Computer backup with Mozy.com
If you have been a computer user for a while, you would probably have experienced the agony of losing your precious files due to hard disk failure or corruption. The answer is of course to make regular backups to another storage medium, probably somewhere offsite.
Recently, I signed up with the service from Mozy.com which gives you 2GB of free online storage. This space can be used to backup and store your computer files. Mozy claims that the storage is secure and encrypted but I can never completely trust this. So, what I did was to use an AES encryption program to encrypt my files before uploading them to Mozy. So far it has worked quite well.
If you should decide to sign up, you can use the referral code 4NG3X3 or this link to get an additional 256MB, for a total of 2.25GB. (Disclosure: I will also get 256MB.)
EDIT 2006-08-01: A free computer backup program with strong encryption is Cobian Backup.
Stumble it!
July 14th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
hi shlow, drizzt here. nice to see you moved to wordpress. i did the same thing by coincedence. do visit my blog if you can http://singaporeinvesting.wordpress.com/.
regards,
drizzt
July 14th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
hi drizzt, nice to see you. I got a good introduction to WordPress from choozm and his comparison convinced me to switch. The import into WordPress from Blogger works quite well (except some minor issues like # comments are not imported correctly, images are not imported into WordPress etc).
I see you didn’t import your old posts from Blogger?
July 14th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
nah only some of them. thinking of getting a domain myself. more flexible that way. i hope i can take advantage of the plugins.
speakign of investing, shlow, what you think abt healthcare sector? do you think its necessary?
July 15th, 2006 at 3:16 am
I don’t think healthcare is necessary for most people, unless they are like me: 1) have a lot of exposure (career) in the tech industry, 2) thinking of possible early retirement, 3) worried about the healthcare delivery costs during retirement, and most importantly 4) understand the risk/return characteristics of sector investing.
August 14th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Hi,
I appreciate the fact that you use a on-line backup utility. I do however think that there are better ways to accomplish data backups. For example I use StompSoft’s PC Backup ( http://www.stompsoft.com/pc-backup/pc-backup.html ) for my backup needs. First I save my backup to my personal network then I make a CD/DVD of it also. This way I never have to worry about having to rely on someone else to retrieve my data because I have it sitting right in front of me. Anyway, I think this is food for thought.
August 14th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Hi Tech2, thanks for your comment.
I do backup my files to DVD but this process is not as “automated” as Mozy. Besides, after burning the DVD, I have to rememeber to bring it to my office (an off-site location). I think it is important to have backups at an off-site location because if I have everything at home, a fire could potentially destroy the computer plus any backups that I may have stored at home.
August 28th, 2006 at 11:22 am
I see your point about the hazards of home accidents making all the backups in the world worthless if they’re in your house. I think that I may have to look into keeping copies somewhere else. Hmm..I do rent a storage space, that might be a good option for me. Just thinking aloud.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Tech2, just saw your comment today and it was caught in the spam holding area, and I had to ‘un-spam’ it. Hmm, something might be wrong with the WordPress spam filter.
The further the rental storage space is from your home, the better it is to store backups, since a big diaster could potentially wipe out more than just a house. Very very very unlikely but the probability is certainly not zero.
August 30th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
We’ve carried out a fairly extensive review of Mozy at http://www.bestfreeapps.com/mozy.html if anyone’s interested.
September 13th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
[...] Previously, I wrote about using Mozy as a free offsite backup service. However, due to privacy and security concerns, I am encrypting my files before they are uploaded offsite. [...]
December 10th, 2007 at 10:01 am
[...] if you are interested in the free backup service, refer to my earlier post HERE. You can get an additional 256 MB from the referral [...]
December 10th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
hi, how do you encrypt your files?
December 10th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
I use Genie Backup or you can use the free Cobian Backup. Just google for their websites.