Mozy Online Backup

Gadget Buddy – Online Backup

This is what Gadget Buddy had to say:

Mozy Online Backup is the preferred choice by Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Christopher Null of Yahoo! Tech and winner of the PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award. It is the most secure, feature rich and inexpensive backup service in the world.

Hard Drive Crashed

This is what ChefPatrick had the say:

I got the blue screen of death Wednesday of last week. I can only try to tell you how upset I was. Words would not due my feelings any justice.

After reviewing the options I have selected to go with Mozy.com. Mozy is the cheapest up front option at only $4.95 per month which includes the data storage and backup software. Mozy seems to be the safest. Their server rooms are fire and earthquake proof. They store your information on several servers in case one goes down. Lastly, you can access your files from any computer. Oh and if you need less than 2GB of backup space, it’s free.

In the end, I was able to get all of my data – thank goodness. I track all of my domain names and site advertisers through an excel spreadsheet. I also had a lot of contact info stored on there as well. I would have been highly aggravated at the loss of some of the data that’s important for my day-to-day work. I really would have been lost without a lot of the information. I learned my lesson for sure.

Mozy Online Backup Service Review

Mozy to the rescue ! After the loss of my laptop and external HD, I was able to use the Mozy backup service to restore most of what I needed. I’ve been using Mozy for nearly 3 years, and this was really the first time I had to “use it” — so a few thoughts:

The good:

• Hey it worked They are now owned by EMC so that gives you a bit more confidence too.
• I paid for the “DVD restore” option after the web option didn’t quite work for me ( more on that below ) and I was pleasantly surprised to see a fedex package appear a few days later. But instead of a few dozen DVDs, they sent a 160 gig Iomega external HD. Very cool ! Not sure if I got some extra nice service or if that’s standard for them now with HDs being so cheap — but I was glad to not have to manually copy over all those DVDs.
• I used the live chat support option a few times and they were pretty helpful and always followed up via email later to make sure I was all set.
• For $5/month per machine this seems like a really great option.

The bad:

• The web restore option, which is an instant way to retrieve your backup, has a somewhat clumsy interface. There is a web interface for data under 20 gigs, and then you can use the Mozy client (OS X and Windows ) to restore files as well.

For me I was restoring from another machine, so I wanted to use the web restore version and not sync up another machine into Mozy.

For some reason, which may have a sound technical explanation, the web restore is available only in 1.8 gig DMG files. So downloading and then stitching it back together is a manual process.

• The other issue is on how to actually pick the restore. When I selected the entire backup, the web restore was actually twice the size of my backup HD. The external HD backup they sent me was smaller than their 2X web restore. Maybe it was a bug, or maybe I did something wrong, but that seemed very odd.
• Related to the above, when I got the backup there was lots of duplicated files which i had moved to different directories on the original machine. Looks like Mozy always keeps a backup of what you had and then keeps adding to it. There is an option to restore a “backup set” by date, but when I looked at it I saw lots of missing files.

The “not Mozy’s fault” but an issue with our lousy internet access

• I mentioned at the top that I was able to “restore most of what I needed”. The reason I couldn’t restore everything was because some of the files I was working with were huge and Mozy had not had a chance yet to back them up. For me, and I suspect many of you, Mozy was often a few days behind on uploading all the new stuff. Om Malik talked about this issue last month, The Ugly Truth About Broadband: Upload Speeds.

Conclusion:
I’m thankful that I had some kind of online backup in place for when the unthinkable happens and happy that Mozy worked.

I’ve also rethought what I’m actually backing up and if I can streamline it a bit. I use a bunch of cloud services already, so lots of what I had backed up was available from other services.

I’m also looking at using DropBox and Syncplicity to handle the task of light backup, but really for syncing across multiple machines.

And since it’s been 3 years since I looked at this space, I’m going to test out Jungle Disk and a few others just to see if they are a bit more elegant on the restore side of things. Jungle Disk in particular seems attractive since they don’t charge you for each extra machine you link up.

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How To: Run A Mobile Office

Although I do most of my work in my office, I am constantly on the move, and as such I need to be able to move my office with me. If you are a consultant or a road warrior, or just want to be more efficient away from your primary workstation, I hope this post will offer some good suggestions for you. Running a mobile office should be simple, but can get a little tricky. Don’t be caught coming up short when travelling, just remember that today’s work is important, and in a recessive economy even a simple mistake like not being able to take a phone call when you don’t have a cell signal may cost you a job. As always, I welcome any tips or tricks you have, please drop a note in the comments to share. With that in mind, let’s get started!

You are going to want to back up your data constantly, and it’s hard to beat Mozy. I know so many people that have dropped their laptops and been unable to start them, or simply had them stolen out of their car. Either way, you’ll want a cloud service backup, and Mozy is it.

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Trying out Mozy again…

Since posting about Backblaze, I got some very good comments about Mozy. They have also not been sitting idle and they’ve added a few features to the service. One of those new feature is the ability to get your restore on external media shipped to you, a key differentiator to Backblaze, I said earlier. The price of a similar service was Backblaze was a little costly, I thought, so Mozy’s options are a much better approach. More on that soon.

So, I setup my iMac at home to use my Mozy account. I had signed up for full service a long time ago, but I have to admit, I was too impatient to let the initial backup complete. So, this time, I made a consious effort to backup only the data that I knew I didn’t want to lose and leave away things like the system files and applications which I knew that I could replace easily. That brought my data total to about 60GB to backup on my intial.

I knew that I would be out of town for a few days and so I let the initial kick off and begin working. Mozy has two parts to its process on the client. It prepares the files for backup, encrypting, compressing and doing whatever other magic it does and then it streams that to the servers. The problem that I see is that the client software seems to do things one at a time. There have been many times when I log in and see that the backup stream has stopped (0/bytes per second) and there is seemingly no activity. That doesn’t bode well for a service where I have already given up because of backup times.

But its not all bad. I’ve been impressed with the amount of data moved to the Mozy servers. I was away for 3 days and as of this morning, it has backed up about 12% of my 60GB, running all day and all night. Across a cable modem with limited upstream, I didn’t think it was doing a bad job.

The client interface to Mozy is simple and offers the ability to selectively backup your data by file type, which is a nice feature. But you’re not locked to that simple approach, you can choose or deselect particular files and folders to be backed up. This is the route I took as I knew where my data was and I knew what I wanted to backup – mostly iPhoto, iTunes library (minus TV Shows & Movies) and my Documents where I keep all my important stuff. With online backup, choosing what to backup is very important. On a Mac, there is some benefit to the way the OS is constructed, however I’m not sure how you’d fare on PC where so much of your installations and data could be tied to the registry.

Crippled upstream on Internet connections seems to be the biggest hurdle that any of these backup services will face with home users. Mozy, iBackup, Symantec, Backblaze, etc. are all affected by this. The real golden answer is an offline initial to some media that is then shipped to the service – then incremental forever. But, that has logistical problems. I just wish I could find a home backup service offering this.

At this point, I’ve still got days left on my Backblaze trial, but already being a Mozy customer, I’m not sure there is enough different to make me switch. Jury is still out for now…

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Mozy Vs Carbonite

Summary of Carbonite vs. Mozy Home

Judging from the above feature-for-feature match up, Carbonite and Mozy Home are virtually identical in price and features so it’s difficult to declare an absolute winner. Neither one is perfect but you shouldn’t expect that when you’re getting unlimited online storage for less than $5/month. For every customer that swears by Carbonite, there is one that swears by Mozy Home. The match up is virtually dead even.

The best way to find your right provider is to try their services and evaluate which one suits you best. They both offer affordable, attractive and cheap offers that are easy to test. Plus, Carbonite offers a 15-day free trial while Mozy Home a monthly alternative costing only $4.95. Test their services and decide on your own which one is the best!

Source:articlecity.com

My Mozy Review

The Pros of MozyPro
The service is fast, simple and very professional. The files are encrypted and stored well. The system is able to distinguish what has already been saved and what it is saving at any given time. It encrypts your data so nobody else can access your files. It uses 128 bit SSL and 448 bit Blowfish encryption.

The back-up is continuous and automatic – all you need to do is set up the schedule for the back-up. The system saves both open and locked files as well as the slightest of changes whenever it occurs. It senses which data has already been saved, so it can back up only that which is created new for which it is lighting fast. This program also backs up Outlook files, which means your email is safe too.

It offers 2 GB of backup space free of cost. It also offers one month free when you sign for annual subscription and three months free with two-year subscriptions.

The Pro subscription offers a basket full of benefits such as web-based back up, unlimited back up, multiple user account, 24×7 support system, and assign user to security groups, and mapped network drive support.

The Cons of MozyPro
You would have to install a program on your computer, PC or MAC. The good news is that the program works unobtrusively, so you need not concentrate or think about back-ups at regular intervals. The best features is with the Pro package.

The Overall Rating
MozyPro is a very simple yet effective file back up system. The installation of its software is fast and trouble-free. This is a great system to have on your computer especially if your data is special or critical. The overall rating is 9 out 10.

Source:factoidz.com

My Mozy Experience

When Jodi first told me about Mozy I thought it was a great idea … for her. She could have her whole computer backed up online and it was only 5 bucks a month. She is a PC user and has had computer crashes in the past that wiped her whole hard drive clean, so I happily agreed to let her sign up for Mozy. She asked me if I wanted to sign up for it for my Macbook and I said no because I’ve never had any Mac crashes since I first got one in 1990.

Well about two weeks ago I was complaining to Jodi that my hard drive was almost full and it was driving me crazy. Once again she suggested I should get Mozy and back everything up so that I could clear it off of my computer. I still figured I was ok and just needed to do a clean install and I could just deal with it for now and do some backup DVDs sooner or later when I had time. You can probably tell where this story is going. A week ago, amid some frozen programs, I forced a reboot on the Macbook and it started back up, but just sat at a gray screen and wouldn’t do anything. None of my system install DVDs would load, and it just sat at that gray screen. About ten minutes of diagnostics in a Mac store found that my hard drive just wouldn’t boot. The computer was fine, but the hard drive itself had completely crashed. I lost everything!

Luckily for us, all of our family photos and videos were stored on Jodi’s computer. Unluckily for the company I work for, all of my work files were on that computer and were not backed up anywhere else. I do back up here and there on DVDs, but there were at least 50 GB of files that are now frozen neatly on a worthless chunk of metal in my closet. Needless to say I have learned my lesson.

Bottom line: even the mighty Mac can have a failure (even if it happens FAR FAR FAR less often than PCs, honey) and you really have to be on top of backing up your computer, whether it’s via an external hard drive, removable media, or something like Mozy. Jodi still enjoys reminding me of the fact that Macs apparently aren’t invincible after all.

Source: foodstoragemadeeasy.net

The Good and the Not-so-Good about Mozy Home Online Backup Service

Mozy Home is one of the two services offered by Mozy for online backup. The other is Mozy Pro which is intended for business use. As the name implies, this service is intended for personal and home use. Compared to other online storage services, Mozy Home is one of the more affordable online backup solutions for the home. This review will provide an overview of the service and will help you determine if it’s a good value for the money or not.

At a cost of less that $5 per month, Mozy Home offers the following services:

Unlimited storage Easy to use and install software Ability to schedule backups on both Mac and PC Multi-layered security that covers the transmission of the files as well as the file storage A backup process that works quietly in the background without causing any slowness on your computer Remote access to all your files

The Good and the Not-So-Good
The great news is that for those having to backup a small amount of data, Mozy Home offers a free version. In this way, you will be able to backup data up to 2GB, and if you will require more space you will have to subscribe for the unlimited plan. Still, there is no sense to worry because the unlimited plan costs less than $5 monthly, and you can enjoy unlimited space for backup storage!

Getting started with Mozy Home for first-time users is not a problem at all as the setup process is simple and the interface is user-friendly. But don’t be surprised if the initial backup takes days to finish if you have a really large volume of data to back up. The same is true with other online storage and backup services due to the constraints of the upload speeds of Internet connections.

Once the initial backup is completed, you can set it to do automatic backups or scheduled backups. From that point forward, Mozy Home works seamlessly in the background without hogging so much of your computer’s resources. The service also gets points when it comes to the security of your files as they are encrypted before leaving your computer and are then uploaded via a secured Internet connection and then stored in their encrypted state on Mozy’s secure servers.

When you want to restore your files you are given three options. You can restore your data onto your desktop, the web or a DVD. Having these different options is very good but there have been some reports that restoration can be a very slow process. Sometimes it can take 24 hours just to get your data prepared for restoration then add in the download time. If you choose the DVD option then you will need to add in the extra shipping time.

For smaller files, you can do a quick and easy desktop restore, where you simply use the restore interface found in your Mozy Home desktop software interface. For larger files however, Mozy recommends you use web restore where you make a restore request directly to Mozy. While the request itself can be done easily, downloading the zip files can take some time, and for those unfamiliar with zip files, sorting through these can be pretty daunting. If either option doesn’t work for you, you can also use the DVD restore alternative and have your files sent to you on DVD for a fee of about $60.

On the not-so-good side, some Mozy users have reported that customer support is not what it should be. There is no phone support. The only support is email or live chat. If your computer is dead and you cannot get online then that is not much help.There have been differing reports however on the speed of their response. Some say their response is slow with inaccurate information but many more have reported them as responsive, providing accurate information.

Mozy Home Review Summary
There is no perfect online backup service and similarly, Mozy has its advantages and disadvantages. Overall, choosing mozy Home will bring you many good-quality services at affordable prices. If your goal is to enjoy unlimited backup services then with less than $5 monthly you can choose Mozy Home.

Source: Chaster.org

My Great Experience with MozyEnterprise So Far

I’ve written about doing data backups to the clouds, and earlier this month, I suggested that small and medium-sized businesses might want to consider tapping into cloud-based services such as Mozy Online Backup Service for their remote backup needs.

As I mentioned then, I was able to recover an old evaluation license given to me by Mozy that I had forgotten about. I installed MozyEnterprise Demo and have since allowed it to run on my personal productivity laptop for about three weeks now. For readers not familiar with the mechanics of cloud-based backup, MozyEnterprise is the client-side application tasked with detecting and bundling snapshots of modified files into encrypted datasets before actually uploading to Mozy’s servers.

So what is my verdict on this remote backup service as a whole? Well, in a nutshell, Mozy just works. Where the MozyEnterprise client is concerned, I would have completely forgotten that it is even there if not for the option to signal the completion of each backup set.

The files that I selected for backup come to about 1.4 GB, and consist mainly of miscellaneous items such as my browser bookmarks as well as various large Outlook PST files. Once configured, Mozy simply works unobtrusively in the background without any user interaction or administrator maintenance. There were no noticeably slowdowns, or lags – I certainly could not tell if it was performing a backup or upload. This is definitely good news for SMBs that are looking for a hassle-free backup tool.

I suppose what is even more amazing is that I did not enable any bandwidth throttling. For administrators who prefer to be more cautious, though, various options are available to limit the amount of bandwidth used by Mozy, or even define the hours where Mozy will not attempt to perform a data backup.

Personally, I feel that the price is affordable for small to mid-sized data storage requirements, though you will want to do your sums for SMBs with users that need to back up multi-gigabytes files all the time.

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