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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  • 6 Posted by kumaresan2 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:54PM EDT Report Abuse

    Hi Check out http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/15122968.htm www.carbonite.com gives you unlimited storage (automatic, secured) for $4.95/month.

  • 7 Posted by wizywizywizy on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:48PM EDT Report Abuse

    Another solution for a good price is Go Backup Now, its only $49.95/year for 40 gigs. Thats just over $4 a month for 40 gigs. http://www.geekhousecalls.com/gbn.html

  • 8 Posted by hungryforesterdzen on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    I don't like the idea ro run third-party app. on my computer at all. If You want 2GB online backup - use Gmail account to send important encrypted data as attachments. Take Gmail account and enjoy.

  • 9 Posted by pringlebottom on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    I've been using mozy for the last couple of months and I've really enjoyed it - I had a bad experience a few months ago where I lost a bunch of important files in a hard drive crash and decided to be serious about backup. I've also tried box and carbonite - box isn't really the same thing (but it is a nice replacement for a hard drive) and carbonite seemed a little too technical for me, but maybe I'm just too dumb to figure out how it works...

  • 10 Posted by gorch on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:11PM EDT Report Abuse

    It is interesting to see how these services are celebrating their renaissance and start with the same money burning marketing models. There had been quite a lot of those services 6 years ago offering webdrives for free. idrive, xdrive the like. Some of them survived while they changed their business models to a more b2b focus whilst running out of focus of the masses. Although, I found the idea really interesting in the early times and used it quite a lot. Today these web based services make more sense to me as people now seem to have learned much more that computing power and storage do not necessarily need to be placed at your feet. Today, I prefer a mixture of function and storage. Web applications like Cross-Desktop, the one I use, bring very good file management expertise into the game. You can zip and unzip online. Have plattform independent bookmarks. Download them to windows, mac or linux and they still work. Read rss-feeds, download by url from the net and use the full featured email client. I am running it on a dedicated server with more or less unlimited web space. It is equaly suitable for virtual servers or smaller web spaces that allow to run personal cgi scripts.

  • 11 Posted by mboehlig1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    I've been using Mozy for a few months and it's great. Automatic set it and forget it is the key to backups for lazy people. :-) For those worried about privacy, there is an option to use your own private symmetrical encryption key. Just don't loose it or you won't be able to restore your files. If you want to try it out, you get an extra 256MB of space when you use this referral link: https://mozy.com/?ref=RVB4DD

  • 12 Posted by egholland on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:52PM EDT Report Abuse

    Just an observation - what happens when you backup a W32 virus as part of the changed files scenerio - then wipe/reinstall the virus as part of your recovery plan? I am all for backups - saved me many a time. However, this service could allow those viruses/trojans {and since for a Windows platform} a time release mechanism for additional problems in the environment. Consider any backup strategy as to what you critically need to keep to maintain your operations and data. IE - what point is for a backup if the program that has read your .DOC file has changed to the point that it can no longer read it? Check the assumptions of both your operating system provider and the data you are manipulating. Make sure both are compatible. Best way is to test it. Have fun....

  • 13 Posted by genleesson on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:07PM EDT Report Abuse

    I haven't tried many online storage websites, but I really like xdrive. $10.00 is a little high for 5gb of storage, but if you are an aol member you get 50 percent of the monthly price. I get 10 gb. of storage for $10.00 a month.

  • 14 Posted by genleesson on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:07PM EDT Report Abuse

    I forgot to add, xdrive is not only for backing up your pc. you can also send very large files to your friends through their site that is included in the monthly price.

  • 15 Posted by zulugrid on Thu Sep 3, 2009 11:02PM EDT Report Abuse

    You get an extra 256MB if you signup using someone's referral code or email address. Wish someone had told me that.. an extra 256MB would've been nice. You can use mine, JGA3Y5, if you want.

  • 16 Posted by srikat77 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:38PM EDT Report Abuse

    Unless something has changed recently, Mozy doesn't work from work where proxy is present. There's no provision to enter the proxy info.

  • 17 Posted by macromike_7 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:02PM EDT Report Abuse

    Folks - First of all please read the "Fine Print" with Mozy. First of all from what I read on their site - it only works with the Windows XP OS and more important - you are restricted to the amount to restores you do! Being a backup service myself, if my customers need to do unlimited restores, then that's what it is all about - let them!!! Besides if my system or customers system crashed - I needed to get up and running again NOW!! and not have to worry about how many restores I have done in the past. Mike http://akronbackups.com

  • 18 Posted by galindox on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:05PM EDT Report Abuse

    mozy limits the number of restores per month, nobody expect to lost and restore the files more than 4 times in a month (you only have to pay and small extra per more restore per incident), about the firewall thing, you can open the port in the firewall and create a rule to override the proxie in that NIC /IP / user / wherever, btw mozy is a very affordabe online backup service, nobody says that is the best one, if somebody need to restore a hd backup 20 times in a month something is wrong in some place

  • 19 Posted by jeremypenn1975 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:33PM EDT Report Abuse

    Guys, I've been using DriveHQ WWWBackup for several months now and I have to tell you that it is the best I have seen in the last 4 years. The software is a lot faster and more reliable. It successfully backed up my 5GB SQL server database file for an upload speed of 400KBytes/sec from our company. Now I also use it to backup my emails. It has a wizard to backup Outlook emails. In the past, I have been losing my emails after every two years due to PC crash or changing jobs. Hopefully this won't happen again. They also offer free service, though I think it makes sense to pay a little bit for such a nice service. Why you have to risk your data with a free service company, who could close door at any time?

  • 20 Posted by sdentico on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    After setting up an account at Mozy, I went over to XDrive, just to see if the prices were still the same ... and they now do 5 GB for FREE!!!!!

  • 21 Posted by jpnthailand on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:42PM EDT Report Abuse

    This article has been most helpful. As someone who almost lost his business due to his failure to backup critical files, I thank you. As someone now very familiar with burning CD's/DVD's but also too lazy to do so on a daily basis, I doubly thank you. Good job. Dennis chimaterials@yahoo.com

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

    I want to backup hard drive and reformat hard drive. If I backup with Mozy or other service and then reload on reformatted hard drive will a virus carry with to the reformatted hard drive if one was originally backed up?

  • 23 Posted by ritzham on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:42PM EDT Report Abuse

    What I would like to know is the name of a free backup service which will work with a Mac.

  • 24 Posted by greenscorpi on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    I've been using IBackup (http://www.ibackup.com) to backup and store files. So far I've not lost a single MB of data. Restoring files back to my computer has been very easy and trouble-free. In addition to IBackup, I've started using another free online storage service, but I store non-critical files with them. Because I am not sure whether these free services will survive or not in the long term.

  • 25 Posted by mytiggerbuddy on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:32PM EDT Report Abuse

    zulugrid, if you're still around, here is my code you can use BWWF68. Thanks for your code!

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