Computer “Pat Tricks” - Learn Something Cool in
Ten Minutes (LSCITM)
Backup files online for free using Mozy
The sales pitch, even
though Mozy is free:
·
Imagine losing all of the data files, pictures, emails, and all of
the other critical files on your PC
·
Think about how important that information is, then think about
what you would pay to get those files back
·
You insure your car, your health, and other things, and pay for it
·
You can actually backup your data, and “insure your data” for
free!
Why are they free?
·
They assume that if you use it, you will eventually want to buy
their paid service, which is only $50 per year to back up all of your data
·
My experience with the $50 version
o
I’m not very happy with it so far
§
It really slows down your PC if you let it do the backup as fast
as it can
·
Even with this setting, it will take an estimated 1-2 weeks to
back up my most important 20 Gb
·
Backing up my 150 Gb drive might take 7-14 weeks, and slow
up my PC the whole time
§
If you put it on the setting that doesn’t slow down your PC, the
backup is estimated to take at least 20 times longer, and you’ll have a new PC
by then
§
You can change the balance from “Quicker backups” to “Faster
Computer” while you are actively using your computer, but you have to remember
to reset it when you leave
§
Its own balancing algorithm doesn’t appear to work, i.e. you would
like it to go full throttle when you’re not using the machine, and stop when
you are, but it still seems to slow your PC a lot
·
My conclusion - use the free version, don’t pay for it, and only back up your
most important, most frequently changed 2 Gb of data
What to do:
·
Go to Mozy.com, and create an account
o
They allow you to backup up to 2 Gb of data for free
o
You can schedule when the backups are done.
o
You can schedule which data is backed up
o
You can regulate the priority of the backups vs. your regular work
·
There are some problems with it
o
If you have a firewall, like MacAfee, Norton, etc, you may have to
modify it to get Mozy to work, and the errors aren’t necessarily crystal clear
§
you may have to allow your firewall software to permit Mozy access
§
errors refer to the Mozy folder when it means MozyHome
§
errors refer to the MozyConf folder not MozyConfig
§
it talks about ¾ speed, but doesn’t tell you exactly how to set it
when you are setting Mozy up, i.e. which direction to put the arrow
·
however, once the backup has begun, you can change it from the
status screen
§
when you do Configure and Save, the screen actually disappears
rather than confirming your changes
·
to get it back, right click on the Mozy icon in the lower right
hand corner
o
it’s the ugly brown and orange one
·
it may take over 24 hours to do the initial backup of your 2 Gb
Regardless, backups are a necessity, and this
one is free!
·
Pretty cool, and you can read and learn about it in ten minutes or
less, although it takes another 10-15 minutes to set it up
www.617-patrick.com
– Custom Computer Training, see sample video (website
under development, but it does have some great content)
Computer “Pat Tricks” - Learn Something Cool in
Ten Minutes (LSCITM)