Online backup service query

nomad

Can anyone recommend an online backup service for me? I have a Mac, and would like to back-up about 100MB of files. This is just personal stuff (documents, music, photos, videos etc), no work/business usage but I’m just a bit confused by the options.

Best deal so far seems to be crashplan.com which will cost me about $10/mth. However I’m unclear how these services work. At the moment I keep my music files on an external hard drive and want to back these up too, can I do that, or is it only files on my (internal) hard drive that can be backed up online? Does my computer and hard drive have to be switched on and connected to the internet 24/7 so that the “program” (or whatever it is) can constantly access my computer & external hard drive at any time? Can’t I just decide to run the back up when I please (e.g. overnight every Wed or something?)

Anybody with any experience in this? What do you recommend?

(Not important but nice to know: Anyone know of a cheap remote/online file storage service that would allow me to back up all my files – and access them whenever I wanted from any computer anywhere?)

doctorj

As an aside, and probably not what you want, but is the mac stationary? If so, and you don't mind leaving it on, it's possible to turn it into a server and create a way in. This is how I handle the anywhere anytime problem; I can always log into my home machine and transfer files, with the help of free dyndns. Doesn't help in the event of a fire, but it'll recover from a blackout or net outage while I'm out of the country.

boygabriel

This is something I'd never considered before b/c I back up my stuff on an external hard drive. (If I lost 7 years worth of digital photos I'd be in tears.) But my friend just forwarded me this email. I think I'm going to sign up. It's $5 a month for unlimited back up.

Thursday, May 1, 2008 8:18:27 AM EDT
Securities Alert
Delivered by Wall Street On Demand
PR Newswire and BusinessWire News
EMC Corp EMC:NYSE
Mozy Release for Mac Sets Industry Standard for Unlimited Online Backup
PR Newswire
8:00 AM ET

Mozy, Inc., part of the Cloud Infrastructure and Services Division of EMC (NYSE: EMC), today announced the release of MozyHome for Mac, the industry's first unlimited online backup service for the Mac. Mac users in the home can now safely and cost-effectively back up all of their digital information over the Internet. With more than 700,000 total users worldwide and 6.2 billion files backed up, Mozy is the leading online backup service of choice for consumers and small businesses.

"Mozy is honoring its roots by augmenting its service to consumers and small businesses," said Vance Checketts, chief operating officer for Mozy. "We've had more than 43,000 individuals participate in our public beta and have devoted thousands of hours of development to this new MozyHome for Mac release."

Designed as a consumer service, MozyHome for Mac offers 2 gigabytes of online backup absolutely free with no expiration date, or $4.95 a month for unlimited online backup capacity. Mozy automatically protects all computer files including photos, music, videos and financial documents from data loss in the event of hard drive crash, accidental deletion, natural disaster or theft. All files are encrypted with 448-bit Blowfish encryption and the encrypted files are transferred via a 128-bit SSL connection -- the same encryption used for online banking -- during the backup process for extra security. After the initial backup, Mozy only backs up incremental changes to files and folders, meaning subsequent backups run extremely fast. In addition to the mos t recent backup, Mozy keeps 30 days worth of file versions as well. In the event of data loss, files may be recovered via the Mozy client software, downloaded from the Mozy website, or by ordering the files on a set of DVDs from Mozy.

"I had just completed my transition from Tiger to Leopard when my hard drive crashed," said Donald Malm, who participated in the MozyHome for Mac beta. "The restore of all my data from Mozy was completed without a single error. My Quicken data was exactly where I had left off the day before the crash. Never have I made a better purchasing decision since I started in the insurance and financial system design industry 52 years ago."

Later this summer, Mozy will release a business version of its Mac service to enhance its MozyPro and MozyEnterprise offerings. More than 20,000 business customers already trust Mozy to back up their data, and Mozy is currently backing up more than 7.5 petabytes, the equivalent to 7.8 million gigabytes, across multiple data centers. Businesses interested in an online backup service for the Mac can sign up to be notified at www.mozy.com/mac/probeta.

With the addition of the MozyHome for Mac service, EMC offers Mac users the industry's most robust backup and recovery options. Other data protection offerings for Mac users include EMC Retrospect for Macintosh and EMC LifeLine software.

About Mozy

Mozy is the leader in online data backup for consumers and businesses. With more than 700,000 total users including 20,000 businesses, Mozy offers a simple, automatic and secure service for backing up data over the Internet. Mozy was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2007 and operates as part of the EMC Cloud Infrastructure and Services Division. Information can be found at www.mozy.com.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

EMC is a registered trademark Mozy and MozyPro are trademarks of EMC Corporation and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined under the Federal Securities Laws. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (i) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions; (ii) delays or reductions in information technology spending; (iii) our ability to protect our proprietary technology; (iv) risks associated with managing the growth of our business, including risks associated with acquisitions and investments and the challenges and costs of integration, restructuring and achieving anticipated synergies; (v) fluctuations in VMware, Inc.'s operating results and risks associated with trading of VMware stock; (vi) competitive factors, including but not limited to pricing pressures and new product introductions; (vii) the relative and varying rates of product price and com ponent cost declines and the volume and mixture of product and services revenues; (viii) component and product quality and availability; (ix) the transition to new products, the uncertainty of customer acceptance of new product offerings and rapid technological and market change; (x) insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; (xi) war or acts of terrorism; (xii) the ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees; (xiii) fluctuating currency exchange rates; and (xiv) other one- time events and other important factors disclosed previously and from time to time in EMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. EMC disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

SOURCE EMC Corporation

http://www.emc.com

nomad

Thanks for the suggestions.

Dr J: I'll ponder on your suggestion. Might stretch my techno-know-how to implement this!

Boygabriel: Thanks for the info. I'd read that Mozy is not very easy to use, but coz I'm thrifty I might give it a shot!