Mozy Updates Their Mac Client
August 11, 2009
According to the Mozy blog, the online backup company has just updated their Mac client.
The biggest functionality that they have added is the ability to exclude types of files from your backup. Seems like pretty critical functionality for a backup client but hey, who am I to judge?
Here’s a list of the enhancements in the 1.4 Mac client:
- Improved overall performance and stability for file selections and backups
- Added menu option to automate the collection of log files
- Moved preferences to global System Preferences
- Improved sorting for Files and Folders in Configuration window
- Improved the behavior of saving and canceling in Configuration window
- Added a new icon to indicate partially backed up folders in Configuration window
- Added menu item to start a backup from Configuration window
- Added ability to create Backup Sets to exclude files
- Added ability to sort by column in the Backup Set Editor window
- Updated online guides
- Added menu item to send product feedback or suggestions
- Improved appearance of menu bar icons and other graphics
- Improved speed of file preparation
- Added ability to use the escape (ESC) key to close the Configuration window
Has anyone upgraded to the new client yet? Any issues?
Mozy Asks.. How Much Is A Petabyte?
July 30, 2009
Did you know that datacenters worldwide use up as much energy as Sweden?
Neither did I, but it is one of the many things I learned from this awesome post by Mozy from a few weeks ago where they put together a bunch of stats to show how much data a petabyte actually is. Awesome!
How Much Is A Petabyte? – Mozy.com
Is Uploading To Online Backup Too Slow?
April 28, 2009
Photo by technicool
Recently, Om Malik wrote a post called The Ugly Truth About Broadband: Upload Speeds.
The article is about slow upload speeds in general – you can have the fastest download speeds in the world, but for many tasks that involve uploading, even our broadband is excruciatingly slow.
One of the things Om wanted to do was sync up his music collection using DropBox and backup his whole computer using Mozy.
It’s been about four days since I set everything up, and the results are dismal. Only 1 percent of my hard drive is backed up and less than 15 percent of my music has been uploaded.
The slowness of uploading to online backup services is something that is not really talked about a lot, but it is an issue at least initially.
More interesting to me are the comments on that post. In particular, people have come up with strategies to deal with the time it takes to upload everything.
When I first started with Mozy, I didn’t back-up my whole drive at once. I started with the most critical folders, and added a new one to the upload every day until it was all up. Then after almost all of it was up, I finally set it to back-up everything. Not a big issue
Personally, I just let it run and back up everything for a number of days, but I probably should have done something like that.
If you use online backup, did you just do the whole thing at once? Or did you do a hack like that commenter? Any good online backup tips? Leave them in the comments!
Do You Know Where Your Online Backup Is?
April 9, 2009
Recently I came across this tweet from Ross L. Kodner and he brought up a good point – one of the benefits of an online backup is having your data safe and sound.
If you live in a city that is prone to earthquakes, hurricanes, etc., it kind of defeats the purpose to have your online backup residing in the same city as you.
To that end, I have put this list together of where common online backup vendors have their data centers. Not surprisingly, none of them were willing to give this information on request so this is mainly pieced together from some Google-fu. Therefore, I can’t 100% say for sure that it is accurate, but you get the general idea.
Here is the list:
- Salt Lake City
- Dublin
- (likely other EMC data centers)
- Boston
- Beijing
Jungle Disk (S3)/Dropbox
Jungle Disk and Dropbox both use Amazon’s S3 service. While Amazon generally does not disclose where their data centers are, the following are the edge locations for CloudFront, their CDN, so it stands to reason that S3 data is stored there too.
United States
- Ashburn, VA
- Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
- Los Angeles, CA
- Miami, FL
- Newark, NJ
- Palo Alto, CA
- Seattle, WA
- St. Louis, MO
Europe
- Amsterdam
- Frankfurt
- Dublin
- London
Asia
- Hong Kong
- Tokyo
Jungle Disk (Rackspace)
Since Jungle Disk was acquired by Rackspace, they have started offering storage in Rackspace’s data center too.
- Grapevine, TX
- London
- Hong Kong
- Chicago
Like I said, this list is likely incomplete. If you have any additions or modifications, leave a comment below.
Where is your data?
Mozy and Carbonite Reaching Out To Abandoned HP & Yahoo Customers
March 11, 2009
In the last few weeks, two online backup services, HP Upline and Yahoo Briefcase have both announced that they are closing.
While some have said that this is a sign that the online backup market is not sustainable, both Mozy and Carbonite have been clever and used it as an opportunity .
Nate from Mozy has posted a blog post entitled “Hey Upline Users, We Love You!” giving a discount code to ex-Upline users.
Dave Friend, co-founder and CEO of Carbonite, has posted two blog posts: one on Yahoo Briefcase and one on HP Upline, discussing the decision to close both.
By the way, I really appreciate the fact that Dave personally blogs and shares his insight. It’s great.
What do you think, is Upline and Briefcase a sign of things to come, or is it just separating the wheat from the chaff?
How to Backup Your ScanSnap Profile Settings (On Windows)
December 15, 2008
Recently I posted about how to backup your ScanSnap profile settings if you are on the Mac. Here is how to do it on Windows.
The ScanSnap settings are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\PFU\ScanSnap.
Obviously, “yourusername” would be replaced with your Windows username.
If you can’t see the “Application Data” folder, go up to Tools | Folder Options and set it to be able to see hidden files and folders.
Each of those “PFUSsMon0000x” folders corresponds to one of your profiles, but I would recommend backing up the entire ScanSnap folder.
If you use a backup system like Mozy or Carbonite, make sure you add the ScanSnap folder to be backed up. Otherwise, just copy the folder somewhere.
In case you’re wondering what PFU is, that is a subsidiary of Fujitsu and it is them that developed the ScanSnap.
Hope this helps to protect your ScanSnap settings. Let us know if it does.
What Is Up With The Green Checkmarks?
November 10, 2008
We all know that staying up to date with software is generally important, but sometimes it can have unexpected side effects.
Recently, a whole bunch of people started getting green checkmarks beside their document icons. For example, if you had a Word document, when you looked at it in Windows Explorer there would be a green checkmark on the icon.
Support forums flooded with questions- What is going on? Do I have a virus? How do I get rid of it? What is up with the green checkmarks?!
Well, it turns out that the culprit is one of our favorite backup utilities, Mozy.
An update was released that added a feature (annoying to some), where there is a red exclamation point beside the icon of a file if it needs to be backed up, which changes to a green checkmark once the operation is successful.
I can see the reason for doing this, but if you want to get rid of it, here is what you need to do:
- Click on the Mozy icon in the system tray (the lower right corner of your screen)
- Choose Configure
- Go to the Options tab
- Check “Disable icon overlays in Windows Explorer”
- Hit Save
There you go, check marks should be gone.
Mozy Discount Code for October
October 2, 2008
If anyone has been wanting to sign up for Mozy’s Unlimited Service, I have a coupon code for you. It’s for 10% off all annual and bi-annual signups.
To get the discount, click here to go to the MozyHome Unlimited signup page, and then enter the coupon code OCTOBER (really sneaky).
Of course, if you don’t need more than 2 Gigs right now, there is always Mozy Free.
(Note, I do get a small tip if you use that link, so if you’re interested in buying me a coffee, there you go. Either way Mozy is great).
Offline vs. Online Backups – Which is Better?
July 6, 2008
There has been a lot of debate lately about “living in the cloud” and whether to keep data and applications locally or stored out on the Internet with backup services like Mozy or Carbonite.
Which is better for backing up your documents?
Online Backup
Pros:
- The data is (hopefully!) encrypted
- Depending on the service you use, you may be able to get to your files via the Internet which can be very handy
- If you have a fire, flood, or theft, your backup is offsite so you don’t have to worry about it
- Chances are, your backup provider will have a much more advanced setup than you do with respect to replication etc.
Cons:
- You don’t have direct control over your data
- If your provider goes out of business, what happens to your data?
- If you have a lot to upload, it could take a very long time to transfer the data
- If your internet connection is down, so is your ability to backup/restore
Offline Backup
Pros:
- The data is totally in your control
- Its on your network so access is fast
- If it is a portable drive like a MyBook, you can take it to another location
- You don’t have to worry about uptime/downtime or your internet connection.
Cons:
- If you have a fire or flood, your backup might be damaged along with your computer
- If you have a theft, and have a portable hard drive, your backup could be stolen
- Hard drives fail (boy do they), so depending on your setup your backup could bite the dust
After all that, which is better? It depends on your needs and how nervous you are about storing your data on someone else’s servers. Personally, I am a big fan of online backups but that is just me.
The good news is, you don’t have to pick one or the other. Back up your critical files to an external hard drive, and then also send your most critical files up to Mozy or Carbonite. The best of both worlds!
How do you do your backups (or do you? ). Do you trust online providers? Let us know in the comments.
What Software Do I Need?
July 6, 2008
Possibly None
It could be that you already have all the software that you need. If you have a ScanSnap or other scanner, it will come with software to scan and possibly even convert it to a searchable PDF.
It might even come with some simple document management software.
If you have an external backup like a MyBook or a Time Capsule, it might already have software to do backups for you.
However, if you want to “take things to the next level” and have a full document management workflow, there is software out there that can help.
Manage Documents Like A Pro
Mac users are spoiled for choice when it comes to document management software. Here are a few favorites:
DEVONthink is called a “Personal Information Assistant”. There are a number of different flavors, but the one that works best with the ScanSnap is DEVONthink Pro Office.
It manages documents and classifies them and files them automatically, and has very advanced OCR and searching technology .
It automatically takes documents from the ScanSnap and turns them into searchable PDFs.
Yep is an iPhoto-like file PDF browser that allows you to add tags to documents in order to manage them. It will assign tags based on the folder that they’re stored in, and then you can of course add your own.
PDFPen is a PDF editing solution that lets you add comments, highlighting, signatures, move around pages, and other general document management stuff. It’s kind of like a scaled down Acrobat for 1/6 of the price.
For Windows users one solution is Microsoft OneNote 2007
OneNote is a “digital notebook” that lets you bring in documents, images, media, etc. For documents, it will OCR them and allow you to search through.
Another Windows program is Home Document Manager. Home Document Manager will scan, organize, and make your documents searchable.
Stay Safe – Backup
There are a ton of backup programs for Windows.
For local backups, SyncBackSE is a favorite.
If you want to go the online route, there is Mozy and Carbonite. Here is more information about online backup solutions.
For Mac, OSX Leopard comes with built in backup software called Time Machine. You can use that with any external hard drive, or use a Time Capsule.
The online route for Mac users is a bit more limited, but Mozy is an extremely popular choice. The best part is that the first 2 Gigs of storage is free.
Do you have any other software for managing paper and documents that you can’t live without? Sound off in the comments.
Get Updates!
