It’s been roughly a month since I started using Mozy so I thought I would do an update. It works great for me still, though there are some niggling issues (what program doesn’t have them?) and thoughts I want to make people aware of. Firstly I should point out that Mozy mirrors your content and can’t be used for just storing files.
Mark in the comments brought up a few good points related to this. Most importantly the free version only backs up the last 30 days worth of data. This isn’t personally a problem in my lifestyle, but if you are away from home/work regularly, it’s useful to be aware of it.
Mozy was not always detecting my internet connection too which meant automatic backup didn’t happen (though this may be because of my dodgy router rather than an actual bug). However if you go to configuration and select the option to attempt backups even if no connections are detected, this should fix any problems.
The way to get your backups is to select them via the Mozy website and they will email you when the files have been prepared for you to download. The backup process is done via their website rather than the actual program. It’s great if you need to access a file from another computer, however it’s not the fastest process, and do you really want to be downloading an entire hard-drive via this process? Next time I partition my PC I will get the chance to really test it.
July 25, 2007 at 02:54PM
Have you ever tried Carbonite? My backups would be too big to mail back. Carbonite restores from online and has saved me a couple of times.
July 25, 2007 at 05:14PM
I’ve heard good things about Carbonite but there is no totally free version unfortunately. I don’t have the backup demands that would make me want to pay for anything yet.
July 25, 2007 at 08:48PM
The files aren’t actually emailed to you. They are packaged up and you’re just emailed a notice when they are complete. From there you can login to your account and download the zip file. There is also apparently a DVD option (I haven’t had to use that one).
July 25, 2007 at 09:04PM
Thanks for clearing that up Ben, I’ve altered the post accordingly. I’m going to give it a try with lots of files to really see how fast the backup process is.
July 26, 2007 at 09:38AM
Mozy did really save the day for me yesterday!