Backs up fine, but restoring is a pain
I recently upgraded to Windows 8 (coming from Windows 7). I've a factory backup of Windows 7. I also have a backup copy of Windows 7 after most of my desired software is installed. I use my MBL drive on my LAN as a file server as well (it has an option to perform backups, but I haven't used it).
Well, I had the idea of restoring certain directories and files from Carbonite onto my new Windows 8 install. Things like my photos, my music, and PC game profile backups. I found several disappointing things.
1). Some files are missing. Their main directories are present but the files under those directories are nil. I'm not sure if those files were 4G+ (which Carbonite won't back up).
2). When attempting to restore my iTunes music, the transfer speed starts at 1,200 KB/s and shows that the download will take a bit over an hour...as the minutes go by, it drops down to 100 KB/s with a download time of 6 hours. This occurred last night, so I decided to test by downloading Windows Media Center Pack, which I received in less than half an hour. I can download at high rates (I've FiOS and have a 50MB/s down pipe and can consistently get at least 30MB/s realistically) but get crappy speed when restoring using Carbonite.
Carbonite states that several things might hinder restore speed:
"Note: Your restore speeds are entirely dependent on the speed of your Internet connection, how fast your computer operates, the length of time your computer is connected to the Internet, and how much you use your computer (i.e. whether you are using system resources while Carbonite is restoring data)."
I've a new install of Windows 8 (it is clean and is currently using no resources). The laptop itself is an Alienware M17x R3 that I've had for under a year. It was restarted several times during the install process, so the internet connection has been reinitiated several times. I'm not using a wireless connection (I'm plugged into the LAN). The gateway router has been restarted. That covers all of Carbonite's caveats, and I still can't get good restore speeds.
I still haven't been able to get my 4GB of music from Carbonite's server. The connection degrades so much that the connection eventually times out.
I'm up for subscription renewal in May, and I've just disabled the automatic renewal feature. I'm going to let it lapse and die.
I'll buy another MBL drive and use that for backup purposes, or build a Linux system and use Backula. I'm not going to trust any 3rd party providers.
