Mozy backup service
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I have tried out a couple of similar services in the past. Generally speaking they were very easy to hook up and use. I don't bother anymore as I have offsite backup. My Video's, music, photo plus computer backups are in the hundreds of gigabytes so I have backups on external drives and DVD roms that are kept offsite.
the biggest hassle of the offsite service is the initial load. with restricted uploads, it can take a long time to upload a gigabyte or two!
the biggest hassle of the offsite service is the initial load. with restricted uploads, it can take a long time to upload a gigabyte or two!
Mozy also has a free 2gb account option, but I need a lot more than this. I probably have about 750gb I would want backed up. Just curious if anyone has any experiance with Mozy or any other online backup site that has unlimited backups.
I don't think that on-line sites are meant for 100's of GB of data. I think it is useful for the really important files or folders that may change frequently and need to be backed up.
To create a backup copy of pictures or other media, I think a local hard drive solution (using a 1.5 T drive) is the way to go. If you really are paranoid, you could store the drive+enclosure at another location or in a safety deposit box.
Sending 800GB of data over the internet doesn't make sense to me. Not only will it take months to get it there, if, heaven forbid you need to recover it, it will take weeks to get it back! And you'll blow your upload/download limit on your internet service and pay huge fees on top of it all.
To create a backup copy of pictures or other media, I think a local hard drive solution (using a 1.5 T drive) is the way to go. If you really are paranoid, you could store the drive+enclosure at another location or in a safety deposit box.
Sending 800GB of data over the internet doesn't make sense to me. Not only will it take months to get it there, if, heaven forbid you need to recover it, it will take weeks to get it back! And you'll blow your upload/download limit on your internet service and pay huge fees on top of it all.
These online services are not meant to back up 100's of GB of data. I use Mozy and I use it to back up my pictures and that's it. Pictures seem to be the only thing I would ever regret losing. I back up my pictures to an external drive weekly but if there was some sort of physical catastrophe around my computer area, it would all be gone.
I had about 12-13 GB of pictures and it took almost 3 weeks to upload. I'm on DSL with a 5 mb/640 kb speed so YMMV.
It costs me $4.95 a month since it's more than the free account offers. I think it's worth it.
I had about 12-13 GB of pictures and it took almost 3 weeks to upload. I'm on DSL with a 5 mb/640 kb speed so YMMV.
It costs me $4.95 a month since it's more than the free account offers. I think it's worth it.
I do have a 1TB external drive, but I have about 850GB on there. My 350gb drive is also full. My wife would kill me if I bought another external drive. I was just thinking of another option, thats when I saw a link to Mozy. I thought I would move all my tv shows and movies on there. That way I can free up a lot of space on my EXT-HD.
I guess it doesn't make sense to store that much data on an offline service. Maybe it would be better just to sign up for the free 2 gb account for the important stuff
I guess it doesn't make sense to store that much data on an offline service. Maybe it would be better just to sign up for the free 2 gb account for the important stuff
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I personally use dropbox for my online storage. You can get 2 gb free and they also have a pay service. Great for syncing files across multiple systems and platforms. Lots of other neat things it can be made to do like password syncing and starting torrents remotely.
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I use both Mozy and Carbonite. I find that Carbonite is a lot simpler and I highly prefer it. Mozy just seems unnecessarily complicated but it's the concept of backing up on a schedule (i.e. fixed time or every X hours) that just was the deal breaker.
With Carbonite, you just set it and forget it. It runs continuously in the background and uploads ASAP.
I also see issues with Mozy and how it handles the little green check marks on your icons. Often the color is out of date and it doesn't mark folders. Again, carbonite is far better in this area.
Hence I'd say if you're going to pay (and use more than the 2GB) then go with Carbonite instead.
I backup all of my pics, videos, install files, and personal docs. About 30GB and it took a week to initialize. I actually use Windows live Sync to sync these files between my Mac and my PC and then carbonite for the offline backup.
Copies to external HDDs are nice (and fast) but require you to sync periodically and don't provide you any protection against a site failure (i.e. house fire or burglary). Backing up to the cloud is definitely the way to go. Highly recommend carbonite instead.
With Carbonite, you just set it and forget it. It runs continuously in the background and uploads ASAP.
I also see issues with Mozy and how it handles the little green check marks on your icons. Often the color is out of date and it doesn't mark folders. Again, carbonite is far better in this area.
Hence I'd say if you're going to pay (and use more than the 2GB) then go with Carbonite instead.
I backup all of my pics, videos, install files, and personal docs. About 30GB and it took a week to initialize. I actually use Windows live Sync to sync these files between my Mac and my PC and then carbonite for the offline backup.
Copies to external HDDs are nice (and fast) but require you to sync periodically and don't provide you any protection against a site failure (i.e. house fire or burglary). Backing up to the cloud is definitely the way to go. Highly recommend carbonite instead.
I use Mozy to keep approx 16GB syncronized. I liked it for the client app. It's really pretty easy to use (but so are the others really) and you can create rules for excluding files or only backing up certain file types. This is of course not exclusive to Mozy ... some of the other guys have it too.
Mozy will also keep your files syncronized when your PC goes idle based on CPU usage/time idle etc or you can set a schedule if you wish.
I've turned off the icon thing so I can't comment on how well it works.
If you're looking at 100's of GB though you might not find these services real practical as some have mentioned and unless you've got loads up upload speed it'll take a LONG time to get that much data onto an online server.
I do believe however that some of these guys will take a set of DVD's or hard drive from you and do an initial copy for you which might be faster. Keeping it synced after that point won't be so bad.
Why don't you just try a few of the mentioned services here and see how you like them? They pretty much all have the 2GB free offer. That's how I settled on Mozy ... by just trying a bunch went with the one that I liked.
ihdtv
Mozy will also keep your files syncronized when your PC goes idle based on CPU usage/time idle etc or you can set a schedule if you wish.
I've turned off the icon thing so I can't comment on how well it works.
If you're looking at 100's of GB though you might not find these services real practical as some have mentioned and unless you've got loads up upload speed it'll take a LONG time to get that much data onto an online server.
I do believe however that some of these guys will take a set of DVD's or hard drive from you and do an initial copy for you which might be faster. Keeping it synced after that point won't be so bad.
Why don't you just try a few of the mentioned services here and see how you like them? They pretty much all have the 2GB free offer. That's how I settled on Mozy ... by just trying a bunch went with the one that I liked.
ihdtv
Thank you everyone for your replies. I signed up for Mozy's 2GB service and Carbonite's free 15 day trail last night. Mozy crashed my PC when I first started configuring it. I had to do a cold boot, I think I will try this one later.
I started a backup using Carbonite last night. It was pretty easy to use. The only thing I couldn't get to work was to backup files on my external HD. When you right click on a file, you are supposed to get an option to backup with Carbonite. My files on the EXT-HD do not have this option. Mozy did add the menu when I right clicked on these files.
EDIT: Just checked Carbonite's webpage and I guess they do not currently support external HD's and USB drives. So I think this is a deal breaker for me. I guess I will have to keep looking at MOZY
I started a backup using Carbonite last night. It was pretty easy to use. The only thing I couldn't get to work was to backup files on my external HD. When you right click on a file, you are supposed to get an option to backup with Carbonite. My files on the EXT-HD do not have this option. Mozy did add the menu when I right clicked on these files.
EDIT: Just checked Carbonite's webpage and I guess they do not currently support external HD's and USB drives. So I think this is a deal breaker for me. I guess I will have to keep looking at MOZY
I use Sugarsync and have been very happy.
Various plans available - I use $50 per year for 30 gb. The 30 GB can be over multiple PC's. Web acccess to files, multi-version backups, "sync folders" - synced between the pc's, sharing of files to other people, etc, etc.
Various plans available - I use $50 per year for 30 gb. The 30 GB can be over multiple PC's. Web acccess to files, multi-version backups, "sync folders" - synced between the pc's, sharing of files to other people, etc, etc.
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Carbonite encrypts it on your computer first and then backs it up.
If you're really worried about security then use TrueCrypt (free) first. Create a TrueCrypt volume and keep your sensitive information in there. There's an option with TrueCrypt about whether to update the container filestemp when data changes. Choose that (it's not enabled by default) and whatever service you settle on will keep backing up the secure/encrypted container file over and over.
That being said, I don't bother with all of that. I use both Carbonite (paid version for all of my digital pics, videos, and music/itunes files) and Mozy Home Free version on my laptop (for work files and docs) and I just rely on the encryption each of those services provide. I'm not worried about security with this configuration.
If you're really worried about security then use TrueCrypt (free) first. Create a TrueCrypt volume and keep your sensitive information in there. There's an option with TrueCrypt about whether to update the container filestemp when data changes. Choose that (it's not enabled by default) and whatever service you settle on will keep backing up the secure/encrypted container file over and over.
That being said, I don't bother with all of that. I use both Carbonite (paid version for all of my digital pics, videos, and music/itunes files) and Mozy Home Free version on my laptop (for work files and docs) and I just rely on the encryption each of those services provide. I'm not worried about security with this configuration.
The file sharing (or folder) has come in handy a few times with Sugarsync. The biggest advantage (which others may have as well) is the web access. I had set this software up as trial on someones computer, we were at a funeral, she did not have her speech. Web access to her home computer saved the day.
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