Mozy vs. Carbonite: Mac Backup Smackdown
If you look at the amount of advertising out there these days, you’d think the Mac vs. PC war is a mere slap fight compared to the war being raged for your data backups. They want your data, and they want it now!
In one corner you have Mozy, which shares corporate DNA with former Mac backup champion, Retrospect. In the other corner is Carbonite, which began supporting the Mac this year. Mozy had almost a 2-year head start on Carbonite, but the software race doesn’t always go to the first one out of the gate. I gave both products an intense 3-month test. Which one deserves your data? Read on.
Round One: Staying Power
I wouldn’t trust my data to a brand-new company that could go out of business when I need my data (X-Drive, anyone?). Carbonite and Mozy are both well established. Of the two, Carbonite has the better name recognition, referencing Han Solo’s preservation in the “Star Wars” series. But Carbonite also seems to attract bad press like the Millennium Falcon attracted mynocks.
A server failure in 2007 lead to quite a few lawsuits, but according to Carbonite, no data was lost. Additionally, Carbonite was caught using “the Force” to influence reviews on Amazon — and by the Force I mean its employees. Carbonite uses Rush Limbaugh as a spokesperson, and you can’t get more controversial than Rush. However, Mozy has the “Mozy gal,” who has almost as high a following as Deltalina. This is a tough choice, and we’ll call Round One a draw.
Round Two: Setup and Installation
Carbonite cleans Mozy’s clock in software design. For reference, both Mozy and Carbonite require Tiger, but Carbonite is Intel only.
Both programs have assistants that automatically pick your critical data, as well as let you manually decide what to back up and how much bandwidth to use. Because these programs upload large amounts of data, the average system could take weeks to back up. Neither program will back up external media. Mozy claims it does, but if you detach it, it forgets the configuration. Carbonite flat-out refuses to back up externals. If you keep critical files, such as iTunes or iPhoto libraries, on something besides your main boot drive, neither product will back it up reliably.
Mozy is a background program that can easily be quit, reconfigured or uninstalled without asking for an Administrator password. Like the Death Star, one well-placed shot, or mouse click, renders this program useless. On the other hand, Carbonite runs as a daemon, requiring Administrator approval to change or quit. Mozy allows you to back up other users, but doesn’t always run when switching users.
Dare I say that Mozy operates like a clumsy blaster and Carbonite is the elegant light saber? The clear winner in this round is Carbonite. If you have more than one user account on your system, it’s time to go home, because Carbonite has won.
Round Three: Restoration
Carbonite takes a blow to the chin in this category. Both services offer a web-based restore program, not requiring installation of their software. Unfortunately, Carbonite does not handle Mac OS packages well, so I could not restore OmniOutliner and Keynote data files via its web site, since its software saw them as folders rather then files.
However, Carbonite restored those files properly after installing the client software. Unfortunately, after installing the client software for either product on the restoring computer, the services got confused and stopped backing up my old computer.
The process for restoring Mozy is a bit more complex. Mozy has you choose the files to restore, and emails you when they’re “ready.” The prep for a 6GB file took about an hour. Mozy also allows you to order a DVD of your files at a rather hefty price of 50 cents a gigabyte, plus a processing fee of $29.95 and a next-day shipping charge of $40.
Neither company wins this round: restoration isn’t easy or efficient. Both programs, go back into your corners and make this process easier for subscribers.
Round Four: Support
Neither company includes phone support, but Carbonite allows you to purchase it for $19.95 a year and Mozy provides it with their “Pro” package. I tested support via free online chat sessions. Of the multiple times I contacted support for both real and made-up problems, both companies failed to provide quality tech support folks that could understand the most basic of questions.
Emailing questions was equally frustrating. I consistently received conflicting and contradictory information. This is very scary when we’re talking about backups. Carbonite annoyed me more because their reps would reference instructions they were going to email me, trying to quickly close the chat. Neither company wins this round and both deserve an upper cut for lousy tech support.
Round Five: Security
Mozy, how could you let your guard down? Its software, when used properly, has all your critical and very personal data stored on its servers. When resetting your password, no security questions are asked. All you need is access to someone’s email and you can quickly and easily reset the Mozy password on an account. Email accounts can be hacked and if all you need is someone’s email password to get into any file on their computer, well, that’s a foul stench even Princess Leia can smell from across the galaxy.
Carbonite forces you to answer a series of personal questions before it’ll let you reset, and not the standard biographical info you can find on the web about anyone. The clear winner in this security round is Carbonite.
Round Six: Cost
Both Carbonite and Mozy have limited trial versions, but these tests were done with the full versions. Mozy offers a multitiered plan of 2GB of backup for home users for free. Unlimited backups for home users are $4.95 per month (though 20 percent off codes are easy to find). Business users of the Pro version pay $3.95 a month plus 50 cents per GB. Carbonite is simpler at $54.95 a year for everyone ($4.58 a month, for those without calculators). Carbonite is less expensive, but Mozy does offer the free version. We’ll score this round a draw.
The Winner
Overall, there’s no clear winner in this fight. If you have multiple users on your computer, Carbonite wins by default because it easily backups all accounts and prevents others from tampering. Additionally, if security is of high concern, then Carbonite is also the winner due to Mozy’s terrible security practices. However, if you have exclusive control of your email and don’t have multiple people using your Mac, then Mozy might be the better choice since it has the friendlier pricing plans. Who wins? I’ll leave that up to you to let me know in the comments, and/or with your wallet.
But wait, a new contender approaches the ring! New to the scene is Internet darling BackBlaze. The winner of the Mozy vs. Carbonite bout will go on to fight BackBlaze in a further review, coming soon. Make your predictions now.
Tweet This (24)
Tim on July 16th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I think backing up external drives is important, and Backblaze claims to do just that at the same price as Mozy and Carbonite.
Any good or bad experiences out there?
https://www.backblaze.com/
Jon Henshaw on July 17th, 2009 at 7:43 am
I used Mozy for quite some time until Backblaze came out. While I thought Mozy did the job, Backblaze was much better. As I wrote here:
“Mozy throttles your upload connection, uses an unreasonable amount of resources, and can occasionally get in your face with application messages. On the other hand, Backblaze allows you to upload your files as fast as your connection will allow, appears to leave a very small footprint on your computer when it’s running, and runs completely in the background (I have yet to see a message pop up from it.)”
I couldn’t recommend Backblaze more. It just works, stays out of my face, and doesn’t use up too many resources. I’m looking forward to your next smackdown.
ken MacDonald on August 4th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I don’t know why, but carbonite keeps going belly up on me, and has worked only a few weeks out of the few months i’ve been a subscriber. Free tech support by email is just like the article says: lousy. Let’s make that with a capital L: Lousy. It’s been longer than two weeks since my service went south, and about every third day i get another email asking for more information, but no fix to try so far. To be fair, it seems to be working on two other computers here.
Dave on July 16th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
i was told Safecopy was better than both of these two and at $50 a year for 150 GB seems fair enough
Adam on July 16th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I like Mozy personally. Never had a single problem with it, its affordable, and even the FREE version works really great!
Catmanrog on July 16th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
None of this stuff. Why go nuts with backups when there is Superduper, that really works ?
Brandon on July 16th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
My vote is for elephantdrive – I like the web interface better and it uses Amazon S3 so I feel good about the storage.
MrMojo on July 16th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
@ Catmanrog:
Backing up your data using one of these services is an excellent way to keep your data safe in the case of theft of your computer/external drives and a disaster such as a fire. Keeping irreplaceable data in one physical location is not a very good idea…
As far as Carbonite goes: any company that hires Rush Limbaugh as its spokesman is out of the running as far as I am concerned. Thanks for the heads-up!
piratemacfan on July 17th, 2009 at 5:27 am
It’s a wash. Any company that hires Rush Limbaugh as its spokesman gets a head start as far when I start evaluating, as far as I am concerned. Cheers!
piratemacfan on July 17th, 2009 at 5:35 am
Oops. My cut and paste effort fell short. I’ll try again:
It’s a wash. Any company that hires Rush Limbaugh as its spokesman gets a head start when I start evaluating, as far as I am concerned.
BTW-helpful article. Giving both Carbonite and Mozy a trial. Carbonite does seem a bit easier to use. However, how to evaluate reliability in an emergency? That’s the crux of the issue.
Mario on August 10th, 2009 at 6:33 am
Another vote for Carbonite – especially with Rush’s endorsment.
George Worley on November 1st, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Carbinite is out of the running because they failed to backup my external drives When I complained, they said it was by design and I need to move everything to the internal hard drive…. Well that is kind of hard since I have 100 GB internal hard drive and a 500 GB external HD with about 300 GB of music on it. Mozy is very slow. Elephant is too costly plus will not backup my INBOX as it is over 2 GB on three acounts.
Paul Blackman on November 11th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Sorry, your comments loose all credibility when you base your opinion on who advertises the product. Stick to the facts related to the product and maybe I will believe you.
I have used Carbonite for over a year and found it to be great.
Ben T. on November 12th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Blind hate is a cruel master. What does a company’s choice of advertising have on the usefulness of its product?
Ian on July 16th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Recently, I was evaluating all online backup solutions.
In the end, I decided on Jungle Disk as I have 3 computers to backup plus a percentage of an external drive.
As such, Jungle Disk was the cheapest – however, you do pay by the GB. Currently I pay $9USD / month (60GB) to have all three computers backed up to my satisfaction.
FWIW, I also use Time Machine on all three computers so the off site backup is a redundancy.
Howie Isaacks on July 16th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Very good info. What I would like to find is a good, Mac compatible enterprise class online backup solution. What lot of people are unaware of is that if they have hundreds of gigabytes of data, or terabytes, these solutions may not be appropriate, and they need lots of bandwidth. I’m currently researching a good online backup solution for one of my customers in Dallas.
fitzage on July 16th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I tried out Mozy and it was doing OK, but then it started getting really sluggish. This was after it decided one day to make me run the setup assistant again. Not good.
So now I’m still attempting my first backup with Backblaze. It actually lets me use the insane bandwidth I have here at work, and as a result is almost 2/3 of the way through my initial upload after about 3 days, where Mozy only made it halfway after more than a week.
Also, when I tell Backblaze to pause, it does so almost immediately. Mozy took a long time and then a long time to get started again. So far, I’m much more impressed with Backblaze.
Jim Reardon on July 16th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
I can’t get mozy to work — and I’ve had 3 open tickets that haven’t been responded to in just about a month now (despite many people saying they’d get it escalated past their first-line outsourced tech support).
I can’t backup (worse still — it claimed my system backups were running but it was backing nothing up), it consumed tons of resources (90% cpu. When idle. 3 GB RAM, also when idle), and I also can’t restore what I did manage to back up (the website freezes on the spinner).
I haven’t tried carbonite — there were already some bad reviews out there so I took a pass.
I signed up for backblaze which uses only a small pittance of my resources, has been backing up flawlessly, and has MUCH BETTER support (it’s downright impressive how good they are).
There are some limitations: no backing up files >4 GB, won’t back up certain folders (like /Applications), but it WILL backup any external hard drives you have.
Dalton on July 16th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I have been using Backblaze for 6 months and have had a very good experience with it. I am currently backing up about 350GB. It was easy to set up, runs quietly in the background and doesn’t slow down my machine. It is covering my main hard drive as well as an external drive. I haven’t had to do a restore yet, thank goodness, but the options for restore seem very reasonable and efficient. (Backups are delivered as a download, a DVD, or in extreme cases on an external drive).
I am quite happy with the service so far and am curious to see how it fares in your tests.
Rob Dewhirst on July 16th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
I have been using jungledisk for a little under a month now. It’s slow but cheap. It also has supported all three major platforms since day 1 and continues to do so. With rackspace cloud storage there is no data transfer fee at all.
Of course, I don’t use their software for backup. I use rsync.
Tom on July 16th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Great Mac based writeup, thanks! I’ve been watching the same solutions, and Backblaze.
During my research, I located http://www.onlinefilebackupreport.com and they did a review of each. Mozy, Carbonite and Backblaze. They talk about the features across the two, and like your review, some of the company information as well. While you review was usage based, which I like, theirs is a feature by feature report on each product, and it’s pretty detailed.
What’s cool is that they even talk about other services for file archiving, since you rightly point out in your article that if its and external device backup, and you remove the device, the backup service loses the configuration, or they simply think you no longer need those files and so they will delete them after 30 days or whatever.
In the end, I was not happy with any “one” product. I’m using multiple services now for backup and archive service. I’m also getting file syncing as a benefit, across multiple platforms including mobile. Thanks again for the write up- can’t wait to see your review for Backblaze too.
Hanoch on July 16th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
“Carbonite uses Rush Limbaugh as a spokesperson, and you can’t get more controversial than Rush.”
Is it me, or does anyone else smell a liberal around here?
Chris A on July 17th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Rush is controversial.
That is a fact.
So is (insert the name of your most hated liberal radio host).
Jpear on August 30th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I would NOT purchase or use Carbonite for free just because they use Limbaugh as an endorser! What pompous ass!
FrankA on August 31st, 2009 at 9:25 am
You don’t have to be a liberal to recognize Rush Limbaugh for what he is. A pompous hate-spewing asshat. And that is reason enough for me to go with Mozy over Carbonite.
Jon Henshaw on August 31st, 2009 at 9:32 am
LMAO! I believe Backblaze is an independent or possibly part of the Green or Libertarian party. Either way, it’s the best choice of the three in my opinion.
Nick Onken on July 16th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I’ve been using JungleDisk for 4 months now and it’s been great. I purposely chose it over these two because I felt much safer with Amazon.
Bob Smith on July 17th, 2009 at 1:05 am
It’s very noticeable that storage charges haven’t been dropping nearly as fast as storage density is increasing. S3 still charges $0.15/GB, the same as a couple of years ago. That makes them quite expensive for larger backups.
Any good solutions for a TB or 2? Putting aside upload times, which would run into weeks of runtime depending on your uplink speed, I’m not sure Mozy or Carbonite would let you do it. You’d be talking $150/month/TB with S3 or Rackspace just for storage. It would be cheaper to co-locate a custom box (I’m thinking Solaris 10 with a RAIDZ2 array) than to use their service. If you don’t care about data integrity, colocate a Mini with an attached external drive.
With rackspace cloud storage there is no data transfer fee at all.
Last I checked Rackspace had substantial bandwidth charges.
Ian on July 18th, 2009 at 3:59 am
Last I checked Rackspace had substantial bandwidth charges.
Nope, not with Jungle Disk.
Bob Smith on July 18th, 2009 at 8:53 am
I see your point about Jungle Disk and bandwidth charges, though Jungle Disk’s monthly fee is arguably prepaid bandwidth. Still, the real problem with S3 and Rackspace is storage costs, which are way too high if you have storage needs greater than a flash drive.
James on July 17th, 2009 at 2:23 am
This seems to be OK with administrative work but when it comes to Freelance or Agency ‘Design’ the amount of data is in the TerraBytes range and these solutions (across the internet) are, and will always be, impractical.
doug jones on October 23rd, 2009 at 7:06 am
Many of the problems with managing large files via SaaS model solutions revolve around bandwidth limitations (especially on upload). Storage is extremely cheap – it is the access that is expensive. If you are looking to work a TB of files from a remote location as if it were on your local desktop you need a dedicated bandwidth connection 10 MB/s, 100 MB/s, etc. to the datacenter where your files are stored. But if what you are really looking to do is preserve 99% of the files and only access the most current files on a regular basis there are other solutions like manually delivering the files via removable/portable drives and then making them retrievable via the internet – existing bandwidth connections are often sufficient. Spansafe is a solution you may consider as we have several partnerships with bandwidth providers to offer affordable point-to-point options and a variety of solutions designed for transfer and access to large files.
V Manav on July 17th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Mozy interface put me off. So it was Carbonite. But they don’t have 2GB free account. I found IDrive offers it. How does IDrive compare? Any other (established company) that offers atleast 2GB free? Else I have to put up with Mozy :(
chac on July 17th, 2009 at 5:35 am
Anyone tried https://www.getdropbox.com ?
Jon Henshaw on July 17th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Dropbox is excellent, but it’s more for syncing and sharing files. This is how I use both Dropbox and Backblaze.
Online Backups Review on July 17th, 2009 at 6:25 am
In my eyes, Mozy is the clear winner. In fact, I think the only point I agree with you on is the lack of support from either company. I’ve written up a full reply to your post at http://www.onlinebackupsreview.com/blog/2009/07/mozy-vs-carbonite-on-theappleblog.html
Jake on July 17th, 2009 at 6:29 am
getdropbox.com does not back up your entire computer. It just backs up one folder. You can put anything in that folder you want though, which comes in handy with littlesnapper across multiple machines. :-)
Darrin on July 17th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I don’t see how anyone can think Mozy is a clear winner. Mozy is pretty mediocre. Carbonite is slightly better in my opinion mostly because it is more secure and seems more Mac-like. Both are better then nothing, though.
Jeff on July 17th, 2009 at 7:44 am
I’ve been a Mozy customer for several years now. I started out with it on my old PC and then moved over to the Mac version when I switched to a Mac. That being said, I’m not totally satisfied with Mozy for Mac. The feature set on the Mac client is inferior to the PC side (e.g., no way to ‘pause’ a backup or throttle it – this is a killer when it’s backing up a particular large set of data and I just want to jump online for a few minutes. All I can do is Stop the backup and, hopefully, remember to restart it).
Also, and this really stinks, the Mozy for Mac client will PREVENT your Mac from auto-sleeping. That is, if your Mac is set to sleep after nn minutes of inactivity, the Mozy client will simply disallow this behavior. When I contacted Mozy support about this (through multiple channels) I was told that this was in effect a ‘feature’, there was NO fix coming for this, and I could “always manually put my Mac to sleep”. Ugh.
Thanks for the article. Performance, customization and price is fine for me and I continue to use Mozy. I haven’t looked into switching and really there’s nothing in this article that overwhelmingly would push me towards Carbonite. For now I’ll just continue to work with Mozy’s shortcomings and hope they fix some of the issues and come to their senses regarding the sleep issue.
Joe Eversole on July 17th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Mozy is ultimately owned by EMC, one of (if not the) largest storage companies in the world. If you’re worried about your backup provider shutting down without warning, I’d imagine Mozy would be least likely to disappear in the middle of the night.
Mozy’s interface leaves a lot to be desired. Have you tried to exclude anything from backups (Virtual Machines in the Documents folder, for example)? I hope you have your Spotlight Programming guides handy…
If you’ve got terabytes of data, you’re going to be better off getting a large drive or two and getting a temperature controlled safety deposit box at your local bank to store them in.
Staff Comment Dave Greenbaum, TheAppleBlog on July 17th, 2009 at 10:23 am
If you read the link about “corporate” DNA mentioned it will take you to the FAQ which states
“Q: What is Decho and what does it mean for Mozy?
A: In November 2008, EMC announced that Mozy and Pi Corporation, another EMC acquisition, have combined to form Decho Corporation. Decho brings together two Internet services companies acquired by EMC. Making Decho an independent company will help accelerate our growth and increase our focus and ability to meet customer needs. Decho remains wholly owned by EMC and retains access to EMC resources and technology. Mozy is Decho’s flagship product, and the new company continues to invest heavily in Mozy’s online backup and recovery services.”
Translation. EMC is involved with Mozy, but retains the right to close Mozy without affecting the EMC brands. As they say “it is an independent company” Mozy is less stable IMHO that it was when EMC branded it under their name.
Matt Hargus on July 17th, 2009 at 8:37 am
I’ve used Mozy, Carbonite, and Backblaze, and I have to say that Backblaze is the clear winner for me. As others have posted, it does its job and stays out of the way, similar to how Time Machine functions. I haven’t tried the external drive backup feature, but for me it isn’t a make-or-break item.
Steven on July 17th, 2009 at 9:37 am
I used Mozy for 2 years relatively happy. Then I started realizing terrible performance on my new MacBookPro. I was concerned and figured it was Mozy so I uninstalled to test. It was Mozy that was bringing my system to a crawl. I started using Backblaze and found it to not peg my system at all noticeably unless using very bandwidth intense applications. Interface is smooth, cost is the same and now they offer backing up of external drives which is why I had Mozy in the first place. I highly recommend Backblaze. I have tested all the players and this has been the best by far.
S August on July 17th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Does anyone else have issues with Carbonite running the CPU at between 90-120% (sometimes even when idling)? I basically have to disable it while I work or else everything crawls.
I had tried Mozy, Backblaze, and Carbonite trials. Mozy couldn’t restore a few simple files in my testing without errors which scared me. Backblaze and Carbonite seemed like a draw function wise. However, I picked Carbonite because I liked the interface better and the price with coupon (20% off) was a deal. I just wish I would have noticed the CPU slow down before I bought the 3 year plan. Next time I won’t do this type of testing while on vacation so I’ll notice the slow down which is horrible.
Brian on July 17th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I follow both Mozy and Carbonite on twitter. They both are claiming that this review was misleading and dishonest. That must mean it was pretty fair and balanced :-)
Personally, I’m cool with Mozy’s security issues. I use Carbonite at work (more secure stuff) and mozy at home (if the world wants to see pictures of my kids, more power to them).
You might consider in the future doing a quick rundown of the pros and cons of each. Summarize so we can make a decision for ourselves.
BTW, Am I the only one that’s impressed that this review was even allowed despite the fact Mozy’;s ad appears to the side.
Matthew Dornquast on July 17th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I’m surprised you haven’t tried CrashPlan? We’ve been backing up longer on the Mac (2007) and have more features than either product mentioned.
Not only were we first to mac, we were first with web restore, and have better security and performance.
db on July 17th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Has anyone used http://memopal.com/en/default.aspx
Thanks !
ya on July 18th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I have tried Mozy, Crashplan, and Backblaze. Mozy was great for the PC, but when I switched over to mac years ago, their software for mac was still in beta and seemed a bit sluggish – especially as commenters have mentioned in stopping and generally slowing down the computer. I figured at the time it was because it was still in beta. So I switched over to Crashplan. Crashplan was absolutely great. No issues; robust feature setup for backup services. The only issues I had was that there was no unlimited plan for online backup and the cost to start online backup is a bit more. I switched over to Backblaze at the beginning of the year to test it out. Overall, I am marginally satisfied, but feel that its initial backup process is a bit slow (could be my connection, but it hasn’t changed between the three). Seems like I am continually trying to catch up to the current state of my backup set. Also, while both Crashplan and Backblaze run in the background, I prefer having backup features in System preferences and the menu bar which Backblaze does vs. Crashplan’s approach with a separate application. If Crashplan ever came out with an unlimited online backup option or something like 400-500gb option at a reasonable price or if I decide not to factor in its higher price point in its current offerings as part of my decision making process, I would probably consider switching back.
Aaron on July 18th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
“no clear winner” like I didn’t see that coming before I read the article
miguelpineiro on July 18th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Backblaze will win! :)
Adi on July 31st, 2009 at 8:42 am
Sorry I don believe dat
Carmine on July 20th, 2009 at 7:32 am
The “Mozy gal” is Justine Ezarik
Freddy on July 24th, 2009 at 1:38 am
Mozy Security issues?
Mozy only needs a valid e-mail address, and allows you to set your own password which has nothing to do with your e-mail password.
Mozy not backing up multiple users?
It sure does – just choose backup set and set it’s scope out for all users. No hassle there.
Mozy Restore?
You only tried the web restore. In client restore on Mozy is as easy as drag and drop baby! Select the file/folder you want and drag and drop it where you want it to go and done!
Mozy Promotional Code on July 25th, 2009 at 1:34 am
You talk about the Mozy option to order a DVD restore like it is the most expensive option in the world. If you just lost all your files, your family photos, your finacial documents that fee is nothing! I would gladly pay the 100 dollars or so to have the data shipped to me on DVD. At least Mozy offers the option. There has also been mention on the Mozy Twitter account that they will ship a hard drive restore instead of DVD’s.
Carbonite does not even give you the choice. Have problems with Carbonites web/client restore and you might as well kiss all your data goodbye.
Adi on July 31st, 2009 at 8:07 am
I believe Mozy wins. Its not the fastest but it is secure. I haven came across any data loss problem till date. :-) So far. So good.
MB on July 31st, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I found that Mozy restores don’t work as advertised on my Mac. I can’t do a client restore, and I can’t even get the Mozy application to work now. Their support is non-existent / incompetent.
I un-installed then re-installed Mozy but I just get an error when trying to run Mozy. Any ideas?
Thanks.
Adi on August 5th, 2009 at 6:30 am
Mozy have the latest version of MAC client released a day ago. It solved 150 bugs .. Mozy Rocks :)
Jon Henshaw on August 5th, 2009 at 7:31 am
Did Mozy fix the bug that throttles the upload speed for Home users? If not, then Backblaze is still the clear choice for me.
Adi on August 11th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Try the latest client released. Is that a MAC you are takin abt. ? :O
John Smith on August 11th, 2009 at 5:28 am
Did you guys tried Vaulten ? It seems to be quite good given that it is in some relation with IBM and seems to answer much of the irritating problems cited above ?
Oliver Aaltonen on August 11th, 2009 at 6:01 am
FYI, CrashPlan now offers unlimited online backups for a very reasonable rate (from $5/mo for 3 computers!)
Matthew Dornquast on August 11th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Actually, it’s $5/month for unlimited online backup for 1 to 10 computers in the family! If you have 3 computers, it’s half the cost of Mozy or Carbonite.
Kevin Altree on August 11th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Mozy SUCKS!
I recently got bit by Mozy’s restore feature. Since it doesn’t handle packages well, I was unable to restore my Quicken data file.
It’s free entry price is enticing – but you do get what you pay for…
Adi on August 11th, 2009 at 9:09 am
U might have goofed it up dude :)lol
Jeff on August 14th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Mozy and carbonite have a dirty little secret you should know about.
If you loose a file for any reason (deleted it, got corrupt, hard disk problem) Mozy/carbonite software will detect this and actually delete the file off its server.
This is no joke. It happened to me.
Mozy/Carbonite covers their ass because they give you 30 days to recover the file using their archive retrieval process.
But what if you didn’t know that your file got corrupt or you deleted it by accident? Well, too bad. Its gone on the 31st day.
This is just insane and not a backup strategy at all. It goes against everything a backup strategy is – to protect you from loosing data for ANY reason.
If you don’t believe me, go to this link from the mozy support site.
http://support.mozy.com/docs/en-user-home-win/faq/concepts/deletefile_markedforbackup_faq.html
“If you delete a document and then run a backup, Mozy assumes that you no longer need a backup copy of that document, and marks the file to be removed from our system. (We keep it on file for 30 days, just in case you change your mind.)”
Are you kidding me? Assumes? It’s on their website!!!
Bottom line – mozy/carbonite is not a backup strategy at all. Their business model is based on providing you little storage space as possible and deleting files off their servers as soon as they can. Not to mention it would take you up to 6 MONTHS to upload 500Gig of data. It’s a waste of your money. Buy an external HD (they are cheap) and bring it over a friends house to keep off-site.
Chris on November 1st, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I don’t think this is a problem at all, if it worked the way you’d like it to eventually more of your storage would be files you’ve deleted in the past years than ones you currently have on your computer and actually want to keep. If you don’t notice that you deleted a file then you need to pay more attention to what you’re doing in my opinion.
MrShermanOaks on August 16th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Carbonite has terrible feedback as to what its currently doing. It always says its backing up, even if the list of files waiting for backup never changes.
Other options are:
BackJack – expensive, but reliable and easy to use. Can back up external drives.
iDrive – Software is a little clumsy, but works OK. Can backup external drives. Supports multiple computers.
BackBlaze – no external drives, simple to use and configure.
Jim on August 17th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Backblaze will automatically back up any external drives. You just have to make sure you hook them up at least once a month.
MrShermanOaks on August 31st, 2009 at 9:59 am
Ugh, once again problems with Carbonite. I complained two weeks ago that it appeared the computer was never actually finishing backups and they assured me it all look right from their side. Exactly two weeks later I get an email that says I haven’t been backed up in two weeks. Their software is still 1.0.0 after all these months, as if they can’t find any bugs? Now I discover that the Carbonite control panel says it’s “disabled” and trying to enable it locks up the System Preferences. So far, Carbonite has performed at the bottom of the pack – even worst than Backblaze which nearly kills my whole internet connection no matter what bandwidth setting.
Hey Carbonite – the worst sin of a backup program is to leave you unsure if you’re computer is being backed up!
My feeling is that since many of these services require or encourage you to pay for a year’s service in advance, that they think they have you locked in and have some extra time to fix things. Anyone ever gotten a partial year refund from Carbonite?
Don Crossland on August 19th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
There’s also an up-and-comer in the arena. Nomadesk is a backup and sync service with local and online access with 256 bit encryption locally and online. You can’t get much more secure than that. There is also an iPhone enabled access site and they’ve announced plans for an iPhone app soon. It’s super easy to use and has unlimited storage with a basic plan. I’ve tried others but this one works the best for me.
Cara on August 21st, 2009 at 5:42 pm
I signed up for Carbonite and paid my money. I uploaded the software and started it running. (I am NOT a computer person, but I have a very successful on-line business.) Due to Carbonite’s markers on my desktop, I quickly saw that it just backed up my Windows-based files, but not my huge business database nor my huge jpg files.
So, I sent Carbonite a support request. At least four times. No response.
So, I sent Carbonite a refund request. At least ten times. No response.
Carbonite’s clever new television ads should say, “Carbonite backs up the Window-based files on your desktop. Any other files? You’re on your own. Carbonite will, however, make good use of your money.”
Carbonite for suckers.
Gregory on August 30th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
My wife and I both started with Mozy on the Mac. Hers never quite worked well (taking too many resources, etc.). Mine worked fine for over a year, and then started having problems. Contacting Technical Support was a nightmare.
So I switched her to Carbonite, and she’s been happy ever since. I switched after she had been successfully using it for over a month.
Unfortunately, for some reason on my Mac Carbonite takes 40 – 120 % CPU when idle! I tried reporting this to Carbonite technical support twice, but didn’t really get anywhere. When I asked for a refund, they gave me a further run around.
So I’m trying Back Blaze now and hope it will be better.
I can’t really recommend either Mozy or Carbonite.
John on September 8th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
In case anyone is looking for a really inexpensive alternative. Also, supports every platform…including all Linux, check out http://www.datastorageunit.com
Very simple concept…just an sftp server which allows you to use the sftp client of your choice. It’s only 2.99 a month for unlimited storage.
Greg on September 9th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Crashplan! I am very pleased with Crashplan. It’s not perfect, but I love that I can run it on Mac, Linux, Windows, and now even Solaris. And I like the file delta based backups and data deduplication. (on the Crashplan+ version) And yes, now they have unlimited online backup to Crashplan Central, but remember you can send your data to multiple destinations, locally (USB or LAN) or offsite to a friend for free, in addition to their Central servers.
Do these other systems use in-file delta backups? (like Rsync?) I don’t see that on the Carbonite site, nor on the Backblaze one. Have not looked at Mozy yet. Maybe they do but just don’t advertise it. It’s the main reason I chose Crashplan for myself and my clients. But also because I could stick a huge drive in a friends computer and send all my backups there for free, pre-seeded with my data too. Crashplan is also really easy to use and restore from. And I even use it on a couple servers to get their shared files offsite.
There is one thing I wish it did have though, backup sets. You can only make one backup set, and thats the main job that runs continuously, to as many destinations as you like.
Why when I see reviews, I don’t see much on Crashplan? To me, it looks better than Carbonite and Mozy, though I’ve not used either of the two so can’t say for sure. Anyway, Crashplan is worth a look, check it out.
Matthew Dornquast on September 9th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Check out the latest issue of MacWorld! They prefer CrashPlan over 7 other vendors including Mozy and Carbonite. Not sure why the apple blog didn’t include CrashPlan – it’s been available on the Mac far longer than Mozy or Carbonite.
http://www.macworld.com/article/142606/2009/09/online_backup.html
Raymond Spencer on September 10th, 2009 at 1:52 am
I have just switched to ‘www.BackupandShare.com’ for online backup. I am currently using a free version of BackupandShare.com and it is working just fine. I can take incremental backup either daily or weekly as per my schedule.
With Backupandshare.com windows mobile Backup solution, comes free. I can take backup of my windows mobile version for 5.0. I was looking out for a backup solution for 5.0 version and was not able to find one for taking online backups. This solution met my needs.
No wonder they are the latest topper in http://www.top10onlinebackup.com/ list.
teetotaler on September 10th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I’ve tried a few different services over the past year and so far have found these the best based on ease of use and reliability:
a) DropBox
- ‘Instant’ online backup
- Very ease to use and is reliable
- The files can be accessed online via their portal when I am traveling
- Only negative issue is that it comes with 2GB for free and upgrades are expensive.
b) Wuala
This is a whole new concept in online storage, need extra space but don’t want to pay for it? Then you can get online storage by sharing any extra disk space you have on your hard drive!
I use both and the combination has worked well for me.
Chet on September 11th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I wanted to mention egnyte and see if anyone has reviewed their product. From what I can see egnte has better features then mozy and carbonite. Looking for others comments…
Chris on September 11th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Egnyte is awesome. I did their demo and free trial and it seems like a great solution. A lot of positive reviews. I googled egnyte and it looks like they got $6mm in funding this year. They are great with PC, Mac, Netboooks and iphone.
http://www.egnyte.com/
Brian on September 27th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
in case anyone is looking for Windows only online backup, we have had great experience with NetCDP, absolutely care free after setup. We’ve tried many before we found it recently!
Brian on September 27th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
sorry, forgot to include the link
http://www.netcdp.com
Abraham Watts on September 28th, 2009 at 3:14 am
I had visited BackupandShare.com website and found the product interesting and useful.
Wayne Hamilton on October 1st, 2009 at 3:10 am
I have never used online backup service but now wish to try one, which is in affordable prize and reliable for my data. So with BackupandShare . com, can I say I am at the right place?
Abraham Watts on October 3rd, 2009 at 3:18 am
Currently I am using BackupandShare.com for my pc backup. It is a great service for personal use or people looking for inexpensive online backup. It is very simple to use with features like incremental automatic and scheduled backup. With them I am getting unlimited backup space and mobile access too. I don’t think other services are providing all these features.
AKPK on November 3rd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I use Amazon s3 for backing up my data. I first encrypt data using “truecrypt” and then upload data on amazon s3 using “cyberduck” [It is a mac client you can download from cyberduck.ch ..you can download bunch of free utilities for uploading/downloading data to/from amazon ].
It costs only few cents per month to use amazon s3 webservices. Private encryption of my files gives me peace of mind. I believe amazon will release some client of their own to upload/download files in future.
Khürt Williams on November 4th, 2009 at 11:58 am
JungleDisk is a Rackspace owned product/service that uses either Amazon S3 or RackSpace Cloud files for online storage AND backup.