Topic: online backup

Mozy: free (up to 2 GB) online backup service

I've been using Mozy for about a week, and highly recommend it. It's been quiet and automatic, only backing up when I'm not using my computer. It feels like the best online backup service I've used, and I've used quite a few.

One very cool thing is that it seems to run every 2 hours (as long as you're not using your computer). That could reduce the amount of stuff you lose when your computer dies, compared to other services that back up once a day.

Another cool thing is that it saves the last 30 days of changes to your files and makes them easy to access. Just right-click a file or folder and choose Restore, and it immediately shows all the different versions that have been backed up so you can copy the one you want.

Obviously, the first backup can take a long time, since it's all being sent over your Internet connection, so it's best to run it over a weekend. It now only takes a few minutes to back up the recent changes on my computer.

My only gripe is that opening the configuration window takes a long time. It looks like it's loading information on all the files you're backing up, which is understandable if you're making changes to that, but annoying when you just want to look at the settings.

Tip: if you want to stay below the 2 GB mark, try unchecking the "Music" box in the "Backup Sets" list that Mozy shows you before it first starts backing up. Of course, if you want the most free backup space, you might want to consider other services like www.xdrive.com, which have 5 GB of space.

P.S. If you want to back up more than 2 GB of stuff, it's a flat fee of $5/month for unlimited backup.

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