For a long time I was one of those people who knew she should back up her computer but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. I would remember and then put if off, again. Does that sound familiar?
I had half-heartedly tried to start backing up with a non-portable external hard drive (EHD), but I never seemed to use my laptop at a non-portable location. Then, after a string of friends experienced hard drive failures, I knew it was time. I needed a realiable backup solution.
There are quite a few options for offsite/online backup, with Carbonite and Mozy (affiliate link) being some of the most popular. Within the digital scrapbooking and mom-photography communities, I noticed that Mozy had gained quite a following. It wasn’t difficult to figure out why – Mozy also backs up EHDs.
My hard drive is quite small – only 80GB – so I count on my 320GB Western Digital Passport (affiliate link) to bear the brunt of my digital photos and digital scrapbook supplies. Their security surmounts even my hard drive.
Once the decision was made, I gave a friend some affiliate juice, just like you can with any of the Mozy links here in this post. (They have a fantastic affiliate referral program!) I downloaded the client and set to getting backed up.
The initial backup took 5 days. During that time, my internet disconnected a couple of times, but the backup resumed with no problem. Mozy now backs up routinely and I do indeed, sleep better at night for it!
Fortunately, I’ve not yet needed to recover my data, but the process seems very straightforward. Just don’t forget – this is backup – not storage. If you delete an item on your machine, it will be deleted from your backup!
Do any of you use a backup service? Is it Mozy?
I have Mozy too, but my backup is taking forever…like months. But part of that is because I usually only run it at night while we are sleeping. Also, we are backing up iTunes libraries for 3 ppl.
I like your Passport EHD. I already have one EHD that I back up to weekly (try Karen’s Power Tools>Replicator for free, quick backups). However, I’d like to buy a laptop and don’t want to drag my big EHD around for scrapping. The passport looks like it might be more portable for scrapping on the go. Thoughts?
I kept my initial backup going 24-7.
I love the Passport – take it everywhere with me. The only downside is the cord is very short. But its a USB to micro USB so many camera cables would work with it.
Portability was my problem with my big EHD that was not self-powered.
I use Mozy too, but with our connection the initial backup took months for 75-80 GBs of data. I am extremely happy with the service, though. A while ago I went looking for pictures from a while back and they were gone! No idea what happened, but I checked Mozy and they were still backed up. I recovered 4 GBs worth of priceless photos. I’m a happy customer!!
I use the free version of Mozy, and it works great. It doesn’t give me enough space to back up anything scrap related, so I’m just using it to back up my text docs for now. You can set when it backs up and how much of your bandwidth it will use, so it will run in the background without slowing you down noticeably. I’m thinking hard about purchasing the paid version so I can back up everything!
I use Carbonite because it is simple, has no limits for backup amounts, was the least expensive ( only $103.00 for three years), offers free trial, additional free coverage time from Kim Komando.com, issues free credits for friend referral and has remote access when I am away. Oh, it’s easy to monitor and restore my files too.
I wanted to chime in on this wonderful subject!
I just researched Mozy a month or so ago and was ready to subscribe; however, I got to thinkin’…..ya see this is where I get into trouble.
I of course set out to try and find a back-up location that acts as a “fail-proof” method of keeping my files safe, AS WELL AS one that acts as a remote server/hard drive. Meaning, I want to find a storage solution, one of which I can access ALL of my files when I am not anywhere near my own computer. Now I know they have remote desktop services and such, but is ANYONE at all aware of a storage solution that acts as a portal, one where I can store and retreive my files anytime I want to.
Any help would be very much appreciated. I have tried to search online, but obviously I have no idea what to search on (word-wise) because I never get the info I am looking for.
Thanks for your awesome blog, Jennifer!!!! We love you! 🙂
I don’t have a perfect solution for you, but I do think that solution is coming in the next year or two. Google just announced their new OS, which essential has all docs and apps living in the cloud. Many are predicting that a true online unlimited harddrive is coming soon, first from Google and then from competitors.
Jungle Disk or Elephant Drive