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Backing Up Files on an External Hard Drive

You can back up files on a compatible external hard drive with Carbonite.

Carbonite Release Notes (Mac 2x)

You can view the latest Carbonite release notes in this article.

Backing Up Files on an External Hard Drive (Mac 2x)

You can use Carbonite to back up files on a Mac external hard drive from the Carbonite application.

Carbonite Plans and Features

This article covers the Carbonite Safe plans, features, and prices.

Determining the Status of Your Backup (Mac 2x)

You can determine the status of your Carbonite backup through the Carbonite icon or the Carbonite User Interface.

Removing Files From Your Backup

You can remove files, folders, and drives from the computer that has Carbonite installed and the deselected files will be removed from Carbonite backup within 72 hours.

Backing Up Files on an External Hard Drive (Mac 1x)

You can use Carbonite to back up files on an external hard drive from Carbonite within the Apple System Preferences.

How to Use External or Mapped Network Drives with CSSB For CSSB 6.x Enhanced

External drives and network mapped drives can be used with the product for storage of backup data. The product can also perform backups of data on an external or network mapped drive.

Upgrading Your Carbonite Safe Subscription

You can upgrade your Carbonite Safe plan to a Carbonite Safe Plus or Prime subscription to backup an external hard drive, automatically back up video files, and take advantage of Courier Recovery.

Restoring a Bare Metal Image (CSSB 6.6 or Below) For CSSB 6.x Enhanced

A Bare Metal Image backup can be restored using two methods. You can perform a complete Bare Metal restore or a file/folder level restore. To perform a Bare Metal restore, you first need to create a recovery media. After performing a Bare Image restore, additional steps will be required to recover Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange Server and SharePoint databases.

Known Issue: System State Backup Fails and the System Writer is Missing

The product uses the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to perform backups of your Windows-based machine. VSS has several writers that are used for this purpose. You can return a list of VSS writers by opening a command prompt and entering the command vssadmin list writers. The names of these writers are mostly self-explanatory. The SQL Writer is for backups of SQL. The System Writer is for backups of System State, and so on.

Restoring a Bare Metal Image (CSSB 6.7 and above)

A Bare Metal Image backup can be restored using two methods. You can perform a complete Bare Metal restore or a file/folder level restore. To perform a Bare Metal restore, you first need to create a recovery media. After performing a Bare Image restore, additional steps will be required to recover Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange Server and SharePoint databases.

Restoring from a Courier Recovery Drive for Carbonite Safe Plans

You can move your files from the recovery hard drive to your computer after you connect the external hard drive to your machine. After the data has been placed onto your system, you can continue your backup and ensure that your files are selected.

FAQ: What Is Cloud Backup?

What Is cloud backup?

Unlimited Backup for Carbonite Safe

Carbonite Safe plans will allow you to backup unlimited amount of data on one PC, where one PC includes one internal hard drive.

Requesting a Courier Recovery Drive for Carbonite Safe Backup Pro

Courier Recovery is the process of contacting Carbonite, working with a Recovery Specialist to retrieve your backup, and receiving a form of media (DVD, external hard drive, etc.) with a copy of your backed up files to your address via mail for a $175.99 fee per computer.

Migrating from Carbonite Mac 1x to Mac 2x

To enhance the customer experience, we are providing a migration path from the legacy Mac version (1.x) to the latest version (2.x). Due to technical differences between the two versions, backups cannot be directly upgraded. As a result, customers will need to start a new backup after installing version 2.x.

Storage of Data After Deleting Files from Your Computer

When Carbonite scans for files to back up, it also removes deleted files from the backup to keep it up-to-date. Depending on your plan, Carbonite removes deleted files after 30 or 60 days from the date they were deleted from the computer.

How to Use External or Mapped Network Drives with CSSB For CSSB 5.x & 6.x Classic

External drives and network mapped drives can be used with the product for storage of backup data. The product can also perform backups of data on an external or network mapped drive.

Message: “Your hard drive has been disconnected”

During a backup, a Carbonite alert appears with “You hard drive has been disconnected”. If Carbonite cannot detect your drive, Carbonite will remove the backup for that drive after 30 or 60 days.

Requesting a Courier Recovery Drive for Carbonite Safe

You can request Courier Recovery to receive a copy of your backed up files on an external hard drive.

Backup Set Options For CSSB 6.x Enhanced

While on the Backup Details page, you can validate, delete, clone or disable backup sets

Important Things to Know About Carbonite Safe as You Get Started

This article contains information about Carbonite Safe that you may not be aware of when first installing the software.

Selecting Files for Backup

Carbonite automatically selects the data associated with your computer profiles. You can select additional data by right-clicking on the file or folder and selecting Carbonite; Back this up.

Known Issue: Carbonite Safe Server Backup Installation Fails with Error 1327

When attempting to install Carbonite Safe Server Backup, the installation fails with Error 1327.

Restoring from a Courier Recovery Drive for Carbonite Safe Backup Pro

You can move your files from the recovery hard drive to your computer after you connect the external hard drive to your machine. After the data has been placed onto your system, you can continue your backup and ensure that your files are selected.

Selecting Files for Backup (Mac 1x)

This article explains how to select files for backup with the Carbonite version 1x for Mac.

Determining the Status of Your Backup (Mac 1x)

You can determine the status of your Carbonite backup through the Carbonite Preference pane.

File Types Carbonite Backs Up for Carbonite Safe Backup Pro (Mac 2x)

Carbonite automatically backs up the files that are most important to you. By intelligently scanning your computer, Carbonite does not select unnecessary file types, which improves backup and restore speeds. However, less common user-created data can be manually added to your Carbonite backup.

File Types Carbonite Backs Up for Carbonite Safe Backup Pro (Mac 1x)

Carbonite automatically backs up the files that are most important to you. By intelligently scanning your computer, Carbonite does not select unnecessary file types, which improves backup and restore speeds. However, less common user-created data can be manually added to your Carbonite backup.

Moving Carbonite Safe to Another Windows Computer

You can transfer your Carbonite Safe subscription from your old computer to your new or repaired computer to restore your files or start a new backup.

File Types Carbonite Backs Up for Carbonite Safe (Mac 1x)

Carbonite is designed to back up all the unique and irreplaceable files on your computer. Included in your backup are your text documents, spreadsheets, financial documents, photos, music, etc. With the Carbonite Safe Basic plan, video files are not selected for back up by default. They need to be added to your backup manually.

Restoring Files

You can browse and restore files from your backup within the Carbonite application.

File Types Carbonite Backs Up for Carbonite Safe (Mac 2x)

Carbonite is designed to back up all the unique and irreplaceable files on your computer. Included in your backup are your text documents, spreadsheets, financial documents, photos, music, etc. With the Carbonite Safe Basic plan, video files are not selected for back up by default. They need to be added to your backup manually.

Carbonite Windows Version Release Notes

Carbonite Version 6.6.0 is the latest version of the Carbonite product. We are sure you will like the many enhanced features. Installing and identifying your computer(s) is easier than ever. Backing up your files is simpler and there is additional information provided about the status of your backed up files. Restoring your files is now even quicker and easier with additional choices for files you would like to restore first and choosing a destination for your restored files.

Configuring Full Disk Access for Carbonite (Mac 1x)

With the release of macOS Catalina, Carbonite must be granted access to Full Disk Access to allow the backup and restore of your files.

Message: "Schedules could not be added or modified" For CSSB 6.x Enhanced

The following error appears when trying to add a backup schedule or save a backup set: Schedules could not be added or modified. This error occurs when the product is unable to save changes to one or more backup schedules within a backup set. This error may appear when updating the schedule for a backup that did not run as scheduled.

Important Things to Know About Carbonite Safe Backup Pro as You Get Started

This article contains information about Carbonite Safe Backup Pro that you may not be aware of when first installing the software.

Windows File System Backup For CSSB 6.x Enhanced

The product can perform full, differential and incremental backups of Windows NTFS and ReFS file systems. When backing up an NTFS or ReFS file system, you can select directories and files from a browser tree.

Supported Drive Formats for Carbonite Safe

Carbonite supports current drive formats.

Creating a Bare Metal Image Backup For CSSB 6.x Enhanced

A Bare Metal Image backup allows the restore of an entire system to a similar or dissimilar hardware.

Windows File System Backup For CSSB 5.x & 6.x Classic

The product can perform full, differential and incremental backups of Windows NTFS and ReFS file systems. When backing up an NTFS or ReFS file system, you can select directories and files from a browser tree.

Stuck Backup and Backup Errors (Mac 1x)

If your backup appears slow or stuck on your Mac, there are steps you can take to resolve the issue.

Known Issue: Mapped Network Drives Do Not Appear in the CSSB User Interface For CSSB 6.x Enhanced

If you are running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or later, you may not be able to select mapped network drives for backup. Although, mapped network drives appear in Windows Explorer, they are not visible in the CSSB user interface.

Message: "Volume Name %s is not Accessible"

When performing a backup, you receive an error such as: Volume name %s is not accessible. Check if %s user has read/write permissions on the volume.

File Types Carbonite Backs Up for Carbonite Safe

Carbonite automatically backs up the files that are most important to you, such as your pictures, documents and music. By intelligently scanning your computer, Carbonite does not include unnecessary files, which improves backup and restore speeds. Less common types of files can be manually added to your Carbonite backup. Review this article to understand what is and is not included in your backup.

Restoring the Windows File System For CSSB 6.x Enhanced

For Windows File System restores there are a lot of options to allow the user to have just the right control and flexibility while restoring data. You can restore your files to the original backed up computer or to a different computer.

Restoring a Hyper-V For CSSB 6.x Enhanced

The product supports the restore of Hyper-V hosts and hosted virtual machines on Windows 2008, and Windows 2012. You can restore individual virtual machines to their original location or to an alternate location.

Known Issue: Backups Fail with the Error "Could not write to disk"

While performing a Backup to Disk, the backup will fail with the error "Could not write to disk", if the disk becomes inaccessible for any reason.

Message: "The backup archive could not be read"

While performing an upload from disk, either as part of a Backup to Disk and Cloud operation or following a Backup to Disk operation, you could experience backup issues. If the upload to disk fails, the following error message will appear: The backup archive could not be read. Please verify that the disk is connected and in good health.

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