2GB of Free Online Backup? Yes!

Thu Jul 27, 2006 12:58PM EDT

See Comments (37)

You're probably getting tired of me harping on you about doing your backups. But I honestly don't blame you for not wanting to do them. You don't want to tie up your machine for hours. You don't want to buy an external hard drive. You don't understand how to burn DVDs properly. I get it, really I do.

But after you read this post you're going to have no excuse. None. If you have Windows XP and a broadband connection to the net, you can start backing up your files online without even the slightest of headaches. If you're backing up 2GB or less, it's free (making this the only free online backup I'm aware of).

Mozy is a new service (currently in beta) that lets you do your backups via the Internet. Yes, many services like this already exist, but they're expensive: Old-guard company Xdrive costs $10 a month for 5GB of space. Mozy gives you 2GB of space for free, 5GB for $1.95 a month, and 30GB for $4.95 a month. That blows Xdrive out of the water completely.

To get started with Mozy, you register and download a small application that stays running on your PC. The Mozy app scans your computer for files you might want to back up, and you can tweak the types you want. (I'm backing up word processing documents but not music, for example.) If you need more control over files and folders, you can drill deeper into advanced options to select backups on a file-by-file basis. Your data is encrypted on Mozy's site.

Power users will absolutely love Mozy: You can schedule backups to run constantly, to run only during off hours, to back up open files, and even to throttle bandwidth if the app is running during peak usage times. And yet none of this is complex. Even a novice user should have no trouble setting up Mozy to run only at night.

The software's in beta and so it's still not quite finished. I'd love to see a way to pause a backup in progress, for starters. My biggest complaint, though, has nothing to do with the Mozy software but rather the Mozy website: There's no way to change the email address your account is registered under! (Mozy President Josh Coates wrote to show me that you can change your email address; click "Edit Profile" and look for the [change this] tag next to your email address. Thanks, Josh!)

But hey, I'm not complaining. 2GB of free backups, awesome software, and peace of mind? Sign me up, and you should too. Feel free to use the referral code 84LUVN during registration if you decide to give it a spin yourself.

Comments on 2GB of Free Online Backup? Yes!

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  • 26 Posted by funnyandnice11 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    has anyone tried to do a restore of their data and actually had it be succesful? and im talking about a good size restore of 3G or more. try it and see if it works. i like mozy alot but they need to fix their issues bc if you cant get your data back, what good is a backup service. i been trying to restore data for awhile but i keep getting errors and i have to restore in small bits of 100MG or so to get it back. like to hear others replies back if they actually had a successful restore and how much did they restore and make sure you go through the whole process after downloading. good luck

  • 27 Posted by sukhoiberkut on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:47PM EDT Report Abuse

    I am using Mozy at about 6 months and I am very happy with the service. I make a restore test to check the service and all happened ok. https://mozy.com/?code=94HW8M

  • 29 Posted by danbdennis on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:34PM EDT Report Abuse

    http://www.xdrive.com/ http://mozy.com/ There shouldn't be any worry about these companies closing down. They offer free accounts for sound business reasons. They are a 'loss leader' as a way of gaining more *paying* customers. Someone like me signs on for a 2GB or 5GB account, and then when I need to store more data, I will upgrade to a larger account for which I have to pay. No mystery, no charity. They provide a valuable service for free to students, small businesses, etc whilst making a name for themselves and gaining more customers in the long term.

  • 30 Posted by bell.jessi12 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    Memopal (www.memopal.com) offers 5GB of free storage ever, real time and automatic back up, file sharing via mail too, multiple PC access. Quite interesting service.

  • 31 Posted by sebastian009in on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    www.mediamax.com is givig 25 GB of online storage space free. I have been using their service for more than one year. Their web site is quite userfriendly. I wonder why no one commented about this wonderful service which surpass all others.

  • 32 Posted by go2michelle on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    Halleluiah! My husband owns his own company and his entire business is on his computer...years of hard work. Lately, His computer has just started acting funny ... I was so glad to have found this. I'll back up his files today and take the computer in to be looked at. Whew! If he lost his files......

  • 33 Posted by lezleyking on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    Iuse goggle docs to save all my documents and I have a myspace page that I save all my pictures. As far as music i download it to my phone I have a 4 gb card and thats alot of music. But I do like the idea of backing up your files. My computer crashed late last year and I lost all my pictures of family and friends.

  • 34 Posted by k0dpw on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    To sebastian009in and others, I too was initially impressed with "free 25GB" and other supposed features of MediaMax (Streamload), but my experiences with them has been nothing but negative: 1) They had chronic service problems, uploading and downloading - claimed it was due to "new facilities", even if true, any professional organization would have had backup facilities to guarantee service. 2) Committed files to their fidiciary care that turned out to be non-recoverable from their servers. 3) Their customer support is essentially non-existant, by email, phone, or otherwise. 4) Tried a service upgrade while attempting to use their services, and they couldn't even process the upgrade properly. 5) Have been trying to terminate the account for several months now (never could get all my files back), installed blocks against their billing to my credit card and Paypal account, and sought refunds for funds paid for their defective service, at present, they have only issued "partial" refund of total sought - that had to be forced by my credit card company - and they turned right around and hit my credit card account again with new "billings" after account termination that wiped out any/all refunds; it looks like I will have to terminate the entire credit card account just to get away from Mediamax (Streamload). MediaMax (Streamload) needs to be legally shut down by the attorney general's office of their state ! Check the complaint(s) filed against them with organizations such as the Better Business Bureau for online companies - they have a complaint trail miles long !! Go with a winner like Carbonite ( http://www.carbonite.com ): I have used many online internet computer file back up services over the years, but I believe Carbonite ranks at the top of the list as the best, some reasons why: 1) Unlimited amount of data, for approximately $4.00 / month, plus or minus depending on how you pay. 2) Automatic 3) SUPER !! Data Encryption 4) Ease to restore / recover if necessary 5) Should be used with a high speed broadband internet connection, like cable or DSL. Try it, u'll luv it !!! After the initial system backup (which does take awhile, especially on some systems low on memory - hey, encrypting an entire hard disk on a system with low RAM memory and/or HD space and/or slow CPU speed IS going to take awhile), once past the intial backup you don't even know its running when it only has to handle new/changed file(s) on a continual dynamic basis. If you sign up for Carbonite (you get a free trial), tell them k0dpw@yahoo.com sent you.

  • 35 Posted by danlar75 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:35PM EDT Report Abuse

    I think http://spideroak.com should have been included. 2GB free, multi platform support (Windows, Linux and Mac), secure share spaces and top notch security and excryption.

  • 36 Posted by gap_sas_sanders on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:06PM EDT Report Abuse

    One of the best ones out there is http://www.myotherdrive.com. XDrive isn't even around any more. They're online like $5 a month.

  • 37 Posted by sunilcpatel on Thu May 21, 2009 6:38AM EDT Report Abuse

    I would have agreed to you guys if you have used what I do. You guys are talking about GBs while what I have is AUTOMATIC, SECURED, UNLIMITED BACKUP and imagine at what cost? just about 40 USD/ year. All functions then Mozy or Carbonite. Guys its recession time and would suggest you to go for the best in price and quality. I got my Unlimited Online Backup from http://www.in2biz.in

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