Carbonite Backup Service

Chances are, within your lifetime, you will have a hard drive crash or get a virus that corrupts your computer. Case in point: I had some weird attack on my laptop a few months back and it crippled my computer. I thankfully backed up my client files and important information to my external drive (I have this set to do nightly . . . whew), so after a good while of restoring, I was back in action.

I always planned on going the online backup route, but all the free (you know what I’m talking about!) services capped at around 25 gigabytes of storage. I have 100’s of gigabytes to deal with, so I figured I’d just stay with my double nightly backup (one to external, then that backs up to my desktop).

However, Thursday I needed a file that I saved on my machine the wrong way and my external file listing was freaky (didn’t show ANY files). After a reboot, I found the files, but this got me nervous.

So, now I’m trying out http://www.carbonite.com. They allow you to backup an unlimited amount of data  for just over $50 per year . . . I figured it’d be worth it if it worked well. I started the service on Friday. I’m almost half way uploaded at this point, but once the files are backed up, each time you save something, it will upload it to the backup server. Now, that’s just cool.

I can access the backed up files from anywhere a browser is handy. So, now I have the peace of mind that all my important information is away from the house (in case of fire, disaster, etc.).

I’ll post a follow up after a while of use, but I think it’s going to be an obvious business expense issue. If you want to try it, enter the code “tnt” for 2 months free. There are other free versions (and I say go for it if you don’t need the space), but if you have lots of data (I’ll upload all my photos next!), this is almost a no brainer!

Update: It’s August 9th and my 100 GBytes isn’t done yet . . . whew. Otherwise, it runs pretty low key in the background. I can pause for an hour, 4 hours, 8 hours, etc. to get some work done. Nice feature.

iPhone 4.0.1 Update Glitch (crime)

Why don’t I trust my better judgement? Here I am, trying to follow Apple’s rules by updating firmware on the iPhone 4 and, yep, have a useless piece of glass on my desk. I’m trying the following fix at this moment . . . I’ll post to let you know how it goes. If you’re having the same trouble, try at your own risk.

http://chrisgrannell.co.uk/2010/07/16/iphone-4-0-1-brick-solution/

Funny thing is, I thought “better wait a few days, Lance” . . . riiiight.

Update: Ok, the link above did nothing. I did, however upgrade iTunes to the latest version, then synced and all is well . . .whew.

Update #2:  So, how does it feel to get a shiny new iPhone and use the great video feature and camera on your beach vacation only to sync to get the recommended firmware upgrade, then have your phone bricked and your backup file corrupted only to find your images and videos are forevermore lost? You take a guess . . . but, hey, the Apple rep said he was sorry, so I’m sure I’ll keep that memory instead . . . good job, Apple.

Update #3: A Little joy . . . well, looks like I can rename the files from that corrupted backup. Now, I have to guess which ones are video files and which are photos, but size will help there. So, if you run into the same situation, look at your backup files. On a Windows machine, head to C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\AppleComputer\MobileSync\Backup to see a list of older backup file folders. You can sort by date to find the most recent one (or the one that corrupted). Copy this folder to another directory (so you can always go back and retry). Then, rename the larger files as “filename.mov”, then double click to test it out . . . hope this helps!