Mozy Stash Review: Cloud Storage

Rating:

Bottom Line:

Low-cost cloud storage great for those with one main computer; easy to use syncing and exclusive discount

Full Review:

[Editor's Note: Mozy is offering NextAdvisor visitors an exclusive discount of 15% off with promo code: NEXT. This discount is applied on top of Mozy's annual-plan promotions. Refer to the table below to see how the savings add up.]

Discounted Price:	Mozy Discount	Our Discount	Total Discount	You Save
1-Month: $5.10	0%	15%	15%	.89¢
1-Year: $56.01	8%	15%	22%	$15.87
2-Year: $106.93	13%	15%	26%	$36.83

In addition to comprehensive computer backup, Mozy users can now keep their most active files up to date across all of their computers and on the web. Though Mozy's backup plans start at only one computer per subscription, users can still sync computers that aren't part of their backup. As we point out in the pricing section below, adding a computer to Mozy backup is quite affordable as well. Overall, we enjoyed using this service and would recommend it to those who want to back up their main computer while being able to sync files across their other devices.

Setup and Interface

After signing up you can choose whether you want to install Mozy on your Mac or PC. Installation was quick and painless on both platforms. On your Mac, you can control Mozy settings from the system preferences application. The PC installation will take you through the steps to set up your Mozy backup preferences.

Mozy for PC - Click to enlarge

Syncing

Mozy's best feature is its syncing application, Stash. Because Stash is still in beta stages, it will not be automatically installed when you download Mozy. To install Stash, log into your Mozy web account, click "Stash Beta" and select the join button. From there you can choose whether you are installing Stash onto your PC, Mac, iPhone or Android. The nice thing is that even if you back up only one of your computers, you can still install Stash onto all of your devices for quick syncing and easy file access.

After downloading Stash for the Mac, you need to sign in with your Mozy username and password. After doing so, a Stash folder will be installed on your hard drive. Very similar to DropBox, you can just drag and drop files and folders into the Stash folder and they will automatically be available on all of your computers that have Stash installed and on the web. Installation is just as easy with the PC version of Stash. Note that on the Mac, you can access Stash from the top navigation bar of your desktop, and on the PC you will see the icon in the menu bar in the bottom right-hand corner.

How Stash Works - Click to enlarge

Additional Features

You can recover individual files that become corrupted or are accidentally deleted; deleted files stay on Mozy's servers for 30 days. You also have the ability to roll-back a file to a different version, say one you created a few days ago. This is enormously helpful if you make an unalterable change to an important document. Mozy also has a feature called "Data Shuttle" where Mozy sends a hard drive to the customer, he or she uploads a copy of their data onto the hard drive and the data is encrypted, shipped back to Mozy, and directly placed on the Mozy servers. Though pricey, this may be a nice option for users with huge amounts of data.

Pricing

Mozy's 50GB storage plan starts at $5.10 per month (after the NextAdvisor discount) for backup of a single PC. An annual plan is $56.01, or just about $4.67 per month. A two-year plan will save you even more. If you want 125 GB of storage, it'll run you $8.50 per month, $93.41 for 1 year, or $178.33 for two years. As a bonus with the 125 GB plan, you can back up 3 PCs, making it a better value than the 50GB plan if you have multiple computers. Additional 20 GB of storage can be added for $2.00, as can the ability to back up additional computers. Note that with the 50 GB plan, you can pay the $2.00 to add up to 4 additional computers; with the 125 GB plan this fee can be used for up to 2 more computers, in addition to the 3 already included in the 125 GB plan.

Conclusion

Though their base plan limits you to one computer and 50 GB, this storage allotment will be enough for most users who want to back up a computer. While our favorite cloud storage service, SugarSync, allows you to back up an unlimited number of computers, Mozy doesn't fall too far behind because users can still sync as many computers as they want with Stash. Overall, Mozy is a simple, good value cloud storage solution with a quick online backup process.

Service Details:

Cheapest Price:	$4.45/mo (w/ 2 year plan)
Free Trial / Discount:	15% off 1 mo; 22% off 1 yr; 26% off 2 yrs; (w/ promo code: NEXT)
Gigabytes (GB) of Storage Included:	50 GB; pay extra for more space
Gigabytes (GB) of Sync Space Included:	50 GB; pay extra for more space
# of Computers Backed Up:	1; $2/mo per add'l computer

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Mozy Review
Here is NextAdvisor's review of Mozy Cloud Storage: http://www.nextadvisor.com/cloud_storag ... review.php

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Mozy Stash Review: Cloud Storage

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