Carbonite Support > Recovering from a Virus or Com...

Recovering from a Virus or Computer Crash for Carbonite Safe

  • This article is for Windows and Mac

Computers can get infected with viruses or crash for any number of reasons. If you have a backup, you have a sure fire way to get back up and running should anything happen to your computer. Below, you'll find information about what to do after your computer is repaired or replaced so you can restore your files and resume your backup.

If you are a victim of the Crypto virus or other ransomware and need to get your files back, please follow the steps outlined in our crypto recovery guide.

After your computer has been replaced or repaired (or the virus has been removed), you'll need to reinstall Carbonite so that you can restore your files and/or resume backing up. There are a couple of different methods for getting your files back with Carbonite.

The sections below are collapsed. Please click a section title to open / close the appropriate section.

Installing Carbonite and Using the Restore Wizard

You can install Carbonite and use the applicable Restore Wizard to get your files back to your system. There are a couple of things to make a note of to ensure that your restore goes smoothly and you get everything back in the easiest way possible:

  • When using Carbonite or any method of getting your files back after a virus infection, you should run a virus scan on all restored files before opening any of them.
  • During your restore, ensure that your computer doesn't go into a sleep or hibernate state. There are instructions for this in the corresponding articles, but doing this will ensure that your files are restored in the shortest possible time.
  • You need to first install any programs that you're planning on using again. Carbonite's online backup feature doesn't back up programs and wouldn't be able to restore them to your system.

From here you can restore all of your Windows files or restore all your Mac files.

What if I Don't Need to Use Carbonite to Restore My Files?

If you are recovering from a virus or computer crash, but you don't need to restore your files with Carbonite because you restored them using some other method, then all you need to do is reinstalling Carbonite Safe and resume your backup.

Please note that any files in your backup that are no longer on your computer will be removed from your backup within 30 days.

After reinstalling Carbonite and resuming your backup, we recommend checking your Windows backup selections to confirm that all of the files you want backed up are selected for backup. See below for instructions:

Feedback