My PC Backup Review & Coupon

Review Summary

Mozy is consitently rated one of the top online backup services. Their recent release of Mozy 2.0 has made them even more popular. Mozy maintains multiple datacenters in both the USA and the United Kingdom and has been around quite a while, meaning they earned their way to the top-tier of online backup companies.

My PC Backup Pricing

One of the best things about My PC Backup compared to others is its simplified pricing model. It is a single, unlimited plan with pricing from $4.95 per month to a maximum of $9.95 per month, depending on how long you sign up for. The most popular plans are the one and two year plans at $5.95 and $4.95 per month respectively.

Be aware, however that once you start using MyPC Backup, you will discover a number of features that will require you to upgrade your account at an additional cost. If you plan to add a second computer or upgrade from a daily backup to hourly, you might want to price these out when comparing against other services.

Installation and setup

The first time you login to the My PC Backup, there is a tutorial that walks you through the download of the software. Installing My PC Backup is quick & easy and takes just two or three minutes. In fact, the install process was so streamlined that we were literally set up and backing up before we had time to take a screenshot to show you.

During the install process, you will be prompted for which files to backup. For most users, selecting the default “My Documents” folder will suffice, however you have full control of the files and folders you want to include or exclude. Once you set the files to backup, setup is over and your first backup literally begins.

Using the software

One of the first things you will notice about the My PC Backup software is that it shows a progress bar that lets you know how much you have uploaded and how much is left. While we think this could be improved by adding a time estimate, it is still nice to see your progress at a glance.

You have the option to change the backup schedule. If they were going for simplicity with this feature, they hit the nail on the head. Your choices are hourly or daily. As we notes in the pricing section, changing this option to hourly will require you to upgrade your account.

While the software has no limits on the maximum size of files, it does set one annoying default that you will want to change. In the settings, by default they set the software to skip files over 2MB. While this may sound OK, keep in mind that this will exclude most high-resolution photos, downloaded music and video files. It is easy to change this option and we recommend that you do.

One more thing that you will want to change from the default is the file type option. By default, we found that while they do preselect some file types, we found a number that were set not to back up that are important to us.

Restoring Files

Restoring files through the My PC Backup software is very straightforward. Simply click on the “Restore Files” button and a windows will open that lets you navigate to the file (or folder) you need. Once you find the file(s) you want to restore, just click “Restore”. It couldn’t be simpler.

If you’re in a remote location you can also restore files from the My PC Backup website. Just launch any modern web browser and login. Once there, you can navigate through your files and folders and select the files you want to restore. You can then download them directly to the PC you are working on. One thing we didn’t figure out was how to select an entire folder with a single click. It appears you have to select each file one by one. Could be a pain for large restore jobs, but it does the job.

Regardless of whether you use the My PC Backup software or the website, they do have a cool versioning system. This means that once you find the file you want to restore, simply click on “versions” and you will be able to see every single time a change was detected by the backup and saved. This is a good feature in the event you accidentally overwrite the content of a file. The only bad thing is that it only allows you to go back three days.

In Closing

My PC Backup is a good solution for PC users because of their unlimited plan and low cost. If you have more than a few computers (such as a business) you might want to look at a more robust solution. Also, if you have a Mac, you’re not going to be able to use My PC Backup.

What we liked about My PC Backup

The installation process is lightning fast. You are literally up and running in just a couple of minutes.

Their file sync and file share options are cool. You can put files in a special folder (like Dropbox) and sync them automatically between computers and your mobile devices.

Their website is just as easy to use as the software, that is a big plus.

Their backups (and the sending of your data) are securely encrypted.

What we didn’t like about My PC Backup

Not having a version for the Mac is our biggest pet peeve. (Full disclosure: We’re mostly Mac users, in fact there is only one PC in our office.)

We also didn’t like the annoying defaults of excluding a number of file types and files over 2MB. We can’t tell you how screwed you will be if you don’t change those settings. When disaster strikes you will find that none of your music, photos or videos got backed up.

The only other thing we didn’t like is that there is no mention of upgrade pricing on their website. You only find out about upgrade options when you try to schedule hourly backups or add another computer. We feel that is kind of sneaky, but the reality is that most home users with only 1 PC will never even notice.