Apple Mac HQ

Backing up your computer is often not a fun or easy task. While no one gets excited over backing up their Mac, when you need that backup you will jump for joy when it works correctly. One company is trying to make it dead simple to back up your Mac. Mozy, purchased last year by EMC, is a simple Mac (they have a Windows client too) application that has a menu which asks what you would like to back up. I’ll take you on an application tour to show you what Mozy can.

After going through the installer you’ll be asked to login to your account or create a new one if you don’t have a Mozy account. Once you are signed into the application, you’ll begin the setup assistant. First you’ll be asked what type of encryption settings you want to use.

You can choose to use a key provided by Mozy or your own. I selected the “Use Mozy’s key” for the sake of simplicity. Click Next to continue to the next screen in the setup assistant.

Up next you’ll be asked how you want to handle software updates. I prefer to approve updates so I selected the “Ask me before installing updates” option. Click next to be taken into the meat of the setup assistant.

This is where the good stuff happens. On the next screens you’ll be choosing exactly what you want to back up. Mozy makes it pretty easy to backup common Mac software and files. Check a few boxes for your iPhoto library, iTunes, iCal, Address Book, and a few other applications to get started. [If you’re reading this in a Feed Reader, visit the website and click the two images below to get a close up of the screen shots]

You can also choose to backup individual folders or files, all with just a few clicks. Click “Save Configuration” and you’ll be asked if you want to start backing up your files.

The initial backup will take a number of hours or longer depending on the size of your backup. After the initial backup, Mozy backups your changes as you are using your computer (or at a scheduled time if you chose that option). I haven’t noticed any performance hit since I installed Mozy. Mozy also includes bandwidth throttling if you are using a slow connection and don’t want your backups taking up too much of your bandwidth. Your files are backed up using 128-bit SSL encryption during transit and there is also encryption on their servers.

If disaster strikes you have a few ways to get your data back. 1) Simply click “Restore Files” from the Mozy icon in the menu bar and select the file or folder that you want to restore (e.g.. you want to restore a previous version) and click on the Restore button. 2) Use your web browser and select the files you want to restore from your Mozy account and download them to your computer. 3) Request a DVD of your files which will be shipped to you for a fee.

If you don’t mind your files living on someone else’s server, give Mozy a try. You get 2GB of storage space for free and can purchase unlimited space for only $4.95 per month. I use Mozy in combination with SuperDuper as my backup solutions. I now have ease of mind if something were to happen to my data, at a minimum I’ll get the important stuff back with no problems.

Popularity: 33% [?]

The cornerstone of my Mac backup plan now works in Leopard. That’s right, SuperDuper has been updated to work with OS X 10.5. Perhaps one of the last major shareware applications to be updated for Leopard, the delay drew a lot of criticism from users. Some users had switched to using Carbon Copy Cloner due to the delays with SuperDuper. Many power users have implemented a backup plan and SuperDuper has become vital to so many users of its users. I actually delayed upgrading to Leopard because SuperDuper wasn’t yet Leopard compatible. I upgraded a little more than a week ago so this update comes at a perfect time for me.

Other than full Leopard compatibility, what else is new? SuperDuper 2.5 brings the ability to store bootable backups alongside Time Machine backups. You can also run scheduled copies on demand. A revision history can be found by selecting Help > Revision History from the SuperDuper menu. When I get home I’ll update this post with more information about the changes made in 2.5.

It appears like the traffic from the 2.5 release is crushing the Shirt Pocket servers as their forum and blog are both down. If you can hold off downloading the new version for a few hours you might want to wait for the traffic to die down.

SuperDuper will make bootable copies of your Mac hard drive and it won’t cost you a dime. For $28 you can purchase the software and it will unlock additional features likes scheduling, Smart Update, scripting, and more. The Smart Update feature saves hours of time backing up and if you are serious about backing up then $28 will be money well spent. As an alternative, you can also try Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) from Bombich Software. CCC is donationware and if you find it indispensable I highly suggest donating to the developer.

Popularity: 22% [?]