Filed under: Software
Mozy 1.0
A little over a year ago we wrote about back up purveyor Mozy's beta Mac client, and many people were quite excited. Time passed, the seasons changed, and the Mozy folks were quiet. Quiet until today, that is. That's right, Mozy 1.0 for the Mac is now available for download.In a nutshell, Mozy is a backup application which backs up your files to Mozy's servers. As you might guess, this requires the use of the Internet, and perhaps just a little magic. The backups are encrypted, so you don't have to worry about someone peeking at your files or taking some of your MP3s for their own collection. Mozy also ships with 'Backup sets,' which are predefine file locations and the like to make backing up easier. For example, the iTunes Library Backup Set will target your (shockingly) iTunes library, while the Desktop Backup Set makes sure all the files on your Desktop are backed up. You can even create Backup sets of your own, which I did to backup only those items that I bought via the iTunes Store.
The application itself is free because Mozy makes their money charging for the storage your back ups use. A free account will get you 2 gigs of back up space, while $4.95 per month will get you unlimited space (and if you pay for a year or two in advance you get a few months for free).
I signed up for a free account and took Mozy for a spin. Overall, the application is just what you want from a backup app: unobtrusive and easy to use. The downside to Mozy, and this is true of any system that backs up over the network, is speed (I know that the topic of upload/download speeds is fertile ground, but that discussion is outside the scope of this post). I backed up 1.4 gigs using Mozy and it took 4.5 hours.
Check out this gallery for lots of screenshots of Mozy, as well as a look at how one restores files from back up.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mark said 6:35PM on 5-01-2008
Great...but i think that CrashPlan is better. (using both for 6m+)
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Matthew Folds said 6:39PM on 5-01-2008
I just signed up for the $4.95/mo. plan a few days ago. I did it to store my 200+ GB of music + videos + photos. I am really liking it so far, but it is going to take quite a while to get it all over to Mozy's servers (estimated at 5 days right now!)
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Gary said 12:04AM on 5-02-2008
Tried it and my 90GB was going to take 25 to 30 days to backup (high speed cable connection)!!! However, in the first 3 days the backup lost connection with Mozy's servers 4 times requiring me to start over (so it would have taken over a month to backup initially. It also slowed my system down while backing up so I canceled.
Hubert said 6:39PM on 5-01-2008
If you sign up using my referral code, we both get an extra 256MB storage for free! Been using Mozy for over a year now and hasn't let me down once. Cheers! :-)
https://mozy.com/?code=CQC6RC
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RazorD said 6:39PM on 5-01-2008
Cannot recommend mozy highly enough..
I've been using it for over a year, since the very first mac build and its absolutely brilliant.
Support is fantastic (reply within a few hours) and they've always passed me on to a higher level tech when i've requested it cause i've got debug information, etc.
Without a doubt the best backup solution (and yeh, i've tried pretty much all of them!) and the $5 a month is absolutely nothing for the peace of mind it gives you!
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RazorD said 6:43PM on 5-01-2008
They've also made a bunch of changes over the last year, the most important is:
If you reinstall windows, or mac os x (i've got it running on both machines!), it'll automatically remember that you've uploaded those files before (so long as you copy them exactly, using something like robocopy) and just skip them once it gets to uploading them, meaning you really do only have to upload a file once, and then only update those files that change, even if you reformat and delete the computer in mozy
Peter Andrén said 6:53PM on 5-01-2008
I'm just a bit curious, since I've tried Mozy during beta, if it still is a memory hog?
My CPU-usage went through the roof when I tried Mozy before.
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gil said 6:50PM on 5-01-2008
I've been using Mozy as well for a good number of months, the product is solid. The upload speed is slow, but what do you want it's free, and usually for my files there a one time thing with incremental backups from there.
I'm in a closed beta with dropbox http://getdropbox.com/. I know there's tech like this out there, but for ease of use I am blown away. I will pay for this service when it comes out. When I hit command+s it saves local and to the cloud in one swipe. You can also share folders as well. Check out the video.
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dave said 6:50PM on 5-01-2008
I tried mozy for the first time today. I decided to start small and backed up 114 word documents. Every subsequent restore attempt has failed after the first 89 files. Not a promising start.
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elby said 7:45PM on 5-01-2008
DO NOT USE THIS MOZY - READ MY NIGHTMARE BELOW
The following is an excerpt of emails that were sent back and forth between Mozy tech support and myself.
________________________________________
Dear "Name Removed"
While I appreciate your response, it's obvious that, like _____, you and the Developer have not bothered to take the time to read my email as the very first thing that you tell me to try is to backup a small file. (Already done. Please read Step #5 in my email) And then you give me a list of terminal commands as if I'm a developer or programmer and have complete understanding in how to implement these processes. (And if these steps came from the Developer, I have zero confidence in them anyway)
GOOD NEWS!
But the good news is, I did finally figure out how to delete all of the Mozy temp files. Hurray! All I had to do was completely reformat the hard drive and then reinstall the operating system and all my software and client files. It only took about 7 hours so, not so bad. Combine that with the 4 hours I spent on Phone/Chat/Email support and I'm only down about 11 hours total. (I bill out at $60 per hour. Please send me a check for $660. I'll be holding my breath for that!) At least I know that every trace of Mozy software is completely and forever removed so that is consolation enough.
In closing. Sorry for taking this out on you. You are probably the least culpable in my nightmare experience with Mozy software. I would place most of the blame on the developer who failed to follow through with adequate support and really didn't give a damn. Secondly, tech support who couldn't diagnose the problem because the Developer was no help. (James in Chat Support is the only one who cared and he should be promoted to head of quality control)
I will be posting this entire email thread (and copies of Chat Support which I saved) on my website so that anyone who ever Googles "mozy review" or "Mozypro review" can see the hell that I went through. And, whenever I see Mozy reviewed at Macworld, Macnn, Macrumours, AppleInsider etc. I'll be sure to chime in with my opinion. This will be my own "personal opinion" of course. Nothing slanderous.
One last request:
Please tell your Mac developer to stay away from the Mac and especially the iPhone SDK. Windows is a much better environment for you. We are used to support on the Mac side. Ya, it's understandable that sometimes things go wrong. But not being there to back up your code is inexcusable.
1. Installed Mozy and attempted backup as a test prior to purchasing monthly service. (Mac version, running Leopard 10.5.2)
2. Tried to backup up approximately 350 mb. Backup was working fine but then Leopard OSX popped up a warning that I was running out of space on my hard drive and please delete some files. I thought this was weird since I knew I had 44GB free. I checked the hard drive and it now said there was only 2 GB free. I assumed that Mozy was creating temp files and the lost space would be restored after backup completed. Well, I now realize that thats what was "supposed" to happen but it didn't.
3. I uninstalled Mozy and rebooted the computer (MAC) figuring that this would clear out the files. No luck.
4. I searched through the Finder and attempted to locate large temp files. No luck.
5. I re-installed Mozy hoping that this would help. I then backed up one 3mb jpeg file to the Mozy servers thinking that this might work. No luck.
6. I then uninstalled Mozy once again and rebooted computer. No luck. And - now I am left with only 2GB free on my hard drive.
7. Now my fun with tech support begins. First I try the email route - and receive a fairly quick response. Jarod's pre-scripted responses do not help but I figured that maybe I just didn't explain the situation well enough. So, I try again. Response time is quite a bit longer now and Jarod is obviously NOT bothering to read my emails as he sends me instructions on how to change the location of where future temp files will be stored although I just want to know how to DELETE THE TEMP FILES THAT ARE ALREADY THERE. Then I get complete instructions on how to remove the temp files for a WINDOWS computer although my emails always state clearly that this is a MAC computer. I ask for the exact same directions for a MAC computer. Jarod once again tells me how to change the path using a terminal window. (Wow!) This goes on for days, actually its over a week now. Jarod's latest email states, "Unfortunately, you cannot just delete these files. They delete themselves after a successful backup, or when your system reboots, however you cannot delete them yourself." Thats it. Nothing more. Nothing like, "I'll try and help you figure it out". Just, "It cannot be done." Buh bye.
8. Now I go the phone route. I'm told that Mozy does not offer phone support for a Mac. No way, no how. I tell someone on the phone, nice guy actually, that I would be willing to pay whatever it takes to get help in this situation. (I earn a living with my computer and now its practically unusable) He says that thats not an option and suggests I start an online chat and request tech support.
9. Tech Support - Phase 3: An extremely helpful person named James goes above and beyond and spends probably 40 minutes attempting to help me figure this out even though he has no Mac experience. We both look for solutions online, we go over everything I've previously tried etc. etc. This includes searching for temp files, looking for the SBIN directory, installing Omnisweeper to locate large temp files etc ... etc.. etc.. But in the end - you guessed it. No luck.
10. Well , now where does that leave me? Email support says that although Mozy screwed up my computer there is nothing that can be done. Phone support refuses to speak to me. (Although I've offered to pay?) Chat support tried everything but was unsuccessful.
11. Step 11: Send this email to every Mozy address I can find and see if that gets me anywhere.
12. Step 12: TBD
I would think that since Mozy for Mac is fairly new and MozyPro for Mac coming soon that someone would have an interest in locating and fixing this bug. (Developer maybe?) If anybody has bothered to read this far and is willing to help me diagnose this situation, please send me an email.
THINK TWICE MY FRIENDS
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Zimmie said 10:49PM on 5-01-2008
To get a listing of all of the files on your system, you just run 'ls -ARl / > ~/fileList.txt'. The capital 'a' is for all files other than . and .., the capital 'r' makes it recursive, the lowercase 'l' does a long file listing which includes the size of each file.
From there, you just open the resulting file and browse through it for very large files. I do it all the time on Linux and UNIX systems that have run out of disk space.
I agree that the support should know more about Macs if the company claims to support them, but I work at a fairly large software company and I'm one of the four Mac people in my entire department. The only reason most people here know that I'm a Mac guy is that I have an old CompUSA "Mac Education" software section label at my desk.
Jerome said 7:59PM on 5-01-2008
I have been using Mozy for a little over a year now, and it even saved my butt when I had a horrible upgrade to Leopard. I would have lost all my data, except Mozy had backed it up for me.
If you want to give Mozy a try, use my code https://mozy.com/?code=69NG42 and we each will get a little boost in free storage space.
Cheers.
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Rockstar said 8:30PM on 5-01-2008
whist everyone in business likely has some 'nighmare' customers, the above story is truly cautionary. The biggest problems that I have with Mozy however, is that it is not a ture archival system. If i set my mom up on it and she had to restore her resume, let's say - if she was mucking about and deleted it and didn't need it for 3 months, there would be no backup. Pretty poor implementation to remove deleted files... as that is the majority of home user loss.
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nathanh said 8:01PM on 5-02-2008
"If i set my mom up on it and she had to restore her resume, let's say - if she was mucking about and deleted it and didn't need it for 3 months, there would be no backup. Pretty poor implementation to remove deleted files... as that is the majority of home user loss."
Mozy is pretty up front about being an offsite backup service, not an archival service. Time Machine is a good archival program but it not an offsite backup. The two of them combined are a good solution.
Rockstar said 11:22PM on 5-02-2008
I have no need for a dumbed down backup solution online if it doesn't archive, the idea of it being dumbed down is the draw, the failure to archive is a larger con. More difficult to configure yet not too different in price services are available, and users are better served by them.
Ed said 8:31PM on 5-01-2008
I've used Mozy for about 6 months and it's saved my data a couple of times. The client works well and pretty much without input. I'm still under 2GB of data and I'll likely pay the upgrade when it gets to that point. Time Machine is more convenient, but Mozy data is safe from anything that happens to your hardware or house... I'd suggest using both - Time Machine for day-to-day use and Mozy for last resort.
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Steven said 8:58PM on 5-01-2008
just buy a pocket hard drive for a hundred bucks, make a superduper clone onto it every other weekend, and bring it to work on monday and lock it in your desk drawer. or bring it to your best friend's house or something. alternate two drives or whatever. there's no need to pay $5 a month to anyone, and have more gunk running on your machine all the time, with more things to troubleshoot.
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Ryan Walker said 9:46PM on 5-01-2008
It should be noted that, if you delete a file by accident, mozy is going to see that the file is gone, and assume you purposely did it. To me, this is a fatal flaw and is only mentioned deep in the user agreement.
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brad said 10:44PM on 5-01-2008
Actually Mozy retains your file on their server for 30 days after you delete it. As long as you notice that you deleted it within that 30 day window, you can still get it back. The same goes with versions of files that you change. They always keep all the different versions going back 30 days.
Mozy is a backup system, not an archiving system. It's just there so you can restore the current state of your computer, with a 30 day buffer as an added bonus.
Ian said 8:37AM on 5-02-2008
So? Doesn't time machine do the same? I just checked the apple website, and it says that it only keeps backups until you run out of hard drive space. You'll probably run out of HD space long before 30 days if you have any data worth backing up.