What is Mozy?

Mozy online backups is a simple and secure way to back up your important data on your PC. Online backups are different than the conventional pc software that automates backups to an alternate location on your PC or an external disk attached to your PC.

Mozy stores your data in a remote, secure location by way of an interface that you install on your PC to schedule and select specific files and folders where your important data is kept, this enables you to use the same interface to retrieve your data should your system ever crash or if you change systems.

Full list of features:

• Open/locked file support
• Block level incremental backups
• In-Client, In-Windows snapshot support
• Windows and MAC support
• 128-bit SSL encryption
• 448-bit Blowfish on-disk encryption
• AES private encryption support
• Automatic or scheduled backup

MozyHome Test/Review (Windows version)

1. Installation - Simple and well guided with specific prompts.

2. Initial Backup Configuration - Following the installation of the software the MozyHome Remote Backup Configuration Wizard comes on to begin setting up your automatic backups.

The first and one of the most important steps is the encryption method for securing your data. You have two choices here one is by using the recommended choice which is the MozyHome's 448-bit Blowfish key and the other is to use a personal 256-bit AES key, which is something you must provide yourself.

In the next step MozyHome scans and presents you with a pre-selected list of directories for you to begin backing up and shows the amount of space the selected folders will take up.

When you click next MozyHome performs a bandwidth test and shows the results, which if you're on high speed internet should be moderately fast, however on the next step you're given the option to make MozyHome faster by using a slider to give resource priority to backups.

The last step contains three more options, choose according to what you prefer to do at this time and click on finish to begin backing up.

3. The user interface - After the initial setup further configurations or changes can be made by opening the configuration wizard again from Start > Programs > MozyHome > MozyHome Configuration.

The user interface will give you the same file/folder selection options as you had during the initial backup setup, in addition to these you have a "File System" option where you can select from other local drives or storage devices.

The options tab gives you some addtitional configurations parameters such as the Scheduling feature where you have very important choices to make like following the "Automatic" parameters which depend on CPU usage, PC idle time and frequency. This can be handy but if you prefer to follow a specific backup date then use the "Scheduled" option where you specifically tell MozyHome when to start backing up regardless of CPU usage or idle time.

The performance tab is where you'll find the option to "Enable Bandwidth Throttle" with the choice of throttling all the time or during specific hours, which can be coordinated with the actual backup schedule.

4. Restore - To do restores you simply click on the restore tab and browse through the list of backed up files, select and click "restore", the interface gives you the option to either overwrite the file if it still exists and you're just trying to recover an earlier version or rename it if it already exists, you can also select an alternate location to restore your selected files by simply browsing.

5. Overall - This backup system works well enough, however it does seem to depend heavily on resources, and even though it does give the user the option to configure priority, if the backup must occur during normal PC operations it can take some time while Windows slows down a little during backups. Also if you do not have a high speed internet connection then this program may seem like a big hassle and hardly worth the time.

Outside of these dependencies, if you remain flexible when it comes to backing up your important data then you won't mind a little downtime while your data is encrypted and sent up the wire for safe keeping. If you're able to leave your system alone and push the throttle to the max then your backups will run faster and finish sooner, which is why it is more convenient to coordinate using the max throttle with a specific schedule. Data is successfully stored online and restored back to your PC when needed.

Supported Systems:

• Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000
• Mac OS X (10.4 and 10.5)
• Mac OS X Server (10.4 and 10.5)