Do You Know Where Your Files Are?

Let me cut to the chase: You ought to get online backup for your computers. There are many excuses for NOT getting it:

1. I do not have time.
2. I already have backup software.
3. I sync my files to an external hard drive.
4. I do not know where to start.

We can shoot down each of these excuses.

1. You will have lots of time for regret, if you do not use online backup. Signing up takes just a few minutes.
2. That is cool, but are you using it consistently? Even if you are, it is good to have an automated fail-over, especially if fire or theft were to destroy or remove your backups.
3. I like synchronization programs, too. They are great for duplicating files from one hard drive to another one, but they are no substitute for consistent, frequent backups.
4. I have looked at a lot of services, and I can recommend one: Mozy. (Note: If you read this page before January 1, 2009, then go here!)

Please click the link and check out what Mozy offers. For $5/month, you can rest easy, knowing that your files always are backed up off-site.

Important: You need an always-on, broadband connection to use Mozy. Do not even think about trying to use a dial-up connection for online backups. Also, the faster your upload speed, the faster your initial backup will go. You can do the arithmetic to predict how long this will take.

For example, suppose your broadband service has a 256Kbps maximum upload speed. That is 256,000 bits per second. Dividing by 8 bits in a byte, you get 32,000 bytes per second. Now, suppose you have 20 GB to back up. That is 20,000,000,000 bytes (using the “1,000” approach vs. the “1,024” approach, for the techies out there). Divide that by 32,000 bytes per second, and you get 625,000 seconds. Dividing by 3600 seconds in an hour, you get 173.6111 hours, which is equivalent to 7.23 days. In other words, expect that it will take you at least one week to back up your 20 GB of files with your “256Kbps up” broadband service.

Throw in the fact that you will not always reach the maximum upload speed, and you probably ought to expect your initial backup of 20 GB to take nine days. My real-world experience backing up 70 GB of precious digital photos and videos confirms this arithmetic.

You are probably wondering:

• Does this long process start again every time that I change or add a file to my hard drive?
  — No. You have to endure this only for the initial backup. After that, the online backup service only backs up the new/changed files. Because it backs up files often and when your computer is not busy, each backup happens quickly and behind the scenes.
• Will it take this long to recover my files after a catastrophic event?
  — No. Most broadband services give you much faster download speeds than upload speeds. For example, with a “3Mbps down/256Kbps up” broadband service, you will be able to recover 20 GB in as little as fifteen hours (vs. nine days for initial backup).

For more thorough answers, and for answers to other questions, please visit the Mozy website.

P.S. I used Acronis True Image many years ago and was impressed by the simple way that it created “computer image” backups that could be used to restore an entire computer. However, my experience with True Image 2013 was so bad — including a projection of SEVERAL DAYS to run a backup (that never got beyond 4%) and a mysterious “Operations are in progress, please wait” message at shutdown or restart that would never go away without forcing the PC to restart — that I recommend that you stay away from True Image as an alternative or supplement to Mozy.