Defensive Computing

Most computer users know they should back up the files on their computer, yet many don't. Why not?

Leo Notenboom raised this question recently, see "Why don't people back up?"

No computer techie can answer this question, which is why both Leo and I have to ask. We're computer nerds and, as such, backup is part of our DNA. Techies can't put themselves in the shoes of the millions of computer users who don't back up their computers. We're different.

So, those of you who don't back up your computer, but know full well that you should, tell me what the obstacle is. Send an e-mail to dontbackup at michaelhorowitz dot com.

Organization

One obstacle to any backup scheme is organization. Regardless of the hardware or software involved, you need to be able to point to the files you wanted backed up. This requires some understanding of the file system and I don't see a way around that. It also requires some organization on your part, which may be the fatal flaw for some people. If you save files that you care about all over the place, your only backup option is to copy the entire computer, which is always a pain in the neck.

Back in the days of MS-DOS, I got in the habit of saving all my personal files in a folder called "Mikelet" reflective of the fact that folders could only have eight character names and that my initial PC use was for writing letters. To this day, I keep all my personal files in a folder with the same name (although I have added subfolders for segregating specific types of files). In the years since, Microsoft invented "My Documents" to serve the same purpose. Linux users know this concept as the home folder.

I never liked the name "My Documents." First, having a space in a folder name is asking for trouble. Second, it's meant as a repository for all your personal files, not just "documents" a term normally used to refer to word processing files. So, if you're not yet organized, and your name is Harvey, you may want to start off by creating a folder called "HarveysFiles" to simplify your backups.

But there are likely to be other important files, such as e-mail, that you want to back up. Do you know where your e-mail is on your computer? Some backup programs are smart enough to know the location of e-mail for handful of popular programs, but many of us have to find it the hard way. If you exclusively use Webmail, then your e-mail does not reside on your computer at all. In some ways this is good, but if your e-mail is important, and you want to make a backup copy, you need a totally different scheme than the one employed for files on your computer.

Is it too much to get organized or to take inventory of where the files that you care about reside? Is this what's preventing you from backing up?

Other Reasons

My best guess for why people don't back up their computers is that they haven't found a simple, short introduction to the topic. Many of the comments at ask-leo.com were from computer users who simply didn't know where to begin.

Other people noted that they tried to read the documentation for their backup program but were confused by the terminology and/or jargon.

One person suspected that computer users with no training are afraid that they may accidentally screw up the computer and they'll have no idea how to fix it. I feel like that when driving a car--what I know about engines could fit on the head of a pin. Fortunately for me, cars are much more reliable than personal computers. Is the fear of screwing things up holding you back?

Is picking a backup program too much for you? There are, after all, hundreds to chose from. Is deciding on the backup media too difficult? Or, is the choice of local backups vs. remote off-site backups the stumbling block? (Mozy users may want to read "Everybody likes Mozy--except me, Part 1").

Those of you who do back up, please don't tell me what your backup scheme is. There are so many combinations of needs, software, and hardware that there is no one right answer for anyone. There isn't even one right approach for me. I use one scheme for my main desktop computer and another for my laptop which I take when traveling.

Perhaps you've heard this before: there are only two types of hard disks--those that have failed and those that will.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

It takes one to know one. So, how can non-techies form an opinion on the abilities of a computer nerd? There is a language gap, a knowledge gap and, likely, a personality gap to overcome. Here's a tip.

Ask the techie about the system (meaning hardware, software and manual procedures) used to backup the computers they are responsible for.

I see three possible answers.

1. The techie will brag about what a great system they devised or inherited.
2. The techie will gripe about how management has held them back from implementing a much better system than the one currently employed. They may go on and one about the flaws in the way things are done.
3. The techie will blow off the question, as if it wasn't important.

In real estate, the three most important things are location, location and location. In computers, they are backup, backup and backup. Any techie that blows off the question about backup, is a normal person in techie clothing.

Where do I fit in? See for yourself: The Best File Backup Scheme

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

A few days ago, David Strom wrote an article in The New York Times about making off-site file backups over the Internet. There is no one right answer when it comes to making backups, but I'd like to expand on a few points he raised.

At the beginning of the article, Strom says that "for a few hundred dollars a year you can buy inexpensive protection." Hopefully, readers weren't scared off by the price. Many off-site storage companies will hold backup copies of your files for much less money. Personally, I started out paying $10 a year for 1 gigabyte of off-site storage. Now, I pay $20 a year for 2 gigabytes.

Mozy is one of the off-site storage companies mentioned in the article. I wrote a two-part review of Mozy back in July. Perhaps the most important point about Mozy is that it will, at times, delete your backup files. Anyone who mentions Mozy and leaves out this fact has not done their homework.

The sentence in the article that most prompted this posting was this:

"It's a good idea to try out a service to see how long it takes to make a complete backup of each computer you want to protect."

Off-site storage is not the appropriate medium for complete backups of a computer. Off-site backup is only appropriate for your important files. For most broadband users, uploading large files is slow, drastically slower than downloads (the exceptions being fiber, SDSL and T1 connections). And the cost of off-site storage usually increases with the amount of data stored.

Strom warns that "in some cases, the first backup will take hours, if not days." If it takes you days to make a backup, take it as a hint you're barking up the wrong tree. Complete backups, those that include the operating system and applications, are best done with a disk imaging program to an external hard disk or DVDs. Fedex is what I suggest for any complete backups you might want to store off-site.

Features and services

In choosing an off-site storage company, software that automates the backup process may sound like a good thing, but there is a downside--automation can go too far. Last year, Business 2.0 magazine almost didn't publish an issue because they lost all their files. Their automated backups were a bit too automated; the backups hadn't been running and no one noticed.

Many file storage companies provide you with software. Just say no. For one thing, using their software makes it harder to switch companies in the future. Also, there is no way to have real security if the same organization is both encrypting your files and storing them. Finally, it may limit you when it comes time to restore files, and, in your hour of need, that's the last thing you'll want to deal with.

Any off-site backup company should let you upload and download files from any computer connected to the Internet, using nothing more than a Web browser. Not all do. Charging customers based on the amount of data being stored is eminently fair. Charging based on the number of computers those files came from, strikes me as a rip-off.

Finally, anyone considering off-site backups for the first time should read Ed Foster's article, "Backup Service EULAs Warrant a Closer Look," from last February in which he discusses the End User License Agreement from Mozy, Iron Mountain, Carbonite, Xdrive, and SOSonlinebackup. Even expecting the worst, it's shocking.

So few people back up the files on their computers; you don't want to start off on the wrong foot.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

Here's an interesting question: should I turn off my external hard drive when not in use? Leo Notenboom, who I mentioned back in July, addressed this issue a few days ago on his Ask-Leo.com Web site.

In short, there is no one clear answer, a number of issues have to be considered. What surprised me, though, about Leo's answer, was that he didn't mention my reason for turning off my external hard disk.

Being a pessimist is necessary for defensive computing. The main reason I turn off my external hard disk is to protect it from me.

When my computer boots, the first thing it does is run a scheduled backup of my important files to the external hard disk. After I verify the backup ran successfully, I turn off the hard disk and leave it off until the next backup. The disk is used exclusively for backup. My backups are run by a .bat file and, in case I forget, the last thing it does is remind me to turn off the hard disk.

Why? With the disk off, I can't delete files by mistake. And, should some malicious software make its way onto the computer, it can't screw up files it doesn't see. Finally, hard disks run hot (I've seen up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit) and while there are, no doubt, air vents in every enclosure, it's only a matter of time until dust clogs them up. An external hard disk that runs for only a few minutes a day will never get dangerously hot, even if all the air vents are clogged.

But that's me. Read Leo's response and decide for yourself.

I'll contact some hard disk vendors and point them to this posting. If any of them respond with a recommendation I'll let you know.

Update: January 2, 208. I have heard back from Western Digital and Seagate about this. I hope to hear from some other vendors and gather their recommendations together in a couple days.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

On Thursday August 30th Walter Mossberg repeated his prior recommendation of the Mozy online backup service. While Mozy can fit the needs of some people, there are two sides to every coin and there is a downside to Mozy too. For the rest of the story, see my recent postings:

• Everybody likes Mozy--except me, Part 1
• Everybody likes Mozy--except me. Part 2

E-mail, for many of us, is very important and accumulates forever, making it a large mess when it comes to backing it up.

The importance of my e-mail snuck up on me. Once upon a time, I opened my old reliable e-mail program and was confronted with an error message. The net effect of the problem was that the last four days of incoming mail had disappeared from my in-box. This was, for me, a very big deal. In large part, my in-box is my "to do" list. As a consultant, my incoming e-mail is too important to ever allow a repeat of this problem.

Suffice it say, this made me think about backing up my e-mail perhaps more than most people.

The need for reliable and redundant e-mail backups dictates the use of a client side e-mail program such as Outlook Express, Thunderbird or Eudora. Web based e-mail systems such as Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail, have their advantages but backup is not one of them.

To begin with, I have an external hard disk attached to my computer and every morning I copy all of my e-mail from the internal hard disk to the external one. This is a destructive backup. That is, every morning the backup is totally re-created on the external hard disk. The advantage of this is that I never have to worry about running out of space on the external hard disk. The disadvantage is that I can't use it to recover e-mail from three days ago. Everything is a trade-off when it comes to backups.

Also, this backup doesn't manipulate the original files in any way; they aren't combined, compressed or re-formatted. Thus, I can easily copy e-mail from the external hard disk back to my computer and use it immediately. And simple means there is less that can go wrong. The downside is that the backup is the same size as the original, but external hard disks have a huge capacity and transferring files over a USB2 connection is more than fast enough for this purpose.

One of my prime rules for backups is to never to copy a file while it's in use. That is, I never copy e-mail when my e-mail program is running and never copy Word documents when Word is running. The morning backup of my e-mail is scheduled by the Windows scheduler and since it runs first thing after Windows starts up my e-mail program is not running.

This however, is just a starting point as it still allows for the loss of an entire day's worth of e-mail. To cut my potential loss in half, I also backup my e-mail midday. This backup is also scheduled using the Windows scheduler, but it's very different from the morning backup. Rather than backing up all my e-mail, here I only copy the most important folders (the in-box and a few others). Also, the backup is sent via FTP to an online file storage company.

This limits my worst case scenario to the loss of a half day's worth of e-mail. It also means that no matter what happens to my computer and the external hard disk, I always have the most important e-mail stored a thousand miles away. And since my e-mail is sensitive, online storage space is limited and uploads are slow, I compress, encrypt and password protect the e-mail before it leaves my computer and travels over the Internet to the file storage company.

The midday backup is different in other ways too. For one, all the e-mail is combined into a single file. In addition, I keep multiple copies of the midday backup. The backup program tags the daily file with the current day of the week. Thus every backup made on a Monday will result in the same file name. When the backup is sent offsite, the backup program is instructed to delete older versions of files with the same names. I end up with seven off-site copies of my most important folders and, again, don't have to worry about running out of space.

Finally, once a month I compress and encrypt all my e-mail and send it off-site to another file storage company.

No one approach is right for everyone. For example, I have chosen to limit my worst-case loss to a half day of e-mail, which may not work for you. And my approach requires constantly filing e-mail in folders, something not everyone wants to do.

After living with the above scheme for a while, I modified it a bit to prevent the most important folders from growing in size forever.

I manually archive the in-box, sent folder and a few other important folders by moving old messages to new folders tagged with the year. For example, all the messages in my in-box from 2005 are stored in a folder called inbox2005. Likewise there are folders called inbox2004, inbox2006 and inbox2007. A couple months ago I moved messages in my in-box from January through March of this year into the inbox2007 folder. Later this year, I'll again move old messages from this year into it.

With this approach, I can eventually delete the inbox2004 and inbox 2005 folders from my computer. They remain on the external hard disk and are also stored off-site if need be. Without some type of archiving scheme, e-mail will grow forever. I find that manipulating a few folders this way a couple times a year is well worth the effort.

Of course, you can't use this approach, or anything remotely similar, unless your e-mail program stores each folder as a separate file (or two). But who would use an e-mail program that stored all your mail in a single file? :-)

This is a continuation of Tuesday's posting (Everybody likes Mozy--except me. Part 1), which introduced the Mozy online backup service and software and where I started offering my opinions. Since Tuesday, I came across two more positive Mozy reviews.

In April, Serdar Yegulalp, writing for InformationWeek, reviewed Online Vault, Carbonite, eSureIT, iBackup and Mozy (Five Online Backup Services Keep Your Data Safe, April 9, 2007). He concluded that "The all-around winner for regular users and small business from this bunch was definitely Mozy, both for its plan structure and its unobtrusive client."

Also in April, BusinessWeek had a short article by Arik Hesseldahl about the beta release of Mozy for the Mac where he said "I've used Mozy on the Windows machine at the office, and actually came to like it a great deal" (Mozy Comes To Mac Today! April 25, 2007).

Encryption

Anyone considering backing up sensitive files has to be concerned with security and encryption. Walter Mossberg barely mentioned security, but David Pogue warned:

"Then there's the security thing. All four companies insist that your files are encrypted before they even leave your computer. But if you still can't shake the image of backup-company employees rooting through your files and laughing their heads off, then this may not be the backup method for you."
Note: He was referring to the idea of off-site backups, not specifically to Mozy.

At first glance, Mozy security sounds impressive--files are encrypted on your PC using 448-bit Blowfish encryption and then transferred over the Internet to Mozy using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. But let's take a step back.

• Mozy software encrypts the files on your computer
• To do this, the Mozy software needs to know the encryption key (basically a password)
• Mozy stores your files on Mozy's computers

The problem here is that Mozy is doing everything. In effect, Mozy makes the key, the lock and the safe.

How files are transferred between the PC and Mozy has nothing to do with the real security issue, as I see it. The SSL encryption used during the transfer offers protection from interception while the files are in transit, but no protection from Mozy.

There are two ways the Mozy software learns the encryption key/password--either you pick one and type it into the program, or the program will chose a password on its own. As they explain:

"You have the option of using a Mozy key, or your own private key to encrypt your data. Note, that if you use your own private key, you must be very careful about not losing it, because if you do, we won't be able to help ... Most users opt to use the Mozy key, but it's up to you."
Note: "key" can be thought of as a password and "private key" can be thought of as you're choosing the password.

Using a key/password generated by the Mozy software may not sound so bad, but it means your sensitive files are not secure.

In Part 1, I quoted Walter Mossberg as saying "Both companies encrypt the backed-up files and say they don't view them." Not that they can't view them, but that they don't view them. And the Mozy warning--do not lose your key/password or they can't help you--implies that when their software chooses the password, they can help you. They must know the password.

Even if you choose the encryption password, you are trusting the Mozy software not to externalize it, either on purpose or by accident. When it comes to backing up sensitive files, there is no place for trust in the equation.

This situation is not at all unique to Mozy. Other online storage companies also provide software that encrypts your files. I suggest using a backup scheme where software from one company does the encryption while an unrelated company stores the files.

Restoring Files

When it comes to restoring files, Mozy can be slow. You can't simply go to their Web site, navigate to your needed files and download them. Instead, you have to request all the files you need up front (don't forget any) and wait. In Mozy's own words:

"Depending on how large the restore is, it could take a few minutes or a few hours for Mozy to prepare the data for you. When it's ready, you will be emailed letting you know you can download it. When you get the email, go to your Account page and from there you can download the restored data."

If you can imagine a situation where you need to access your off-site backup files quickly, Mozy might not be an optimal fit. Joe Hruska at Ars Technica described his experience restoring files using the Web-based interface: "When I requested a restore build as a free user, it took Mozy 36 hours to make my restore file available versus only 18 minutes when I requested the same service as a paying customer."

Only 18 minutes? With the nothing-special backup service I use, it takes less than 18 seconds to start downloading files, and e-mail is not involved at all. And 36 hours seems excessive, even for a free service.

More Gripes

There are a couple things I don't like about the way Mozy backs up files.

For one, their software copies open and locked files. No thanks, I prefer my files closed and unlocked when they are backed up. Why they do this, I don't know. What problem are they solving? Since the Mozy software runs all the time, there should be very little delay between when a file is closed and when it's sent off-site. I prefer backup software that issues a warning when it tries to copy an open or locked file.

Part 1 of this blog had a discussion of why Mozy is motivated to store as little data as possible. This may explain why Mozy doesn't always back up entire files. They try to be smart about it and only back up the pieces of a file that changed, a feature they call "block level incremental backups". I'm a pessimist, and this strikes me as just something else that can go wrong. I prefer my backups simple, and backing up pieces of files and later putting all the pieces together, is complicated.

The Ars Technica review had this gripe: "Unlike several of the other programs we tested, Mozy doesn't offer a 'Backup this file' option when an item is right-clicked inside Windows Explorer."

Being a computer nerd, I'm comfortable using FTP to transfer files. Mozy does not allow uploads or downloads via FTP.

Warranty

Ed Foster writes The Gripe Line column for InfoWorld. Back in February, he wrote a memorable article called Backup Service EULAs Warrant a Closer Look (alternate link). A reader of his column reviewed the terms of service for Mozy, Iron Mountain, Carbonite, Xdrive, and SOSonlinebackup. According to Ed, "All disavowed that the product had to actually function at all except Iron Mountain, which in its warranty promises to at least try to fix bugs..."

The unnamed Gripe Line reader said it well: "The availability of data, in essence, completely defines the service itself. Yet, all of the online backup companies I surveyed expressly disclaim any responsibility for actually delivering on the service they claim to offer." Three of the companies, Mozy being one of them, disavow damages for their own negligence.

And here's an analogy that really puts it in perspective: "Who would buy life insurance if the carrier's terms of service has a clause that says that if you die, they have no real obligation to pay the claim?"

Finally, on a (much) lighter note, some people may have a hard time complying with parts of Mozy's End User License Agreement. In the LIMITATION OF LIABILITY section it says:

"FURTHERMORE, YOU AGREE TO USE THE SOFTWARE OR SERVICE
EXCLUSIVELY FOR GOOD AND FOR AWESOME."

Talk about restrictive. And then there is this, in the next paragraph:

"DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN BALL."

Wikipedia has an explanation of Happy Fun Ball. As lawyer jokes go, this one is pretty good.

To end on a legal note, that's my case.

For a company in the boring business of online file storage, Mozy gets more than its share of press coverage, and from what I've seen, it's all been positive. Mozy attracted attention back in December 2006 when they started offering unlimited file storage for $5 per month or $55 per year (rounded off).

The first Mozy review I ran across was by Walter Mossberg in The Wall Street Journal ("These Services Make Backing Up Your Files Safe and Inexpensive", December 14, 2006). He liked Mozy, so I spent some time reviewing them for a class I teach on backing up your computer. My opinion differed from Mr. Mossberg's, not for the first time.

Then in January 2007, David Pogue, writing in The New York Times, also liked the service ("Fewer Excuses For Not Doing A PC Backup", January 4, 2007). I blew that off too. But a couple weeks ago the tech Web site Ars Technica published a review of online storage providers by Joel Hruska that recommended Mozy as the best of the bunch ("Online backup solutions: a review", July 16, 2007). For me, that was the final straw. Time to speak up.

The good reviews

In his review Walter Mossberg compared Mozy to Carbonite, another online storage company. He found Mozy "easy to set up and easy to use" and seemed impressed that using the Web-based interface he could restore files on a Macintosh computer. Security is an obvious concern with off-site storage and addressing it he said, "Both companies encrypt the backed-up files and say they don't view them." Finally, he notes that "you can back up multiple computers--but you have to pay extra for each additional machine."

Pogue also found Mozy more flexible than Carbonite, citing as an example the fact that backups can either be continuous or run at specified times and dates. He pointed out that Mozy can back up only changed portions of files, and he liked that you can review 30 days of backups (more on this below). His only criticism was minor, he felt that Mozy might not be the best choice for beginners as some of its options are "novice-hostile."

Writing for Ars Technica, Joe Hruska reviewed Xdrive, Backup/PC, Mozy and Carbonite and concluded: "Of the services we tested here, Mozy Online struck the best balance between functionality and flexibility and is our overall top pick for an online backup service."

My opinions

To start with, I don't like any backup service whose software has to run constantly in the background. The more software running on a computer the greater the chance of something going wrong. I prefer a backup scheme where the backups happen on a schedule and/or on demand. Thus, 99 percent of the time there is no backup software running. I don't like my computer doing stuff without me knowing about it.

And, if I had to go with background software that never shuts down, my preference would be for a mature product. Something that's at version 11 and has been around for years. Mozy is a relatively new company; it was founded in 2005. In December of 2006 when Mr. Mossberg wrote his review, the Mozy application software only ran under Windows XP. Now it also supports Windows 2000 and Vista and they have Mac software in beta testing. This is all too new for me to trust it with something as important as file backups.

Mr. Mossberg's description of the Web-based interface failed to point out that it can't be used for making backups, only for restoring files. As he said, Mozy charges extra for each additional computer that you back up from. The online backup service that I use, which I'm not going to mention both because it's not perfect and this blog is not an ad, allows me to back up files from an unlimited number of computers using their Web interface. This should be a prerequisite for any online storage service you may be considering.

Big sin

Mozy's biggest sin wasn't mentioned in any of the reviews. (Doesn't anyone read the fine print?)

An obvious reason for making backups is to be protected from accidentally deleting files. If your fingers slip while typing, you can wipe out dozens of files and not realize it. Or someone else using your computer might delete them. Or there may be a glitch in the file system and Windows loses track of some files.

If you delete a file by accident and don't notice it, Mozy will delete the backups of the file too. I kid you not.

This is a quote from Mozy.com (as of July 29, 2007): "If you delete the working copy on your machine and then run a backup, Mozy will assume that you no longer need a backup copy, since you got rid of the working copy, and will mark the file to be removed from our system in 30 days...After 30 days, you cannot get these files back."

Pogue made a bad thing seem like a good thing when he wrote: "You can view 30 days' worth of backups, too--a feature that prevents you from deleting a file from your PC accidentally and then finding its deletion mirrored in your latest backup." Mr. Pogue is assuming both that you know a file was deleted by accident and that you try to recover it within 30 days. But if you are not aware that a file is missing until 31 days after it disappeared, it's gone. With my online backup company I could accidentally delete a file, not know about it for years and still be able to recover the last backed-up copy.

Perhaps you know someone who has had to reinstall Windows? Or had their laptop computer stolen? With Mozy there is a chance it may treat missing files as being deleted on purpose, and delete the backups in 30 days. I have no idea how likely this is, but if something can go wrong, it will. And again, there's that issue of relatively new version 1 software to consider.

Why does Mozy do something that seems so wrong? I think I know.

In their free service Mozy offers 2GB of storage space to anyone who feels like asking for it. The less space someone uses, the better it is for them. In their paid service, Mozy offers unlimited storage for $55 per year. Here, too, the less space a customer uses the better it is for Mozy. In this context, it makes sense for them to delete as many files as possible. It's a natural outgrowth of their business model.

In contrast, Mozy's competitors charge more as their customers use more storage space. It's reasonable to assume that these companies make more money the more data they are storing. Thus, they are not motivated to delete files. In my opinion, you're better off using a company with this business model.

Mozy customers are, in effect, trying to get something for nothing with unlimited storage for only $55 per year. It's too good to be true.

I'm far from done. More tomorrow...

Update. February 9, 2008. In an attempt to generate commissions someone made a comment to this article suggesting that mozyonlinebackup.com offered impartial reviews. It does not. The site is run by John Pontillo of Fishkill, New York. That the links to Mozy look like
http://www.mozy.com/?ref=99999999&kbid=99999&m=9&i=99
is a giveaway of the true purpose of the site - generating commissions.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.