Mozy Home Review: The Good and the Not-so-Good about Mozy Home Online Backup Service

Mozy Home is one of the two services offered by Mozy for online backup. The other is Mozy Pro which is intended for business use. As the name implies, this service is intended for personal and home use. Compared to other online storage services, Mozy Home is one of the more affordable online backup solutions for the home. This review will provide an overview of the service and will help you determine if it's a good value for the money or not.

For less than $5 per month, here's a summary of what you get:

Unlimited storage
Software that is easy to install and use
Automatic or scheduled backup on either the PC or Mac
Multi-layer security for both the transmission process and the file storage
Backup process that works quietly in the background without slowing down your computer
Remote access to files

What's Good and Not-so-Good

One great thing about Mozy Home is that there is a free version for those who only have a small amount of data to backup. The free version allows you to backup up to 2GB of data. If you need more space than that, then you'll need to upgrade to the unlimited plan. Don't worry, though, because the plan is less than $5 per month and you get unlimited backup storage space!

Getting started with Mozy Home for first-time users is not a problem at all as the setup process is simple and the interface is user-friendly. But don't be surprised if the initial backup takes days to finish if you have a really large volume of data to back up. The same is true with other online storage and backup services due to the constraints of the upload speeds of Internet connections.

Once the initial backup is completed, you can set it to do automatic backups or scheduled backups. From that point forward, Mozy Home works seamlessly in the background without hogging so much of your computer's resources. The service also gets points when it comes to the security of your files as they are encrypted before leaving your computer and are then uploaded via a secured Internet connection and then stored in their encrypted state on Mozy's secure servers.

When it comes to restoring your files, Mozy gives you three options on how you want your files restored: desktop, web, and DVD restore. Having multiple options to restore your data is good but some users have reported that the restore process can take a while. In some cases, it can take Mozy a good 24 hours just to prepare your data for restoration if you have a large set of data to restore, and that doesn't include the time it takes to actually download the files or have them sent to you via the DVDs if you choose that option.

For smaller files, you can do a quick and easy desktop restore, where you simply use the restore interface found in your Mozy Home desktop software interface. For larger files however, Mozy recommends you use web restore where you make a restore request directly to Mozy. While the request itself can be done easily, downloading the zip files can take some time, and for those unfamiliar with zip files, sorting through these can be pretty daunting. If either option doesn't work for you, you can also use the DVD restore alternative and have your files sent to you on DVD for a fee of about $60.

Mozy Home also doesn't fare as well when it comes to customer support, according to some users. For starters, there is no telephone support. You can only contact Mozy via live chat or by email. The other issue is that some users have commented that Mozy can be slow to respond to queries and that the information provided isn't always thorough. However, many users report that Mozy's support is responsive and excellent at providing information.

Mozy Home Review Summary

Just like any other online backup service, Mozy Home has its pros and cons. It isn't perfect but then again no service is. Overall, Mozy Home is an excellent value. To get unlimited backup for less than $5 per month is cheap "insurance" and a great way to protect your important files and data.

Read the full Mozy Home review to get more detailed information and to find out how to get 10% off your subscription! Only then will you be able to decide if it is the best online storage solution for you!