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It's 2:00AM. Is your data safe?

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Gold Coast REALTORS, Ventura County, California DRE# 00933005

Mine is.  If my hard drive crashes, and they all do eventually, my data is safe.  If my house or office burns down, it's safe.  It hasn't always been that safe though.  Yeah, I did an occasional backup, but really, it was inconsistent.  And some files were just too big.  I have over 200 Gigabytes of photos and I was a disaster waiting to happen.

Things changed when I subscribed to Carbonite, an online backup service.  For only $49.95 a year, I have peace of mind.  Carbonite installs a small program on your computer and uploads it to their servers.  What's really remarkable is that it will backup the files on all your internal drives and there is no limit.

I haven't experienced a real disaster yet, but I have accidentally deleted a file once or twice and restoring was a cinch. 

Protect yourself.  43% of people lose irreplaceable files every year. Only 3 out of 100 stolen laptops are ever recovered. Thousands of files are lost each year to fires, floods, and other disasters. Up to 13% of hard drives crash in their first year. 

You can get a free trial to see how it work for you and get an extra month free by signing up here.  Try Carbonite today!

Comments (10)

Vickie Nagy
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate - Palm Springs, CA
Vickie Jean the Palm Springs Condo Queen

We ARE on the same wave-length! I went out and purchased back-up drives for my laptop and desk computer just today.

May 18, 2008 05:23 PM
Roberta LaRocca
Simply Vegas Real Estate - Las Vegas, NV
REALTOR®, Broker, Salesperson, NV. Lic BS.507

Joe, Good job!  I do backup to an external hard drive but it is not consistent.  I should look into Carbonite.  Thanks for the info!

May 18, 2008 05:27 PM
Bill Exeter
Exeter 1031 Exchange Services, LLC - San Diego, CA
1031 Tax-Deferred Exchange Expert

Hi Joe,

Great information.  I have not tried Carbonite before, but will check them out.  We process 1,000's of 1031 exchanges each year and have to make sure that our client files are securely backed up.  I'll have our IT group check out their security, too.

Thanks again for sharing.

May 18, 2008 05:30 PM
Carla Harbert
www.LorainCountyHomeSales.com - Avon, OH
RE/MAX Omega: Lorain-Medina County Area

Joe, thanks for sharing the tip. I plan on checking this out.  - Carla

May 18, 2008 05:37 PM
Judy Greenberg
Compass - Long Grove, IL
Compass- Long Grove -Buffalo Grove

I do backups sometimes- but I will put it on my to do list for this week. 

Thanks for the reminder!!!!

May 18, 2008 05:45 PM
Michael Setunsky
Woodbridge, VA
Your Commercial Real Estate Link to Northern VA

I learned the hard way to back up all my computers. I now do it on a routing basis. You never know when your hard drive will decide to stop working. Carbonite seems like a good way to go, but I'm a little apprehensive about having my data on someone elses server.

Good Post!

May 19, 2008 12:51 AM
Greg Knowles Santa Barbara Ca.
Fidelity National Title Group-Santa Barbara - Santa Barbara, CA

Joe, it is a great service. I use it as well.

May 19, 2008 11:15 AM
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty - Spring, TX
Spring TX Real Estate E-Pro

Joe, we have a external hard drive but like Roberta we are not consistent.  So for $49.95 a year you can back up as much as you want?  This could be a silly question but can you back up your outlook also?

May 20, 2008 04:17 PM
Joe Virnig
RE/MAX Gold Coast REALTORS, Ventura County, California - Ventura, CA
No Ordinary Joe

Hi Marchel-As much as you want as long as it's on the internal harddrives.  I have almost 250 GB backed up at home.  I also have an account for my office computer.  And I back up Outlook.

May 20, 2008 05:32 PM
Jon Lu
Coldwell Banker Platinum Group - San Jose, CA

Joe, thanks for letting us know about the service.  I usually use Gmail to back up my data.  Also, when I have a sensitive document, I use 7-zip's store function and add a password for extra security.

Jun 06, 2008 07:12 AM