Seagate Teams Up With Carbonite For Online Backup

Customers who purchase Seagate FreeAgent Desk or Go model external hard drives will receive an option to back up their desktop or laptop system plus the attached external hard drive through Carbonite’s service for an annual fee of $59.95 (£35.95).

Online backup provider Carbonite and hard disk drive maker Seagate announced a partnership on 12 November to provide Carbonite’s subscription-based service for both local and online backup.

Customers who purchase Seagate FreeAgent Desk or Go model external hard drives will receive an option to back up their desktop or laptop system plus the attached external hard drive through Carbonite’s service for an annual fee of $59.95 (£35.95).

Carbonite, which features unlimited backup capacity, backs up files automatically through policies set up by the user. The service is now listed as an option in the setup software for the Seagate hard drives, company spokesperson Megan Soule said.

There are benefits to both methods of backup: Local backup on an external hard drive is relatively fast and easy to do; online backup can protect data from dangers that local backup can’t—such as fire, flood and theft.

Carbonite’s service allows the customer to access backed-up files from any computer with an Internet connection, which remedies lost data when an external hard drive is lost or stolen, Soule said.

Carbonite has been creative in its sales and marketing methods. In July, the Boston-based company hooked up with Sun Microsystems to provide its service via Java downloads. Users who download new or updated Java networking software for a handheld connected device, laptop or desktop computer are now offered a free 30-day trial of Carbonite for a monthly fee of $4.95 (£2.96) or yearly for $55 (£32.98).