The biggest drawbacks of these two products are that backups can be very slow, especially the first backup, and you must have Internet access to do backups and to restore your files. With Mozy, but not with Carbonite, you can also opt for a scheduled backup at a time and interval of your choosing. Mozy checks the hard disk every two hours and backs up everything that is new or changed. Carbonite backs up new or changed files 10 minutes after you save and close them, but only backs up each file once a day. When a file changes, or a new file is added, it is queued for backup. And both companies plan to release Macintosh versions next year.Įach installs a fairly small program on your PC that constantly works in the background to back up your data. (That is likely to be more than enough, by the way, to cover all of a typical consumer's word processing, tax and budget files, and plenty of photos.)īoth services currently run only on Windows XP, but both expect to work on the new Windows Vista operating system. Mozy also has a totally free version, which is limited to two gigabytes of data. Mozy can be downloaded from and costs $4.95 a month, or $54.45 if you pay for a year in advance. The trial version doesn't back up music or videos by default. There is a 15-day free trial, after which it costs $50 a year, though some stores also sell a $15 version that lasts for three months. Each worked fine in my tests, both for backing up my key files and also for restoring them.Ĭarbonite can be downloaded at or purchased in stores. One might say the process is slow, but this is online backup we’re talking about, so don’t expect the speed to compare with that of backing up your stuff on a physical hard drive.The two services are easy to set up and easy to use. Everything I wanted to backup, was backed up, and I managed to restore all the files without any problems. The Preference pane lets you limit the amount of bandwidth your backup uses and schedule your backups: For the Unlimited account, you must purchase an additional license for each computer you want to add, and you can add up to 5 machines. For the Free account, you can choose 2 computers. You can backup more that just one machine through one account. The easiest way to restore your backed up files is by using the MozyHome client and choosing which files you want to restore: To check out if your files are where they should be, login into your account at Mozy: That means that it only backs up the portions of your files that have changed since the last time they were backed up, as well as any new files. I tried with something smaller – it took some 20 seconds to upload 9MB.Īfter your initial backup, subsequent backups are relatively quick, since Mozy performs differential backups. The upload speed of my connection is 50KB/s, and the given estimated time for uploading 210 MB was 1h10m. Start the back up process by choosing the appropriate option form the menu that opens when you click on the icon in the tray:īefore choosing which files to backup, you are warned that the time it will take to do it greatly depends on the total size of the files and on the speed of your Internet connection – they say it can take days, months even. Login using your email address and password, and choose your encryption settings:Ĭhoose the files you want to back up by backup sets of by specific files and folders: At this point, you are also asked to invite friends to use the service, and as an incentive you are offered an additional 512 MB of free backup space for every person you “initiate” (after they started using the account). You are then sent a verification email which you have to open and follow the link inside, then download and install Mozy on your computer. You’ll also be asked to fill out some information about yourself: name, gender, birth year, job category, etc. Registering for the (free) account is easy: Incidentally, MozyHome supports Windows 7, 2000, XP, and Vista (32 & 64 bit), as well as Mac OS X 10.6, 10.5, & 10.4 – good news for both Windows and Mac users. Let’s see how the process of setting up an account and using it works. What can you back up with 2 GB, you might ask? That’s 250,000 text emails. The second one is for business, and the price varies according to the number of desktops and servers you want to backup. The first one is offered to home users, and you can use it for free if you want to store just up to 2 GB of files, or you can pay $4.95 for one month of unlimited backup (the fee is lower if you opt for an annual or biennial subscription). There are two types of accounts you can choose from: MozyHome and MozyPro. Mozy () is an online/cloud backup service for consumers and small businesses.
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