One of my Charleston computer clients David Rosenberg of Insphere Insurance Solutions received a letter from Carbonite notifying him that his Carbonite Pro account  is being retired and replaced by Carbonite Business.  I had to write up an explanation and recommendation to him on what to do.  Here is my advice:

Carbonite Home is $59/pc per year and is meant for folks that are using PC’s at home or small 1 – 2 person business;  Carbonite Pro which was their business offering for several years is being decomissioned to a more expensive Carbonite small business which starts at 229/yr – for that additional money you’re receiving better / faster help, US based helpdesk and all of the features of a new product explained below called Carbonite Home Plus.

Carbonite is releasing a new plan that’s in between Home and Business called Home Plus which allows you to backup stuff both on your PC and stuff you may have on an external drive; it also allows you to backup your entire PC including operating system, software, etc but you need a separate external hard-drive to use this feature.  This feature called “Mirror Image Backup” allows you to restore your entire computer, operating system and all to the way it was prior to a computer crash.  This is a very powerful feature and something I would recommend for folks that are running important functions on their PCs and downtime for more than 3 – 4 days is not something that can be tolerated.

Note:  that if you already have an external drive, you can’t use it for Mirror Image Backup unless you intend to move the data off it to some place else and then completely format that drive so nothing’s left on it and it can be repurposed solely for Carbonite Mirror Image Backup.  Instead, users that are using an external drive for data storage are recommended to purchase a second external hard-drive that’s exclusively meant for Mirror Image backup.

If you are already on a Pro Plan and you fit into the category of a 1 – 2 person business you may want to switch to Home or Home Plus; however, I would still recommend considering all the various options above and contacting Carbonite.  The number to call is 877-334-0493

Delson Computer in Charleston SC provides computer support and services to both residential and commercial clients.  With nearly three decades of computer support and computer repair experience, you can be confident you will receive fast, quality service at a fair price.  Contact us today at 843.276.6551 or visit our website at http://delsoncomputer.com