After an extensive review of online backup services, we have concluded that Mozy Pro is the all-around winner for those serious about online backup protection. Criteria for this evaluation included data transfer speed, software features, service capabilities, etc.
While Mozy also offers an unlimited home service plan, we do not suggest it for most due to the capped transfer speed and one problem that was experienced with the home-level service.
Intronis eSureIT is the runner-up in our testing. While their software is capable, and the service offers some very interesting features, such as Intelli Blox and multiple PC backup support, higher pricing, slower transfer speeds, and the fact that revisions count against the disk space quota cause Mozy Pro to come out on top. We have also reported a few suggestions to Intronis regarding usability enhancements that should be made to the software.
IDrive deserves mention. The IDrive software is excellent, and the service works flawlessly for small backups. However, we encountered serious problems when backing up a large collection of files, such as icons or fonts. IDrive provides very attractive pricing. If the issue mentioned above were resolved, we could easily see IDrive moving into the top position.
The only downside we have noticed with Mozy Pro is a delay which often occurs when transitioning between files for upload and download operations. The delay can sometimes be frustrating, but in tests, the overall speed of Mozy Pro still beats the competition.
Update: Please see the comments for an evaluation of the ElephantDrive backup service.
I just wanted to mention that Intronis has recently dropped their prices quite significantly. They also offer 2GB free. However, I think they are going after businesses more than home users.
Mozy Pro is definitely a great service provider… BTW – Scandisk Titanium now offers free online backup with their pen drive. 😎
I have tried IDrive and Mozy Home. I found IDrive worked flawlessly even for large amounts of data. I have nearly 100 GB of data, including mostly pictures. I was actually able to store data faster with IDrive compared to Mozy Home.
Interesting. You did not include ElephantDrive, which in my tests beat Mozy for speed handily.
@Tech blog: I think you mean SanDisk, not “Scandisk.” Their USB drive has some variant of BeInSync on it. I’ve never used it – can you comment on the performance?
@Mohave: We had not heard of ElephantDrive until your mention. However, we took a day to evaluate the service. While their speed is great, it is setup more like an upload service than a backup service. We completely understand that it is a backup service and see how it works, but the user interface of the software is lacking, to say the least. File/folder selection is very cumbersome, as is viewing afterwards. With ElephantDrive, you must setup your folder configuration manually, just as you have already done on your own system (where much of that has been done automatically by software installations), which can be quite time consuming for those with well-categorized folders. With all other backup services we have evaluated thus far, file/folder selection is just a matter of checking off what you want to backup, and then it is “mirrored” online. The ElephantDrive service seems particularly well suited for category-based backups. That is, if you only need to backup photos, Word documents, music, videos, or other files that are only of a certain file extension, it should work great. However, for those who want to be able to select exactly what to backup and do so easily with any file types, ElephantDrive just does not fit the bill.
I have to agree about ElephantDrive. I tried them when I saw the comment here last night (before the review update), and the software is awful.
It is great SP, but I need a cheaper price than Mozy Pro.
Mozy Pro looks really good. I will give it a try.
I’ve used both Mozy Pro and JungleDisk Pro, and for me personally I like and use JungleDisk Pro. But for clients, I have been recommending Mozy or Mozy Pro, just because it has a simpler interface. Carbonite is another service that some of my co-workers swear by.
@Rob Steenwyk – JungleDisk Plus is certainly very nice for online storage, but it does not offer automatic (either timed or continuous) backup functionality for changed files. It was, therefore, not included in this evaluation. Carbonite, on the other hand, was included in our evaluation. It does not have the flexibility and functionality that Mozy and a couple of the others do, though, as far as the software, which is why it did not do better in the rankings. Carbonite did do well as far as the service options and performance.
When choosing an online backup service, I recommend you Google the service in the following way, “known technical issues with“, where is the name of the backup service.
It will provide some helpful information.
Definitely; it is so important to backup your valuable content. Every day thousands of computer files are needlessly put at risk. Finding a solution that is right for you is so important.
-Jordan
I have heard that Carbonite does not backup video files. A huge flaw imo.
I must recommend Kazabra.com – they have some really cool extras for all your pictures and movies.
-Pete
Thanks for the great post.
Consider reviewing DocLanding for your online backup services. They launched at DEMOfall08 this year, and they are pretty cool. It is geared towards small businesses and entrepreneurs. Beyond the tools listed above, DocLanding also offers versioning, document annotation, controlled (timed) sharing, and it is compliant (HIPPA, SEC, and more). It is nice if you need to share sensitive documents without paying for a courier.
Keep up the great posts,
Will
Skadoit! offers affordable online data backups at only $6.95/month or $69.95/year. Unlimited support is included in the service price.
I recently came across a company offering a similar service with an interesting twist – all the data is stored in Canada, which apparently has much more strict privacy laws than in the US.
http://fiveht.com/Data-Vault-Home.html
On November 12 2008, Xdrive LLC part of AOL LLC, sent out to Xdrive account holders an AOL official mail notifying them that the Xdrive service will be shutting down on January 12 2009. On December 12 2008, Xdrive LLC sent a second notice to Xdrive account holders. Check your SPAM box if you don’t see it in your inbox especially if you have a non-AOL email account.
Today is December 17th 2008…so that leaves Xdrive account holders 27 days to get their assets off of the Xdrive service. I would not recommend waiting until the last day. Get it done today…!
ElephantDrive offers an easy migration page for moving data.
ElephantDrive is the only solution provider working in cooperation with Xdrive using their Open Xdrive API. While competitors of ElephantDrive may offer discounts on their subscription plans, you’ll have to do all the work of transferring your digital assets. ElephantDrive is committed to helping every Xdrive account holder make transitioning their digital assets seamless and transparent by using the Xdrive to ElephantDrive migration page.
ElephantDrive offers packages that are designed to protect the digital assets of individuals, SMBs, and large organizations.
Xdrive consumers with questions about transferring their digital assets over to ElephantDrive can check our Common Questions page.
Matt K. Olson
Consultant @ ElephantDrive
I’ve been trying to use IDrive for a couple months now. The software is slow, unreliable, hangs, etc. – just unbearable! I’ll try Mozy or Carbonite!
Another one to checkout is http://www.MyOtherDrive.com. They not only have online backup with AES 128-bit encryption support and unattended operation, but they also have the most complete file sharing capabilities.
Really??? MozyPro is AWFUL!!! It stopped backing up after 2GB, even though I’ve paid for 25, and I’ve restarted several times and it doesn’t work. Of course, there is no technical support on Christmas, which I do understand (even though their site says 24/7/365), but I am NOT impressed. I would NOT recommend MozyPro, and as I panic because I’m heading out of town, I’m desparately trying to figure out how I can get out of their stupid license and go with someone else who does work.
RE: Mozy Home, what do you mean when you refer to capped transfer speed? And what was the “one problem that was experienced with the home-level service”? Thanks!
Discovered something about Mozy today: They have an automated email service that tells of the success of (remote) backups. I resell their services. HOWEVER, the email informs that the backup completed when in fact it DID NOT COMPLETE; actually completed with errors! The Mozy techs I spoke to were surprized that I couldn’t see the error messages b/c they could see them! For 6-7 months I’ve been relying on that email – wow have I been lucky.
We were using Carbonite at a previous job and the service was so slow. It would take at least 48 hours to try and backup. I say try because it would usually disconnect during the backup when our Internet service was dependable.
OK, so I am out here reading all the data and checking out each site myself. Here is the kicker for me. We have more than one computer in our house. If I get most of these services it is very pricey to cover all of our computers. However, if I get ElephantDrive, I can pay the least amount of money for 4 home computers with a ton of music, video, and photo files and it is unlimited storage. I understand some of the challenges with the software, but the all mighty $$ wins out today. Wish me luck.
We use Carbonite today and happy with it. A few of the team members however use Secobackup when they have really large files such as database dumps or outlook dumps. On our mail servers and DB machines, Secobackup.com has been providing good reliability for us.
I use idrive and it is not that bad. Though I agree there are some problems as previous post mentioned. I have been experimenting with Jungle Disk (jungledisk.com) and SecoBackup (www.secobackup.com). The Secobackup offers me large file upload support but other than both are quite good. jungledisk has more customers though than secobackup.com.
EP
I have heard of another company that is not listed in the comparison. How does Double Vault compare to the other services listed?
I was using mozy, but they kept taking up space in my temp directory. I’m not sure why, unless they were actually using that space to store other people’s stuff. So I’m looking at either Carbonite or MyOtherDrive. My sister told me she really liked http://www.myotherdrive.com so I’ll probably go with them
Another one very interesting seem to be Memopal: http://www.memopal.com
The Client you instal on your computer is nice, the price is really with no “hidden surprises” and the retrive of online files is perfect.
I definitely suggest google-ing any company you decide to go with for online backup. It’s important to do your research to make sure you don’t get over charged for bad quality.
Hello,
Nice comments all around. Nice to find so many thoughtful comments on a site. I do have a question. Has anyone had success in negotiating acceptable terms and conditions with any of these providers versus agreeing verbatim to their terms of use? In particular, the majority, if not all have some of the most onerous indemnity clauses I have ever read. It is my profession to negotiate IT clauses in the corporate world and I have great success across a broad array of software licenses, support, maintenance, development and SaaS agreements and I have not, until I started looking at these online backup services, ever seen indemnity clauses that basically make every client responsible for all damages (in many cases even consequential damages) that may be claimed by any party if there is a possibility that you (the person that unwittingly had a file backed up that possibly contained a virus or something else) are responsible for causing the issue. At the same time the vast majority disclaim any claims for any damages for any reason with regards to safeguarding your data or performing any level of virus checking, etc. Of course I am going to enter into discussions with some of these folks but this is for my family’s personal files so it is not like I represent a large corporate with tremendous leverage and dollars. That being said I don’t want to open myself to massive amounts of exposure if some image or document that is backed-up has a corrupt macro or a virus and then find myself responsible for both direct and consequential damages for all clients merely because there is limited, none or poor detection and management at the back-up company. Okay, sorry for the long post but wanted to see what folks are up to. I know what I do in the corporate realm but want to see if anyone has had success at the $10/month level to get any of these folks to shift off of their very one-sided terms.
I have been trying DocLanding for sometime now. It is just not an online backup service but also a secured sharing service on remote networks. Not only you get to backup your data online but share specific files or folders with people
If you are looking for an online backup service that is business specific i.e. giving your greater functionality and protection, it is worth checking out the services offered by Backup Direct. We supply multiple technologies from world leading vendors. The technology supplied is used by enterprise-class companies like Google, Amazon and Cisco, so quality is certainly not second rate. The technology has been designed specifically for businesses.
I got IDrive pro account, but after 1 month using, I want to give it up, it is looking good, but it is tooooo slow every time.
Do any of these allow you to search the titles of your files?
Just google “online back up services” and you will get more than enough number of facility providers. These ones are also good.
There is a new kid on the block – online backup product for Windows called CloudBerry Online Backup. It is powered by Amazon S3 reliable and cost efficient storage. If you want to take part in beta sign up on the website What safer place to keep your files than Amazon’s servers?
I am wondering if you would be interested to check out a new CloudBerry Online Backup product powered by Amazon S3.
I also use http://www.MyOtherDrive.com, I used to use Mozy but the software was very slow. I was wasting my money because I was paying multiple subscriptions for backing up multiple computers. With MyOtherDrive.com I can pay one subscription to back up all of my other computers. MyOtherDrive has really nice file sharing – I can share files to anyone or I can create groups and share just to them.
Mozy is defenitely a great option but in free version since it offers 2 GB space free, uploading media and image files may not be a good option, as you might feel space a constraint. You must also chech SOS online backup, which may be helpful and serves most of your purpose, also supports online collaboration.
Didn’t carbonite just lose 7000 users data?
There are definitely a lot of online backup companies out there. Didn’t Carbonite recently have some issues with losing their customers’ backups recently? I use http://www.globaldatavault.com and have never had a problem .
Mozy is great if you’re looking for inexpensive solution for online backup, but if this is mission critical data they are not the company you want to be using. I’ve been in the online backup industry for a long time and what I’ve found is that you get what you pay for. I’ve been using XZBackup.com for a while, and they seem to be one of the only companies that puts a lot effort into their business class service offering.
Tried Mozy and was never able to get it working. So many products that are highly rated by various professional reviewers have fatal flaws and just don’t work in the real world. This is a perfect example of a service that looks great, but actually fails to deliver anything.
I have not read any mention of SOS backup which PC world rates as the best. Are your criteria so different that PC world’s choice does not even qualify for mention in your evaluations?
I have found that this service is actually better than all of the companies listed here….So does PC Mag
Mozy is a great Utah company. Whether in house or outsourced, backing up all of your data is extremely valuable. Myotherdrive.com does have a compelling model. Does anyone know how long they’ve been around?
Mozy Pro has the weakest versioning storage of the major back up providers, at only 30 days. It’s better than nothing but the vast majority of documents on a corporate (or even personal) network are over 30 days old. They clearly don’t want to be backing up your past versions and this is a dodgy way out of it. I’m wary of any company, which adopts an equivocal or dodgy policy to minimize its responsibilities. It makes you wonder how many of their services have hidden gotchas. Another potential “gotcha” at Mozy is that they price “per computer,” rather than total storage, which maybe you can get around by using network drives, but that doesn’t seem worth the hassle.
Found this blog while researching backup providers also:
http://blackheron.ca/blog/2009/06/mozypro-is-greatexcept-when-you-need-to-restore-data/
IDrive backs up the last 30 versions (and doesn’t count old versions against your storage total), and SOS has unlimited versioning, but doesn’t mention if older versions count against your storage total. To date, SOS only has 15 GB for personal storage maximum. That’s pretty darn weak.
MyOtherDrive mentions nothing about versioning on their web site, that I was able to find.
It looks to me like there really isn’t a good major player in this space yet. Good luck.
Myotherdrive should have been included in this review. It’s speed is faster than anyone I’ve checked out, provides a great user interface, and its sharing can be made specific to certain individuals or to the entire world. Security and great sharing features combine to make a great service.
What if one of these companies goes out of business? What happens to my files?
I switched to http://www.keepvault.com due to better upload speeds than mozy and i can backup all 6 of my computers to the same account. Plus the software also does real time backup to a local hdd at the same time as it does the online backup.
We are looking for small business server applications. How does MozyPro work for this type of application? < 50GB of info currently.
Mozy is awful – if you use Mozy Home they will not provide any assistance except online. You deal with someone in India – the guy kept asking me the same questions. I tried again, and this time was told to email the log – he told me that he would contact me in 3 hours, it has now been 3 days. The woman who handles the calls isn’t any better and refuses to let you talk to anyone, saying that management do not accept calls – not very customer orientated.
Be very careful if you use Mozy and something goes wrong, because you get absolutely no help. Now I have to try and get my refund back which based on my experience so far, will probably not happen.
Has anyone tried https://www.backblaze.com/ ? Their 4U appliance technology appears to be very solid and my buddy bought one and said it’s been great. The also have a SaaS option as well.
I need to cap the data amount, with the service automatically deleting the oldest backups and always allowing new backups. Mozy reps say that they can cap, but the account stops accepting new backups. For my application, I just need a couple of days of the latest data backed up and the rest can simply disappear. Any one out there do this?
I have started using a backup service from http://www.blockbackup.com although they cost more than mozy etc (£4.99 for 50GB) I decided on them because I could send the data to them on a disk. Their software runs through the usual compression and encryption process but sends the data to a USB disk. I sent them the disk an they copied it to their datacentres. The whole process of sending the disk to getting it back was 3 days which is much quicker the uploading 50GB via a crappy broadband connection.
Apparently they will do the reverse (send me a disk with data) if I lose all my data which again is quuicker than recovering it all.
I’ve tried the free version of iDrive, but not Mozy. I found iDrive to be a bit slower than I though, but it does have version control, so you can restore previous versions of file if you need to. The main issue (so I’ve heard) about Mozy, is that if you accidentally delete a file, Mozy will also remove it from your online storage, and if you don’t notice until after 30 days, the file is gone. This I think is a significant issue and I’m not sure if Mozy have rectified this, or whether you have to pay more to make this available.
I personally feel mozi’s interface is a bit complex to understand. I am looking for a solution which is cost effective as well as user friendly. Do you have any recommendation for me?
I have been using Mozy Home for 2 years now and am happy to hear you describing the issue with their home service. I have been working with tech support for 3 months now trying to get a full backup to complete without stalling. I still have 2 months left on their service and will continue to troubleshoot. If I am not able to resolve this issue I will probably document my entire experience on my venting blog http://supportreview.wordpress.com/ . Check back there later if you read this comment after a few weeks.
I just tried Carbonite but have to say their client is not impressive. There is no central view showing what is backed up and what is not, all backup management is done via explorer. The deal-breaker for me passing Carbonite as my backup service was its decision to skip file extensions. I have specific folders I want backed up completely, I am not traversing through each folder to manually add all .exe’s that I want to copy.
I am testing out https://www.keepit.com/ now. It seems to have a good client. They do not have the DVD mailing restore option that Mozy had but I guess if my house burns down I won’t mind waiting a few weeks to restore my data.
Too bad the Mozy client is crapping out. I was happy with them for 1.5 years.
I appreciate the comments. Does the testing, or has anyone ever had to actually recover their data after a failure? I completed a recovery with Carbonite and it failed terribly. Although it is a great price and seems to work well, I lost my pst file and about 5,000 music files.
Have you tried Gbridge or Cucku for backup? They’re both free to use and you use another offsite PC for your storage.
I just wonder if they can compete in terms of speed with the other online backup software.
My vote would go to iDrive, their support is first class, they always seem to have someone on live support day or night, and once when they had introduced a bug, the support gut confirmed this and it was fixed the next day. Highly commendable!
Dennis
Mozy has apparently outsourced their tech support to India or some other place, and in the process, support has really taken a nosedive. Mozy’s paid service worked great for me for over a year, then automatic backups stopped taking place, manual backups took FOREVER (as in 25 hours to do a 250MB incremental backup), and the tech support was inexcusably bad. I spent three weeks and over 30 emails with them and never did get it fixed. I would send in my logs and screen shots of my preferences and status and history windows, and I’d get back emails asking me to check my preferences and send in my logs. That sort of thing. It seemed like I was dealing with a different support person every round of emails. Terrible, unresponsive, and unhelpful. I sure hope I can find someone better. (Actually, I’d be happy with someone as good as Mozy USED to be!)
Here in Spain, we use an online backup service offered by http://www.central-backup.com
In our company we have a 20MBps ADSL Internet connection but unfortunately our Internet upload bitrate only reaches 900kbps !!!
Conclusion: The problem is the ADSL upload limitation.
I like and use DriveHQ Online Backup Service.
Reasons:
Integrated with Windows file manager.
Reliable and stable software.(Windows only)
Realtime or scheduled backup.
Backup of files in use.
Backup Folders or individual files.
Retension of file versions as changes are made.
Reasonably priced.
1 Gig free.
The Company is focussed on quality.
I believe their product is underrated. Probably one of the very best services available.
See my website for discussions and recommendations on this subject.
Can you look at sugarsync and tell me what you think?
I used to use Mozy, I recently moved to http://www.blockbackup.com. I started of with their home package a 3.99 per month then moved to pro so now I can backup unlimited number of computers (work and home) to a single account for a fixed 9.99 per month. There are no bandwidth restrictions so I can upload and download as quickly as my internet connection will allow.
I had several serious issues with Mozy. Impossible to restore files. Application constantly crashes when trying to restore. And I have only ~ 8 Gb to restore. Stay away from it.
Get an extra hardrive and store it somewhere else (friend, bak, etc. )
MOZY Is a pain in the #@%$
After using Mozy for about 5 months, I can surely say that they are not recommended.
Their software produces an endless stream of errors which are indecipherable. They link you back to their web site only to present another error message that leaves you with the option of contacting their service department.
I sent countless messages to them on various problems I had and each time I got a reply back from a different service rep and without the chain of messages regarding the problem.
They get high praise for politeness, but a big fat ZERO for results. I was never really sure if I was being back up completely or not!
In the end I tried to take one of my computers off of my account well in advance of the billing period, but after four different email exchanges with…you guessed it… four different service reps, I got billed anyway
I am trying BackBlaze now.
I subscribed to Mozy and used the smaller version, then decided to use the full paid version. Found out that Mozy could not find my free account in spite of notifying me that back-up had occured. Started over with paid version. Paid Mozy and they were unable to find my information. The technical service was the WORST – most representatives that contacted me could not speak English. After 5 or 6 weeks of trying to resolve the issue, I requested full refund. Mozy was unable to complete this because credit card changed (I moved across country). Absolutely the worst technical/customer service ever. I have kept the emails as evidence of Mozy incompetance. Would not recommend MOZY to my worst enemy.
According to the following page http://www.myotherdrive.com/html/about-us they offer their online backup service since October 2005.
I also would like to mention other company that offers this kind of service here in Spain http://www.central-backup.com/online-backup-que-es.aspx
The one our business went with was http://www.AllSafeBackup.com. The big reason we went with them is that they not only offer online backup like the others, but they actually act more like an outsourced online backup service for small IT departments. I’m the only IT person our company has, so its a lot easier to outsource things like this and have them take the entire thing off my plate.
honestly speaking, do we really need an online backup service?
I’m glad you liked IDrive, it’s my favorite too. Most people only know about Carbonite or Mozy. I haven’t had the problems you experienced backing up large files with IDrive but I went crazy trying to work through Carbonite and Mozy’s “unlimited plans”. Another one to check out is sugarsync and if anybody’s inclined you can read my SugarSync review here.
SugarsSync Pro has flat rate pricing for small businesses and really aggressive pricing for companies with less than 3 employees.
where does carbonite fit into this?
I’ve had nothing but good luck with Mozy Pro, and I highly recommend it to everyone.
Someone recommended using Backblaze – have you had any experience with that company?
I just wanted to say that SafeCopy online backup has affordable prices and i think there services are also reliable because i just tried installing their 3GB trial version onto one of my computers at home.The setup is really so fast and wow what captured my interest was that computers can be shared on one account.I landed on this link two minutes ago.Look for it on the internet
Interesting you don’t mention Carbonite in your review. Would be helpful if you actually reviewed ALL the top online back-up services to provide a complete picture on what is available. Consumer Reports rated it above Mozy.
I tried Mozy and could never get it to complete the original backup. I worked with their tech support and could never get it worked out. I was trying to back up my new Mac.
Service is in my opinion very important, Can someone tell me how the service is for the earlier mentioned backup providers?
On our server we are using Jungle Disk for syncing our backups from the local disk to the remote storage. ie. can do backup scripts that just store the zipped up package to a specific location that is kept in sync by Jungle disk in the background. I realize that is not perfect for everyone, but for us it works great! This service is also great for sharing files!
I use SyncBackSE Pro for my personal backups, again I just sync my files (and including backup zips) to a portable hdd, another laptop and to an ftp account – ideally I would prefer to use my Amazon S3 account though.
I like the control that you get with syncing (vs backup) that I didn’t really think about when I first went backup software shopping.
Anyway before I was thinking syncing ;-P for fully automated backup I nearly went with Memeo Backup but found I just couldn’t configure it enough to my liking.. was really close though, I wanted to exclude certain sub-folders with a pattern… hundreds of scattered sub-folders, ie. I don’t want to have to de-select them individually.
Mozy and iDrive are definitely top notch players…Sugar Sync is worth checking out also with lots of bang for the buck.
Before you even think of trying Mozy you better read the threads associated with connection error 4 on the Mozy forum website http://community.mozy.com/t5/Mozy-for-Windows/ConnectionError4/td-p/382/page/4.
This is an ongoing Major issue that prevents backups from happening and it does not seam that Mozy is doing anything about it. At least they are not letting the users know what they are doing to resolve the issues. I have one of our data servers that has not backed up on over 12 days now. This has happened before, 3 times this year and each time Mozy tech support has given me a different answer to temporarily fix the issue. This time none of their answers worked and I am seriously looking at another on-line backup solution.
I tried Mozy and had to cancel my account. The software never kept track of the files already uploaded. So everytime a scheduled backup starded, it uploaded everything all over, as in the first time. Support tried to fix it for a couple of weeks until I gave up.
How long does it take to back up?
For a typical system on a typical broadband line, and if you continue working on your computer during the backup, Mozy backs up data at the rate of about 2-4 GB per day. If left undisturbed on a fast connection, however, you can back up over 9 GB in a single day.
Ridiculous! 2-4 GB per day, I just have around 18GB to backup and it will take around 6 days to backup all my files, I started to use Mozy yesterday ’cause I’m moving out and I’m not taking the computer with me… well I realize that this backup service won’t really work for me for long-term. Meaning that I need to buy a need laptop so soon as I can. Terrible!
I believe that mozy are the leader in online backup. As you wrote this per 2008 my question. Are they still the best in your opinion/ research?
-Brian
Safecopy bakup is better for me.And am so happy that my free unlimitd trial version has been upgraded to 5GB and my space too from 150GB to 200GB.This is so great.
Well safecopy backup should also be included because the services are also wonderful.
I luse http://www.safecopy.com
Does anyone know how Mozy handles SQL DB’s. We create about 30GB of SQL transaction logs per day. How does this relate to the amount of data that would be sent over the wire? The DB’s total over 400GB so the initial sync would take weeks. Is Mozy or any online backup even a option?
Does anyone know anything about http://www.adrive.com online data backup. Like how do there service compare to like mozy or SugarSync
Hi, I found a good online storage service. It offers a lot of cool features like automatic backup and made a virtual hard drive on your computer. Its very simple to use to backup and share your data with people i want with an easy users pannel. This is the adress : http://www.stocklii.com/en. Its up to you to checkout and save money and headaches causing by recovering lost data
Mozy gives you pricing. Itronis does not, and most others are equally “coy” about telling you their pricing. For that reason alone we have chosen Mozy Pro
I have been using iDrive and its the best and convenient way to keep data safe.No matter what amount of data including pictures and videos the most,it back ups data much faster.
Moxy Pro would bankrupt me. $0.5/Gb a month. 100 GB is $50 a month! No thanks.
Switched from Mozy Pro to IDrive. Never looked back. I have roughly 120GB of data which consists of pictures (Large RAW files), and applications I write (large install files and compiled data). Flawless. Oh, and they keep VERSIONS seemingly forever (that’s not included in your total either). You will have to manually ‘synch’ to delete files however if you want to free up space, and this will get rid of your ‘version history as well’ – unfortunately. But nothing is perfect, but this is as close as it’s come.
I love and prefer Safecopy backup.Thanks for the post.
I have one main question, was this review written with home user or business user in mind? I agree that Mozy is a great product for home users however, when I’ve tested it for business use, the delays in retrieving files in an understandable and usable format are simply not good enough for such a requirement. Their support has been criticised by many who have found them poor in their hour of need.
I couldn’t agree more with Richard, you could also try entering ‘service issues’ or ‘restoring files’ along with the service name and see what you find. Independent reviews or situations shouldn’t necessarily change your mind but rather prompt you to choose with caution. Few solutions are 100% perfect, which is why you must choose who has the best team of individuals supporting the product. At the end of the day, if you find yourself out of your depth, who will be there to help you out?
Just a thought.. Jennifer
For a best in class product you may want to look at BackupTask.com with competitive features no limits on transfer speeds and some of the most powerful featers and options available.
Both Mozy and iDrive are good online backup services.Well but i prefer Safecopy backup instead because they are cost effective and so reliable.
You are doing a good job of providing evaluation of the best online backup service in the market. I hope you can update this blog then we can keep up with the additional features of the mentioned providers or know more of the new ones.
Mozy home has the absolute worst customer service i have ever expereinced. My computer crashed about 3 months ago and i have been trying to recover my data ever since. I have not been able to speak to a person only chat online with some idiot that i have to explain my situation to from the beginning every time. My case has been elevated to level 2 and level 3 support but its been 2 weeks with L3 support and still no response or resolution.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND any of the mozy products, they truely suck!
I totally agree that Mozy has the WORST service in the world! What a nightmare. God forbid you actually have to try to recover your data. It’s like the DMV and the IRS combined! Terrible
Safecopy backup is better for me.They offer affordable services and the 3GB trial version they offer never expires.I love Safecopy Backup.
one of the biggest limitations of these backup services is that they are not actually storage services.
that means that mozy & carbonite will DELETE their copy of your files fom their cloud when you delete your copy of these files from your local computer!
(there is a token 30-day grace period for restoring your files from a catastrophic failure on your local machine — but that’s it!)
this severe limitation in data retention policy (not to mention the scam of denying access to your iLife files that are stored on an external drive) makes both of these services so inflexible as to be basically useless.
FAIL.
We have been using onlinestoragesolution.com for the past year for our backup / storage needs without any problems. Very fast network and great support so far.
My best online backup solution is called Safecopy backup.Where by for only $50 a year,one uses 200GB with a free unlimited 3GB trial version for life.
I’ve just signed up with InstantComputerBackup.com and they are brilliant!! I would recommend them to anyone. I have used Mozy Pro but I found it quite fiddly, it is not a patch on Instant Computer Backup, these guys make it really simple!
I would unhesitatingly discourage anyone from having anything to do with Mozy. I have just spent a week reassembling and reconstructing what I thought would have been a straightforward restore.
First of all, Mozy somehow scrambled all of profile and many important data files from Thunderbird so that I could not restore any of the settings. Three different technicians told me it was a complete mess and I would do better with a clean start.
The people at Mozy knew squat about, and cared even less about, Thunderbird.
Next came the biggest disaster. I had about 12Gigs of photos, some of which were the results of two years’ painstaking scanning and retouching of old slides and negs. Mozy’s backup scrambled up all the folders and many of the files were useless.
Fortunately I had another backup and I was able to piece things together from that.
I wouldn’t touch Mozy again if you paid me. If you do use Mozy, the first thing you should do upon the backup finishing, is do a test restore and check it carefully. Caveat emptor.
I use BloxOnline from Snapblox.com its cheap and secure for my server as the other players wanted to change me per server per gig, snapblox is per gig on unlimited number of pcs/servers, also has a great add-on for sql and exchange.
Yes indeed the IDrive’s desktop utility is a nightmare!
Not just that it’s slow, it has a major design flaw.
Once you have set up your local folder to be continuously backed up, you can’t really move that folder elsewhere.
For example, you have a folder C:\Photos and it’s being continuously backed up by the IDrive utility. Once you move this local folder, let’s say to D:\Photos and Videos/Photos and set it to be continuously backed up, the IDrive will not recognize it as the same folder, it’ll start backing it up as a new folder, duplicating the already backed up one from the old (C:\Photos) location.
Instead, there should be an option to map the remote and local folders/locations, so moving a folder locally does not become a problem.
I have been using ElephantDrive and am NOT happy with them or the service. The user interface is severely lacking and while they say you can remotely access files, it does not work properly. I would not recommend this service to anyone.
Safecopy works better.And they are cost effective.
MyOtherDrive.com costs to much for a gig or more of data. Mozy Pro also costs by the gig where Carbonite, Backblaze are unlimited data.
I want an unlimited data plan that can handle terabytes of data fast and efficiently. I tried Backblaze but the upload speed is to slow. Anyone know of an online backup that can do terabytes of data quickly and is an unlimited plan which means I pay a flat fee only?
For a best in class product you may want to look at BackupTask.com with competitive features no limits on transfer speeds and some of the most powerful features and options available.
All you guys should check http://www.onlinefilefolder.com from Godaddy. I am using it for last one year. It give 100Gb for $24/year and have file backup and file sync, sharing folders, online upload, etc.
Also check Trendmicro's http://www.safesync.com that gives unlimited backup and sync and share for just $60/year.
all you guys out there talking about safecopy.com, idrive.com drivehq.com, ibackup.com, mozy.com, carbonite.com, dropbox.com, sugarsync.com, myotherdrive.com, etc… all these companies charge exorbitant monthy fee and half of them disapper after 3-4 years. Some of them dont have good web file managers. They dont have file and folder sharing and collaborations, many dont have desktop clients for mac and pc, etc..
my suggestions is to stick to big shot company who has already acquired these small fish… Trendmicro, Godaddy, symantic, norton, microsoft live mesh, etc.. they have already got small companies acquired. they offer backup at cheap price.
All the best.
Well Mozy just capped their storage limits … SIGH. BTW if you are an IEEE member, you get 18% off … thought to mention. Still a good deal.
A Good review – there are a few recent changes though:
You get 5GB of space with the FREE version, but now there is no restriction to the number of computers you can sync/backup (from 2).
It gives you the ability to upload and sync any folder on your computer.
It is the only service that offers such a broad device and OS support with apps for iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry, Symbian and WinMo.
On the Free version the upload/download is faster than when reviewed 🙂
Also if you use the below referral code you get 500MB extra on top of the Free 5GB or 10GB extra on any of the paid-for services!
https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=byowz8gkqiyv
Hope it helps someone.
Hi Lauren thanks for sharing that i take Safecopy backup too.Mozy's change of price and removal of unlimited backup have made me switch to Safecopy backup i realised that with this online backup,i can backup more than one computer on a single account.
If you are looking for an online backup service that is both personal and business specific i.e. giving your greater functionality and protection, it is worth checking out the services offered by SecurusVault. They supply multiple technologies from world leading vendors.
I’m surprised that i didn’t see Backblaze mentioned anywhere, i’ve used it for ~ half a year now and have >2TB backed up (out of an unlimited amount) all for $50 a year.
you should check it out.
Does anyone let you keep backups more than 30 days? I’m used to keeping a once-a-month set for 12 months, in addition to nightly.
Hi Albert, we at Backup Direct might be able to help you as we’ve a range of solutions with varying lengths of retention. If you are based in the UK and would like to get in touch, our solution experts are available on 0800 0789 437. If you’re not, then please let me know and I’d be more than happy to point you in the right direction to help you find the best solution for your needs! Jen
I think i will say that i prefer Safecopy to Mozy because of very many reason.But they are all great backup softwares.
Is online backup service Bugs-free? will it give Protection for personal as well as business pupose?what are the advantage of backup online?let me know please?Is it costly?
I think iDrive is better and i have used it for now two years.I’m also hearing about an online backup system called Safecopy and i think i should give it a spin and then see how it works
Check out MiMedia (www.mimedia.com). More than just backup, instant access to your digital life from any connected device….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVOquldmUXE
I have used Mozy on my Macs for several years until version 2.1 came out. There is now one huge bug which leaves the the user’s hard drive continuously thrashing while failing to complete any backups. There are numerous unanswered messages regarding this problem on their support portal. This and the changed pricing structure has me looking elsewhere.
Yes, Mozy modified their unlimited plan & I am getting out once my subscription is over! Have tried SugarSync & it seems user friendly. Anyone interested in giving it a try, use the referral link below to get an additional 500MB, on top of the free 5GB.
https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=fdpno03dwgzmo
– LH
To compare some of the big players like Dropbox, Mozy, SugarSync etc, etc, is properly like compare BMW, Mercedes and Audi against each other!
None of them are bad and all have their strong and some weak points.
I’m using SugarSync, and I’m very happy with that.
The only “but” I have found so far is the need for an PAUSE button.
I’m living in a 3.world country were the bandwidth often is very slow during the day and then picks up a bit in the evening and night.
Here it would be very convenient with an PAUSE option. However SugarSync has promised to add this function soon.
Right now I have to close the program when the bandwidth is slow, which is somehow unpractical.
Another option by SugarSync is that you are able to adjust the upload speed if your bandwidth is slow (by me it is so slow, that this is not even an option).
I think program developer sometimes forget that there is a huge marked waiting in 3.world countries, if they just would remember the special requirement we have.
When we have to choose a program one of the things we always look into is how it performs with fluctuating bandwidth and with frequent interruption of the connection in the middle of an op-/download.
So far SugarSync has performed well under these conditions!
Another winning factor for me was the free 5GB storage, where most other providers only gives 2GB.
So from my side “Thumbs Up” for SugarSync
Right now SugarSync is running an promotion that gives you double bonus if you sign up from an referral link..
If you want to sign up, use below referral code.
We will then both get 500MB extra if you sign up for the Free 5GB or 10GB extra on any of the paid-for services!
https://www.sugarsync.com/referral?rf=fijafg792ozzo
Australian small business should also consider if servers used for backup are located on the Australian continent because the law relating to privacy may not apply.
Our company tested and compared the top online backup services (Mozy, iDrive, SugarSync, Carbonite, Elephant Drive, etc). Our only issue with Mozy is the lack of phone support for their Home plans. It’s a great service, but if you don’t need all the functionality of a Professional Plan, and want to save money (you get 50GB of backup for $6/ month for the personal plan- that much backup space would be $400/ month with the Pro Plan), it’s too bad you can’t get phone help if you need it. Here is our comparison grid and reviews: online-backup.choosewhat.com
The only service offering unlimited backup any more is LiveDrive, but it’s quite expensive. But you can get it cheaper at http://www.lushbackup.com . They offer unlimited backup for £2 a month!! And you can stream you music from the internet to any computer/iphone. Not sure what the big deal is with google music when you can do it using your online backup.
I have only one PC and I need online backup for home finances, photos and music. Who should I use?
@Bob
Use either ElephantDrive or Mozy. Neither are the cheapest, both are better products than the bargain basement offerings.
Check out SafeCopy backup if not Dropbox.They are great online backups services.With SafeCopy ,one is allowed to backup more than one computer on a single account and they are cost effective and so efficient.
Everyone should consider security of your data in the cloud like data encryption, en-route to and at rest the cloud. Find out who owns the encryption keys, could an employee of the company access your data? Additionally, consider the company ‘s ability to maintain business, as free isn’t sustainable and unlimited isn’t really unlimited. Where is your data being stored, maybe in some country without privacy laws (reference my earlier statement about employee access to the data)? The idiom “too good to be true” should apply to your online backup vendor as it would in any business case. You need to get answers to these questions because your data is important, that’s why your paying to keep it safe in a secondary location off-site (you should also backup locally for faster recovery). Take an example with Mozy, it isn’t the lowest cost solution and may not have all of the file sharing features of other cloud solutions, but it is owned by a leading provider of storage solutions. And to Mozy’s credit, they have continued to address technical issues and add features like multiple PC backup plans and mobile access.
I recommend http://www.iozeta.com/. I use it at home to back up my personal files which contains such important memories that time could never replace. I just wanted to share to everybody how lucky I am to have chosen this back up company.
Discover a whole new way to store backup online. The security of your valuable business and personnel information is the Number One priority at DocLocker. That is why we built the system from the ground up over many years, engaging security testing with some of the most advanced online threat laboratories in the world.
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Have a look at http://www.beecloud.eu. They are a livedrive reseller and offer the backup option (512Gb) for FREE. They are dedicated in helping users to take solid good backups.
I vote for Iozeta online backup. I’m using it and it is great.
Its interesting to read the comments about the products like Mozy not being considered to be ‘Bargin Basement’ products.
Surely the key to a successful backup solution, is not just the software being used, but also the hardware that the data is being stored on? For the cost of most of nearly all the products mentioned in this thread, surely the quality of their back end systems has to come into question?
I know there is certainly a trade off between the cost and the quality of a backup solution, but when a company is offering X 100’s of GB of free backup, it must question weather that solution is one that can be used to protect critical business data.
For me with having just 1MBPS upload online backup can never be a solution.
Why would you say that Aryan?
Some software is WAN optimised to ensure that users can backup over small upload speeds.
For example only sending block level changes to files, de-duplication and compression.
We have used both Mozy and Intronis and all I can say is that Intronis is unquestionably the better choice. There are two major ways Intronis beats Mozy. The first is that this article refers to backup uploads, not restores. Mozy (this may have changed) use to send you a ZIP file link via email that you would download. This process (of receiving the email) took on two occasions more than 3 days!!!!! Can you really wait that long to get your data back? The second is with Support. Intronis’ wait time is about 30second. I have sat with mozy waiting more than 10 minutes to talk to someone – who then had to escalate me to higher support (more waiting!). Backup is the most important add-on you can select for your company. If saving a few bucks is the way you want to get – you will get what you pay for, and probably get burned for it down the line.
Intronis might be good, but I would never buy anything from a company that has a “Try now” button and no price list. These are deceptive business practices that I will never support. Also, why would I invest time trying out a product that I might not afford (or not want to pay for)? This is self-destruction.
Has anyone heard of JustCloud as an online backup service? I recently subscribed to this service & received very nice emails from the co-founder & then another from Jamie my “Personal Account Manager”. I’ve had some questions with the backup wondering if its working properly, one being why has my progress bar been sitting at 92.6% for the last 2 days? I’ve sent several emails to both Jamie & the Help Center none of which have been answered. What do I do?
I would recommend against using Carbonite. I lost thousands of videos of my young kids. I had my video files inside of subfolders and even though I had selected the main directory to be backed up and chose the .mpg file format for backup some of the directories backed up and others did not. The only explanation Carbonite could come up with was to say that I chose each file individually which I did NOT individually select serveral thousands files for backup. So be warned.
i have the Zenok Backup Online service two years ago and is good .. recommend.
It is a very good business solution. We are satisfied with Mozy Pro options for basic backup needs. It is not the cheapest but affordable. It is interesting to read the user reviews.
I just wanted to say you should also mention Monster Cloud here. I have been really happy with their service and their support is great.
It’s a great price and service. google Monster Cloud.
I wonder if you tried Nitrobackup.com
http://www.nitrobackup.com
Unlimited backup for 2 computers for a few bucks a month.
Other sites don’t really do unlimited or they throttle you after 100Gb
Hi, online backup services are a great help for small businesses like I do have. Nevertheless, I have a hard time convincing my friends to go online backup because they are not too sure if it’s secure. This article of yours just do that. Thanks. I’m gonna share this with them.
Justcloud it’s just a scam, they change their pricing constantly so you don’t stop paying them, after paying 100$ in 6 months I’m going to look for another service
I have used Idrive, not the others and can vouch for them, they are amazing.
Online backup service with free trial is also a good option.