Tech Online backup Mozy v Carbonite, a Mozy horror story

[wigglytuff]

So as someone who lost data years ago I have been backing up my data with I hard drive and an online backup from mozy.

Well recent I got scammed on eBay (but I got my money back) so of course my external hard drive has been failing no problem I have been paying for mozy for 17 months and have my stuff backedup.

Not so.

I had 90gb of data last week two days ago I saw to my horror that it said I had 0kb backed up. Wah? No way!!! I called , someone said "sorry we don't offer phone support for mozy home??!!!". Fine I email them, "well I see you have 1gb backed up with us now"

what about the other 89gb!??

They said, you just have to install the lasted version of mozy and back up you data.

Well today my computer won't start and I am stuck without a back up.

Well, hoping it's not a hard drive issue I take it to the apple store, only to find out that yes it is a hard drive issue. After my last interaction with mozy I bout carbonite but no back has started with them yet.

So to sum it up, I paid for 17 months of mozy online backup. One day zero percent of my backup was there. Mozy did not offer me any support, and in keeping with murphy's law my hard drive on my MacBook suffered a major failure. So after being a good girl and backing up my data mozy has left me in the same position as if I had no backup only 17 months of service payments poorer.

So as to the question of which online backup to use the answer is anything that's not mozy

 

[Vinyl]

Why do you have to use online backup? Why not use a program like Norton Ghost to just make a clone of your hard drive files? I'd probably keep a backup external hard drive just for ghosting & only when you need it. Nothing is going to be foolproof.

And I would definitely try to get Mozy to compensate you somehow. Did you religiously update your Mozy software or no?

 

[wigglytuff]

Why do you have to use online backup? Why not use a program like Norton Ghost to just make a clone of your hard drive files? I'd probably keep a backup external hard drive just for ghosting & only when you need it. Nothing is going to be foolproof.

And I would definitely try to get Mozy to compensate you somehow. Did you religiously update your Mozy software or no?

The only backup was supposed to be a backup of my backups. I had a seagate drive that also failed me.

Maybe I have become to used to things that work like they should but I had set it to let me know when an update was available. Now if mozys system was not letting users know that there were updates I didn't go to the website and check that I had the lastest version.

I understand that nothing is fool proof. What I don't understand is why they didn't let me know when I contacted them what happened to my data or provide me with any kind of support when I told them about my problems. You know it could have been that there was a fire at their data storage systems. But if they had let me know when it happened I would not have waited till this coming weekend to buy a replacement hard drive. Instead I am SOL basically.

I thought my seagate was a good harddrive but after the fact I am hearing that they have a lot of failers too.

It soo upsetting when you have multiple backups like a good girl ( one on site and one off site) and here I am as if I never had a backup at all. Sigh.

And to add insult to injury I had a not working but hard drive stable backup of my data on my spare computer which I sold and wiped befor this whole thing even happened. Sigh when it rains it pours!

Al least I have my iPod touch and Internet access and the money to pay for data recovery should I need it to pay for it.

 

[Charles]

I'm curious why you're having so many HDD failures. You've had 3?? I've never had a HDD failure in the 15+ years I've had my PC. Are you storing them in a cool place? Flat or on end? Do you move them around a lot?

 

[wigglytuff]

I'm curious why you're having so many HDD failures. You've had 3?? I've never had a HDD failure in the 15+ years I've had my PC. Are you storing them in a cool place? Flat or on end? Do you move them around a lot?

Mozy is an online backup service they are supposed to have systems in place to protect data. I don't know if they move the hard drives around a lot, I would have assumed that they don't to things that would endanger the hard drive. I would have assumed that my data was in at least 4 different places not just one hard drive.

My mac is a laptop, I don't take out house unless I need to. But it does go from room to room sometimes. The computer is just about 4 months old and the hard drive should not have failed from such light use.

The seagate external hard drive was just old. It was about 4 years old and after weekly backups it was ready to be replaced.


I am not sure that you can or should blame me for a backup service failing to have a back up of the data or a four month old computer having a hard drive failure. I likely should not have waited so long to replace my seagate though.

Also I have been using computers sinc the commodore 64 and I have never heard of a hard drive that is used for weekly backups lasting 15 years so you should start a thread and talk about how you get a hard drive to be used for weekly backups and still be reliable after 15 years

 

[Charles]

I understand your post, and I wasn't blaming you (not sure how you got that from my response). I was simply wondering why you've had 3 hard drive failures (mac laptop, Seagate, and the one from years ago). I guess it's just a had luck thing.

And to clarify, I didn't say I had a HDD last for 15 years, I said I've never had a HDD failure in the 15 years I've been using PC's. I'm not sure the 1gb HDD I used back in 1995 would be too useful these days, so yes, I've retired them, but they've never failed.

With Mozy, I'm still confused as to what they're SW has to do with anything. When you use a backup service online, they store your info on their servers, so your data should still be on their servers, somewhere.

 

[wigglytuff]

so second update on mozy v carbonite, i am got my computer fixed, and while mozy is still trying to find my data... which i have found out when they find it will NOT be easy to restore....

you have download your backup slowly in 1-2gb zipfiles, which for 90GB of backed up data could be in as many as 90 different files to download, that according to others are NOT numbered or marked in any order. further mozy stated in an email they sent me that you got 7 days to download all the zip files, and restore, once you START to download the files once they are deleted (so say if you start a 1 gb zipfile and you need to stop the download, like you lose internet connection, you cant download that zip file again. and since they are not numbered you have start the entire process all over again.

blah, meanwhile, i was trying out a carbonite 2 week free trial and have some 30gb backed up with them, i am now a paid customer of carbonite and am going to try to back up from them while i sort mozy out... and so far, you just tell it to restore, where to put the files and it just gets going... you can use you computer as normal and when its done it will let you know. not bad. easy, no weird zip downloads... just use ur puter as normal.


read other warnings about mozy
http://wonko.com/post/it_turns_out_mozy_isnt_so_hot_after_all

http://www.davehitt.com/blog2/mozy-no-support/

 

[ILuvShopping]

there's going to be horror stories about everything. I currently have mozy, have been using it for a few months, but before i signed up i checked out reviews and their positive reviews vs negative was pretty over whelming.

 

[wigglytuff]

there's going to be horror stories about everything. I currently have mozy, have been using it for a few months, but before i signed up i checked out reviews and their positive reviews vs negative was pretty over whelming.

to each his own, i just wanted to let posters who might do a search for it that there are other options. i had mozy for 17 months and liked them until i actually needed the backups.

the files i had backed up with carbonite have been amazing and getting them back was a breeze. mozy is still an on going process. the files on the mozy serves but getting to them, and them not be corrupted when i restore, STILL a work in progress. but i was in the ER this weekend and am just glad to be around to curse them.

but apple has been amazing and they are helping me to redownload my purchased music/movies/ and tv shows.

carbonite and apple for the win! carbonite is slightly cheaper than mozy too.

 

[ILuvShopping]

i guess i'll find out soon enough if i like mozy or not. contemplating if i want to move everything i have backed up from my desk top to my new laptop.

 

[striplar]

Beware, this product may appear to work but in my experience falls far short of realistic expectations. I have this on two Windows 7 computers and they both have the same issues.
The initial backup went smoothly if a little slowly.
After a while, I double checked to make sure that my critical files had been recently backed up after being changed. Although some had, a lot of them had not.
I contacted Carbonite but their answer was pretty useless. All they say is that your backup is proceeding normally. Apparently they are unable to tell you what was backed up in the last 24 hours for example. All they can tell you is that since a particular date a long time ago, so many bytes of data have been backed up. Useless!
The log file which is accessible on each system is almost unreadable but with some perseverance, I found that it was trying to back up huge files recorded from the DigiTV card and loads of other unimportant stuff.
I then went through the whole computer and explicitly told it not to back up any of that stuff, only leaving the critical files and folders for it to back up.
It still doesn't work properly. Files are left in the 'pending backup' state for months until I tell them to be backed up ASAP.
I have fed this specific information back to Carbonite and they are not replying.
So the message is clear. If you want the comfort of the illusion of this kind of backup, Carbonite is for you. Just don't expect your recent data to be there when you system dies. At best, it's about as much useful as doing a complete system copy every few months.
If you think your Carbonite installation is ok then check out the backup status of a file that you know you changed a couple of weeks ago.
Besides the fact that it doesn't work, what is desperately needed is another icon in the Carbonite drive window that shows what was backed up recently. If this information was available, it would have been a lot easier to spot that things were horribly wrong.
In principle, this is a great idea. Now all they have to do is to make it work.

 

[wigglytuff]

If you have an iPod touch or iPhone, you can see for yourself what has been backed up, you can open most file types and see what is going. Unistalling and reinstalling on the desktop will as yield results. Lastly check to make sure all you windows stuff is patched yadda yadda yadda.

Have checked the website to see when the files in question were last backed up.

 

[JohnnyBoyClub]

If they did that you means that they don't have respect for their customers at all .
What can you use now ? i can say you the software i am using it for 2 years , they are called http://www.dmailer.com/dmailer-backup.html , their software is free and their online storage is also free up to 3gb ( all other larger packs are at good prices ).
If you need any support they will give you in maximum 24h.
I am using it since 2 years ago and didn't had any problems at all.