They emailed to say that all my files were being ‘transfered’ from a US data centre to a European Data Centre. The email said that the transfer would be handled seamlessly by the Mozy client and that for ‘any inconvenience’ they would not charge for a month.

I went to back up some photos (a few on top of the 35.2 GB I had already with Mozy) only to realise that the client had no knowledge of the previous files and was insisting on backing up the entire lot.

After emails and a telephone conversation with a manager – it appears that a full upload by the user was required. In my book, this means a loss of data – though they said that the data was still safe in the US. In the end they said that they would repoint my account at the US data centre. This has not happened over the last few days – in effect leaving me without a backup.

I have decided to upload to Carbonite – which has a much nicer interface and is actually cheaper.

Am I the only one who thinks that the SOLE purpose of a company like Mozy is to keep your data available – if you look at the small print they say they cannot be held responsible for any loss of data!!!!

First, rsync isn’t a backup solution, it’s a *nix utility for synchronizing files. It works fine if you’ve got your own server and bandwidth to copy files to. Most users don’t (I’ve maintained my own server before; I don’t want that hassle again); hence the attractiveness of a one-stop online backup solution.

Second, Mozy has its faults, but the fact that they’ll overnight you your data on DVDs isn’t one of them. Bandwidth is bandwidth, and it takes a long time to download several dozen gigabytes. Rsync can’t do any better unless the server’s sitting next to you. Of course, the whole idea behind online backup services is that you’re storing your files offsite. I’ll grant that once you’ve got rsync set up, the restore is painless, but again, it would be no faster than any other download if you were using it to pull files over the Web.

Reading your post, I thought it sounded like you were selling something. Then I saw your link — apparently you are.

Mozy just can cut it when you need the files, I guess that is why they sell dvds. You should never need to have to get your files on dvd if you are using online backup.

Automatic updates should be working. We have over 14,000 users that just updated (a few days ago) from the 1.0 version of the Mac software to the 1.1 version. Would you mind double-checking that you’ve got auto-updates enabled in your preferences?

Also, changing your network connection should cause Mozy to pause for a few minutes and then resume. The software will attempt to reconnect every few minutes over the course of an hour before giving up.

We are working on backing up permissions and improving the restore experience. Any specific suggestions you have would be welcome.