I had been coordinating a fine arts festival for five years, accumulating an irreplaceable set of files – images, graphics, advertisements, communications, instructions, financial data, and more. I knew I should be securing all these archives, but I procrastinated in doing anything about it.

Two weeks before the 2011 festival, my computer crashed completely. I was in the process of designing the last signs, creating the last maps, publications, instructions to artists and volunteers, and all the details of production.

This would have been an unmitigated disaster! However, just one month before the crash I had finally subscribed to Carbonite™ (only after learning from a writer friend that she had permanently lost all of her work.....)

I had researched the best ‘cloud’ solution for backing up files, and settled on Carbonite because it was so highly recommended in so many reviews.

My computer went to the hospital for a week, and I traveled around to the homes of my friends to continue my work. No one had all the software I had lost, but each had a program or two. I was able to easily download the files I needed from Carbonite, and carried my ‘festival brain’ on a thumb drive from place to place. I could not have carried on without Carbonite.

My computer came home from hospital with a new hard drive – all files gone. That’s when I realized I had been so focused on the upcoming festival I hadn’t even considered all the other data I’d nearly lost – my personal and business financial records, pictures, writing…everything I’d done for the last fifteen years or so.

Reinstalling all my software on the new hard drive was a chore, but restoring my entire set of files, kept safe by Carbonite, was easy and a tremendous relief. I’ve been highly recommending Carbonite to friends and clients ever since, and will continue to do so.

One of the best things about Carbonite, for me, is that the software is always running in the background, searching my hard drive for any new or changed files, and automatically backing them up. It doesn't interfere with my work, and I don't have to remember to do anything to safeguard all my data.