the Great Butt-Kissing Event. They're really cheap, but I definitely want some witnesses. Carbonite, you saved my butt! I would be one deeply depressed gal without you! Too bad I don't have any referral codes to share with you. (Maybe I can give you a free ticket to said kissing event.) Carbonite is absolutely worth every single penny, and it doesn't even cost too many pennies (about a dollar a week) to use. Thank you, Carbonite!!!