How much did it cost you to retrieve your backup?

[Carbonite Australia]

Guys

Doing some research for an artlcle/blog post I am writing. I wanted some feedback regarding how much you have paid to have your backup retrieved and what the experience was like.

Thanks in advance

[Preloved Kidswear]

I lost everything with the failure of an external hard drive that was 3mths old. Paid $2500, experience was ok but sickening wait for six weeks to see if it was retrievable. I'm now protected by Carbonite

[King]

It should cost nothing, zero, ziltch.

Everyone should have a program like Acronis True Image that can be set to backup everything on the computer on a regular basis.

By mirroring your hard drive you can reinstall on a new hard drive in about 1 hour.

[mexham]

I heard the DJ's talking about this on the radio the other day. One of the jocks was quoted $1250+ Gst to retrieve his data.

My external crapped out once also, but luckily my flatmate worked at a computer shop and fixed it at home for nothing. Only took a couple of hours from memory.

[soliddata]

Hi Arthur,

Do you mean:
- getting your data back from a back system/provider? or
- retrieving data of a crashed hdd?

We both know the price on the latter - which seems to be what Mexham is talking about.

An interesting thing that I have noticed when encountering some people using cheap US-based backups, is it doesn't matter what they charge, they can't even get their data back because of download throttling and the lack of a hard drive delivery option...

Kevin

[Carbonite Australia]

Originally Posted by soliddata

Hi Arthur,

Do you mean:
- getting your data back from a back system/provider? or
- retrieving data of a crashed hdd?

We both know the price on the latter - which seems to be what Mexham is talking about.

An interesting thing that I have noticed when encountering some people using cheap US-based backups, is it doesn't matter what they charge, they can't even get their data back because of download throttling and the lack of a hard drive delivery option...

Kevin

It was more specifically from a hard drive crash but your point is also valid. People have good and bad experiences with both local and o/seas suppliers as well those that offer more affordable as well as more expensive solutions.

Bandwidth throttling can be an issue for sure, but if aren't going to backup online locally because of price (we are generally much more expensive that in the US - scale issue), then I would prefer you select an oseas supplier than no one at all.

I always ask people what they are looking for re their backup strategy. And if Carbonite doesn't meet their criteria, I offer a few alternatives, local and oseas for them to test out.

I have certainly heard plenty of horror stories in my time at Carbonite. The disappointing thing is that people don't smarten up until after disaster occurs. I can kind of understand this with home users, but how can you risk your business over what is possibly less than $100 pa.

[Dave@Perfectnotes]

I did a blog post on this. In fact it turns out to be the very second blog post I ever did. With some useful (he says) information in the comments.

Have a look, let me know?

[Carbonite Australia]

Nice post Dave. Glad you get satisfaction doing it. I am also very satisfied when I have been able to assist a customer with getting their data back too.

We have post on our site about a customer who had 2 laptops in a show room. Some guy walked in and walked out with them. Several thousand dollars gone in 30 secs.

Within 48 hours, their PC guy had them two news laptops and all of their data back because they were using online backup.

Without it, no laptop and no data.

They were certainly happy with their PC repair guy and his recommendation to backup.

[Melinda B]

I'm expecting not to have to pay if/when I ever need a backup, being that I'm using Carbonite Aust... ;-)

Previously, our Senior Pastor had his laptop dropped (his wife was carrying it from another room and the cord caught around a door). It cost them around $2,000 to get the data retrieved from the hard drive. They had no other form of backup then, I believe they do now....

[Dave@Perfectnotes]

Thats a fair price if the drive was so buggered it had to be rebuilt.. but sheesh that must be one hell of a hard floor. I would not have expected that much damage.. I would expect to manage to get the drive to spin up.. in which case I would have thought maybe about $600... depending.

Or maybe I am really cheap.

Remember how important your data is too you is how seriously you need to take up backups. If your data is the only way your can tell where hundreds of thousands of dollars are then treat it a lot more seriously than if its just a few days work (unless hundreds of thousands of dollars are just a few days work) If you are totally out of business without it.. then back it up to a hard drive.. back it up to carbonate and back it up to something else as well. Have 2 complete copy's close enough to current that you can manage with them. If you have a backup, restore plan.. have actually tested that restore works. Make sure your copy's are at different physical locations. And maybe not the other one of the twin towers. Rumor says a lot of companies stored their backups in the other tower. Be bad if your online backup was stored on a backup provider that actually was in your office building, but stranger things have happened.

If your data is not that important.. then fair enough. But you need to have a realistic appreciation of its actual value. My brother cannot be convinced to back up 20 K of outstanding invoices. But he sure understands that if his wife loses her digital photo albums his life is over. They are backed up