Miles:

Release 3.5, which everyone will be upgraded to automatically on Jan 15th, does support versioning, so you'll be able to go back and pull up old versions. Actually, we've been saving all those old versions for quite a long time waiting for the new user interface to be finished so the user could access them. I think you'll like the implementation -- it's very intuitive. This release also provides scheduling so that you can decide exactly when backups do or don't happen, if you feel the need. This is useful in an office environment where there are a number of PCs sharing one internet connection and you don't want any backups to be going on during business hours, for instance.

I'm not sure why you think it's a good idea to back up everything at once, though. Once you start a Mozy backup, it's going to slow down your PC. You can adjust how much it slows it down, but it's still noticable degradation and annoying. And you don't have any choice. Carbonite gets the work done during the moments when you're not using your PC for something else. Almost everyone who has evaluated this method finds it a big step forward from the old-fashioned batch jobs. Mozy tries to do "real time" backup by starting a batch job every 2 hours, but it still gets in your way because it is not context sensitive. You're much more likely to be backed up to the minute with Carbonite because it is working at all times.

As for your customer's system, I'm afraid I don't understand what you are getting at. I can't envision a situation where Mozy would work and Carbonite wouldn't. You'll have to explain it to me in more detail. You can email if you'd like at .

As for the encryption, we start with a proprietary 1024 bit key and use that key to seed 448 bit blowfish keys that are uniquely generated for each backed up file. It's an extra layer of protection and I don't think anyone else does this.

It sounds like our customer support might not have made the license transfer happen correctly. If you'll give me the registration emails, I'll find out if it was on our end or yours. BTW, the 9-5 customer support refers to our live telephone 800 support, not email support which is available any time. Mozy, I should point out, does not offer phone support at all for its Home product.

One more thing, Miles, you should also consider what happens when you try to restore an entire PC. I don't like pointing out the flaws in competitors' products, but this is a significant issue. From other blog posts I have seen and my own experiments, Mozy has a serious restore problem. This post, on DownloadSquad, explains the problem, and I expect it is inherent in the proprietary way Mozy stores their data:

"No problem, he logged into Mozy, his online backup service to access his 60GB of offsite data. But he had to wait 12 hours before the data was ready, and then he had to download 100 different dmg files. He wasn't pleased.

This is a post by Mozy's own COO:

The Mozy restore process has needed improvement in the past, but we have made changes in the code and are seeing a positive impact. We have also started shipping external drives to those who need to restore large amounts of data in the event of a disaster. Our support team is here 24x7 to help anyone with their backup or restore. EMC is committed to investing in the MozyHome consumer service, so you will see even more updates and enhancements. - Vance, Mozy COO,

If you have to resort to sending out an external hard drive to someone who needs to recover their data, something is very wrong with your restore process. Carbonite starts restoring immediately and can restore 20GB in less than a day, even over a residential DSL. Why on earth would you want to pay extra and wait for an external hard drive to be mailed to you?

Dave Friend, CEO
Carbonite, Inc.
Carbonite Online Backup