Carbonite and data migration to new computer
I have 8.9 GB left of my initial 117.6 GB Carbonite backup! I don’t like how there is not upload speed indicator in the Carbonite application, but other than that, the experience has been far, far better that Mozy (which explains why I switched along with a few others).
The one thing I’m not sure of though, is how Carbonite is going to handle the fact that I’m about to migrate to a new computer. When I copy all the files to the new machine, is the new instance of Carbonite on that new computer going to re-backup all of the files again? I was thinking of just using Windows Easy Transfer to migrate my files, but not sure if all the file attributes will remain the same which will then trigger Carbonite to re-do the initial backup of all my data. Perhaps I should use something like Robocopy with the “/COPY=DAT”, “/DCOPY:T” and “/ZB” flags?
Trevin –
Carbonite will not need to re-backup all your files on your new computer. Once your Carbonite subscription is transferred to the new machine, Carbonite will scan the files on that computer and compare them to the copies within the backup on Carbonite’s servers. Any files that match the backup copies will not need to be uploaded again. Carbonite uses a combination of file size, “last modified” date, and a SHA1 CRC algorithm to determine whether a file has changed since it has last been backed up, so file attributes (such as the archive bit, etc.) will not affect Carbonite in the least.
I hope that helps answer your question.
Sincerely,
Alison Mahoney
Carbonite, Inc.
I was going to say the same thing :-).
[...] Backing up all the scanned documents is obviously a key part to this whole process. No sense in scanning all this paperwork and have it stored on a single hard drive on my computer that is bound to fail at some point. Luckily, due to my past investments, this was the easiest part for me. I have a Windows Home Server machine that backs up all my documents to its local RAID. I also have all my data (including scanned paperwork) backed up off-site using Carbonite. [...]