Anyone successfully backed up to Carbonite?

[pierce inverarity]

Hi - I use Carbonite online backup. As warned of in the Espionage user manual, trying to back up unlocked encrypted files doesn't work (it seems to cause Carbonite to just hang up).

So, I figured I would just do this:

1. Use Espionage's backup feature to drop backups of my encrypted data into a folder called "Espionage Backups"
2. Use Carbonite to back up "Espionage Backups"

Unfortunately, Carbonite doesn't actually back anything up in the "Espionage Backups" folders.

I am assuming that Carbonite either doesn't "see" the data in that folder, or it considers it a type of data that shouldn't be backed up. (Carbonite says that it "doesn't back up system files," for instance).

I thought I'd post here to ask:

1. If anyone was able to successfully back up encrypted data to Carbonite somehow.
2. If not, whether someone could recommend a remote backup service that IS compatible with Espionage-encrypted data, whether by the above method or some other.

Thank you!

[marty]

Hi Pierce, and welcome to the forums!

The Espionage backups folder contains a set of folders and other items that shouldn't be difficult to further backup to either a local storage location, or using a "cloud" service. These folders will contain files normally hidden from the Finder, and OS X sparse bundles. If your chosen external backup solution doesn't support these kinds of items then I'd be concerned about relying on that solution -- OS X in general has more reasons for files like this (I wouldn't call them "system files") than just Espionage, and I'd like to know that whatever folder(s) I include in my backup solution will be faithfully backed up. I have no experience with Carbonite, so I'm not saying that it cannot handle this. Hopefully other forum users will be able to contribute their own experiences.

The moral of the story is backup, backup often but always check your backup results to make sure they are doing what you expect of them!

/Marty

[pierce inverarity]

Thanks Marty... I guess I will just have to go with the premise that Carbonite does not back up these files. Maybe I will switch to a new offline backup when my contract with them is up. If you can tell me of any services that you know DO work with Espionage, that would be great.

Thanks,
Rich

[mike]

Hi Rich,

Are your folders bigger than 4GB? If they are, they will not be backed up by Carbonite as explained in their help article here:
http://carbonite.custhelp.com/app/answe ... efault.php

FIrst, we'd strongly recommend getting an external drive and use Time Machine as a local backup solution in addition to using Espionage to backup to the same external drive or to a second external drive. After that, you can use a cloud service to back up your files remotely. You'd want to locate a backup service that isn't restricted by the type of files you upload or the size. You can check out CrashPlan or Arq but mostly, many backup services will typically explain the type of restrictions upfront or in their help database.

You can find out more about our Backup/Restore information here: http://www.taoeffect.com/espionage/Espi ... ackup.html

I hope that helps a bit.

[pierce inverarity]

Mike - Oh yeah, I used Time Machine too... otherwise I would have lost a decade of email! But, I like to have an online solution as a "backup backup" and also to be backing things up automatically (eg I lost several days of email because I don't do a Time Machine backup every day).

The files are under 4G so I don't know what's going on. I think Carbonite is just deciding that your files are not the kind of thing that it backs up. So thanks for the tips on those other backup solutions; I will look into them.

Thank you!

Rich

[mike]

Hi RIch,

You're welcome. I'd recommend contacting Carbonite and ask if they support sparsebundle format, which is what we use for the encrypted disk images. It is possible that they might have a bug in their app or it was intentional for them to exclude it. Either way, they'd tell you.

[pierce inverarity]

That's an excellent idea... thanks, I will ask them and report back.

[pierce inverarity]

I didn't get much of a satisfactory answer from carbonite, but as far as I can tell, they don't support the sparebundle format. I'll have to switch providers...

[pierce inverarity]

I wanted post an update, in case it helps anyone:

Carbonite confirmed that they do not back up sparse bundles, so I am bailing on them. I am switching to Backblaze, who have confirmed that they DO back up sparse bundles.

A note of caution, though: Backblaze supports a max file size of 9GB (in fact, by default it's 4GB -- you have to change it to 9 manually if you want the higher limit). This could be a problem for Espionage backups as each encrypted folder is backed up in the form of one big sparse bundle file. It's not actually an issue for me (not yet anyway), but I wanted to mention it as this could definitely trip up some Espionage users.

If the 9GB limit is an issue for you and you need a mixed Mac/PC solution, try looking into Crashplan, which has no file size limit. I passed on them as their business plan is 50% more expensive than Backblaze's. Note that I did not verify whether Crashplan backs up sparse bundles, because I Backblaze was good enough for me so I had no need to... but if you want to back up >9GB Espionage backup files, Crashplan would be a good place to start researching.

If you are Mac-only, I would go with Arq... this seems like a pretty sweet backup system, and if memory serves, I am pretty certain they do sparse bundles too (you'd best verify this as memory doesn't always serve). Their attitude is that they will back up whatever you want backed up (it helps that you pay for the storage, which is at Amazon S3). I passed on this because I wanted to back up both Macs and PCs for my business on a single account... but if I were Mac-only, Arq definitely would have been the winner.

Hope info this helps somebody.

Rich

[greg]