Overview

CarbonCopy watches the folders you care about and instantly mirrors any change to up to three backup destinations — an external drive, a network drive, or another folder. A background safety-net sweep catches anything missed while you were offline.

Deleted files are kept in a dated recycle bin so accidents are recoverable, and your source folders are only ever read, never modified. Free to use — claim your license key and download it here.

• Real-time mirroring, ~1-second sync
• Up to three backup destinations
• Recoverable deletes with a Recycle Bin
• Source folders are never modified

Set up your first backup

Open CarbonCopy and add one or more source folders — the folders you want protected. Then add up to two destinations (an external drive, a network drive, or another local folder). CarbonCopy immediately mirrors the sources and keeps them in sync the instant anything changes.

Your source folders are only ever read, never modified — the mirror is strictly one-way.

Recover a deleted file

When a file is removed from a source, CarbonCopy moves the backed-up copy into a dated, per-destination Recycle Bin rather than deleting it outright. To restore, open the destination's recycle folder and copy the file back.

Tips

• Pause a destination anytime from the tray menu (e.g. while a network drive is offline).
• The background safety-net sweep catches changes made while CarbonCopy wasn't running.
• CarbonCopy lives in the system tray — closing the window keeps it backing up.

Back up to a network or external drive

Any folder Windows can see works as a destination — an external USB drive, a mapped network drive, or another local folder. Add it as a destination and CarbonCopy mirrors to it in real time. If a drive goes offline, pause that destination from the tray; the safety-net sweep catches up once it's back.

What CarbonCopy is (and isn't)

CarbonCopy is a one-way mirror — it keeps your destinations identical to your sources, perfect for an always-current backup. It isn't version history: to recover an older copy of a file you've changed many times, you'd want a versioned backup tool. Deleted files, though, are recoverable from the per-destination Recycle Bin.

Install & activate

Download CarbonCopy above (or from your account), run the installer, and launch it. On first run, paste your license key from your account to activate — it binds to this computer. The full account, key, and install walkthrough is in the getting-started guide.

Need a hand?

Check the troubleshooting tips, browse the FAQ, or reach us from the contact page — we read everything.

See also

Head to the CarbonCopy product page to download it, or read the guides for our other free tools:

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