Thanks for the great tip.
I've just bought MozyHome and was quite disappointed not to be able to backup network disk!

I followed these directions, I can enable the network share backup and then add a network share but Mozy keeps changing the registry back to "0" before any backup is completed... ;-(

It doesn't matter as the values that are set for the backup do stick. Have a look in the "Restore" tab and you should see the files that have been backed up.

nope - Mozy seems to ignore any network share and just backup local.

At the end of the backup the registry key is changed back to 0

Any tips?

what version of MozyHome are you running?

1.8.8.1

Bummer - I'm having the same problem. It resets the value to zero and doesn't backup - I tried a few other "options" in the registry but it doesn't seem to work. Version: 1.8.10

Well I'm unable to help anyone at the moment as for some reason I can't login to my MozyHome and haven't been able to for a few weeks. I'm waiting for "higher level technicians" to help and I've been told "Once I receive a response from this department I will let you know."

Doesn't work :( I guess mozy will loose to elephant or other bloatware.

It's silly for mozy to disable such important feature, as I keep many of my private files on home server.

Yes. I've stopped MozyHome now because I too have a Network Attached Storage device and I was simply having too much trouble.

One way to avoid having to reset to registry key is making the permissions "read only" for the system account.

Nice idea! I feel I should have thought of that. :)

I'm getting fed up of resetting this value to backup my NAS storage.

Nice idea - can you explain how I do that?

Giving this a try with 1.10.4.2... I guess we'll see.

The reason they do this is they figure people with network storage are 'big files' guys and they want to push you onto the pro plan. Makes sense I guess - a whole company would put all its stuff on a network and the IT guy could back up it all using Mozy on one PC. If you read their terms and conditions, if you want network, buy pro, simple.

I guess their 'unlimited' plan starts to cost them too much if people upload many terabytes of data.

My solution is to use 'synctoy' to copy the relevant folders from the network drive, on a schedule, to a spare hard drive in my desktop PC. But it's a two stage solution (network -> local, local -> mozy) so it may take some hours/days for my 'new' files to get backed up onto Mozy.

Will Smith
London

Any updates on this? I would like to purchase Mozy (not the Pro version), and I have a NAS device...thanks!

The suggestion about setting the SYSTEM account to read-only works! I'm running with MozyHome ver. 1.16.3.4 and it works.

I'm on 1.16.4.0 and like the network thing is already 1... Can someone give me an older version or something?

I'd really love to use this but I just installed version 1.16.4.0-9388 and the "networksharesupport" d-word is already in the registry and is set to 1.  When I try to right-click on the "file system" tab I don't get anything.  I tried changing the value to 0, but nothing happens either.  Any ideas?  Does anyone know where to download older versions?

Thanks!

The article is now old and the techniques have changed. Install the Mozy Network Share Enabler program to enable share support in Mozy now.

I am running Mozy Home 1.16.4.0. I used the "Mozy Network Share Enabler" and tried to add a network share, but it the ball just keeps spinning, and doesn't add the share. :-(

Any ideas?

Perhaps check that if the share you are connecting to needs authentication? Sometimes (especially with Vista) you need a username and password to connect to a share (and you may not know this, as your authentication settings have been stored by Windows)

If the dialog pops up allowing you to add a share, then the network share enabler has done its job, any further issues are due to Mozy or Windows.

Running Mozy Share Enabler under Windows 7 I get an error stating Mozy Home or Mozy Home Pro was not detected. Ran in Administrator mode.

Thanks for your feedback, I will test further in Windows 7 and respond here (shortly, I'm on holiday at the moment)

I really like the discussion about this here. I have suggested it to some of my Mozy-using friends. The one thing I was wondering is if anybody has been able to figure out how to do something similar on an Apple computer? I have been trying to figure it out, but so far, no good.

I am running Mozy Share Enabler under Windows 7 x64 I get an error stating Mozy Home or Mozy Home Pro was not detected. When I change the registry entry, I am able to enable and back up the share, but it does not show up in the restore.

I've just got back from my holiday, and I will investigate Windows 7 i386 and x64 compatibility in the next few days. Please check back shortly.

Created a x64 version. Tested on Windows 7 x64.
If Vista x64 still doesn't work, please let me know!

Appreciate your efforts Dan.
Ran the Share Enabler and got "Internal error: Cannot access 64-bit registry keys on this version of Windows" for both the regular Share Enabler and 64-bit version.
I'm running WinXP SP3.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks, a minor mistake on my part while compiling the setup wizard did that.
Fixed.

Hi,

Thanks for putting these instructions together and creating the little app, but it is not working for me.
Running Vista 32bit and 1.16.4.0.
It just keeps reverting back.

Any ideas?

Many thanks.

I am on Win 7 64 bit and Mozy 1.16.4.0. You program loaded without any errors but in Mozy I do not get any option to add my network locations or see them in any way. Any suggestions?

I'm also running windows 7 ultimate 64 bit and mozyHome 1.16.4.0. I too see no right click option. Any help is appreciated :)

OK guys, I'll take a look and update you soon

May by obvious, but make sure you are running this tool as the admin. Right-click the shortcut and select "run as Administrator"....

That makes sense, I have been running with UAC disabled.

If you have UAC enabled then you'll need to run it as Admin. I don't think it'll be easy to bypass UAC, but I'll take a look at it.

That solved it for me, I dont know why I did not think of that in the first place.

thanks

One way to bypass UAC is to create a scheduled task that runs on startup and check the option for "run with highest privileges". So you could use that instead of the "Run" registry key, however I am not sure if you'll get the systray icon (not that it's particularly informative anyway).

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=616

There is even a clever trick to launch an elevated scheduled task using a shortcut.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=730

Thanks for the app!

- MrShannon (http://mrshannon.wordpress.com/)

Hi, this works great for enabling networks shares but for some reason, all files stored on my NAS show up as 0Kb and Mozy does not back them up. Any ideas?

TIA

Which NAS do you have?

Do you know if its possible to run MozyHome on my pc running Win Server (64 bit)? The app won't launch b/c of the server version of the OS even though I use it as my local dev box.

any thought?

Running Mozy 2.0.11.1 on a Windows 7 64bit box. The registry key keep getting changed back even with enabler running.

OK I'm now running Mozy 2.0.11.1 on a Windows 7 64 bit. I'll see what happens.
Seems a lot of the download links have disappeared, so if anyone wants Mozy 2 it's here.
http://mozy.com/downloads/mozy-2_0_11_1.exe

Can you give me an more information about your setup? 2.0.11.1 has been running for 2 days without the enabler and currently it looks like the keys haven't been changed back.

Do you have UAC running?
Have you have an older version of Mozy running (with or without the enabler)?
Any other relevant information will be handy.

Has anyone tested this with the new Mozy 2.0?

It seems to work so far on my Windows 7 x64, I'd like some more feedback though.

Dan,

Thanks for the update. I'm running Mozy 2.0.12.3 on Windows 7 x86 with your network share enabler and UAC disabled. Seems to be working great! Thank you for allowing me the ability to backup the contents of my NAS offsite!

Best regards,
Daniel

Hmmmm.... wonder if the new Mozy 2.0 coming out will affect this *WONDERFUL* plug-in at all....

Hello, I am using MozyHome v2.0.12.3 on my XP Pro SP2 notebook. My NAS is a DLink DNS-323.

I've done what your web page has said, in terms of installing the software and updating the registry key.

I am able to reach the Add Network Share window. When I attempt to add the UNC (\\192.###.###.###\Volume_1) and add credentials that I absolutely know do work, I am receiving the following error:

"Cannot access \\192.###.###.###\Volume_1. Please verify the share name is correct and the you have permission to access it. Details: an unexpected network error occurred."

I can both ping and browse to the UNC. The problem is that the Add Network Share feature seems to be not playing very well for me.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

I have come across this recently on a customer network.
I tried various machines (all XP) on the network and I was using MozyPro (which specifically allows network shares as part of it's license and allows you to add network shares "out of the box")

The only common object was the NAS, which once I replaced, all the machines with MozyPro were able to connect.
I suspect Mozy does not play nicely with certain makes of NAS (perhaps in conjunction with XP, I don't know). I doubt you will be able to use the product as it stands. Sorry!

Realy great Job.
Today i do the update to Mozy Home 2.0 and your plugin still works fine.

using mozy 2.0.12.3 plus the 64bit enabler on win7. Seems to work fine, but you have to run the enabler as administrator.

Thanks for your work, I'm off to buy a mozyhome license.

I don't like subverting their intentions like this, but if they had a linux client I wouldn't have to do this.

As it is I keep all my pix and music and stuff on a linux box and i've got an ssd on my windows machine for speed. So all the actual important stuff i can only get to via network shares. I don't really have as much stuff as I'd imagine a lot of people do, so I don't really think I'm subverting the spirit of their ban.

Great article! Thanks a ton! I've had success with this method on my Windows XP Professional SP3 machine running MozyHome 2.0.12.3. I was wondering, has anybody figured out a way to do this for MozyHome on a Mac? A friend of mine runs Mac and has the need for this same type of feature, and while I'm pretty Windows savvy, I am completely lost on a Mac. I know there isn't a registry on a Mac, but is there some equivalent? Where might these types of application setting flags be stored in a Mac? Thanks for any advice!

Thank you for all the effort.
However, I am using MozyHome 2.0.12.3 running on a Vista x32 and wheile I can nefine a network drive to be backed up on MozyHome, when the actual backup happens I get "failed to connect to network share".
I _can_ access this network drive form the file explorer.
Any ideas ?

Dan,

One more observation on "failed to connect to network share" which I mentioned before:
Mozy does connect to the NAS share & backups all the new files successfully :-).
During the next backup, however, the backed-up files get "patch size = 0 bytes" and than comes the above error.

I will further check if I can recover the NAS files which were backed up by Mozy
Thanks again for a great work.

Dvir

I used this program an it worked for mozy. However, i was asked for my username and password for my NAS, which i entered

are there any security issues here.

also does your program need to keep running, or can i stop it?

The username and password is part of Mozy Network Drive support, there is no more security risk than using MozyPro.

The program needs to run all the time, it's function is to check the registry keys mentioned in this article and change them if they have been changed back to their original ones, and that is all it does.

Regards
Dan

i used this great software on my xp machine nor problem. now i am trying it on my vista machine, and i right click on the drives in mozy and nothing happens

UAC needs to be switched off, or the application shut down, and restarted via rightclick "run as administrator"

typical vista.

thanks....

Seems to be working fine with mozy 2.2.2.3 on win7 32bit (running it as admin), i was getting the network drive error at first but found that you can not have the drives mapped while starting the backup. It is currently backing up 900+ Mbs of data ill get back to you on whether or not this completes.

Is there any way to make the tool ask for admin permissions when it starts? would make it easier so the tool will work correctly when it starts with windows even if i have to click once every time i start the computer.

Lol.. Yes! This is why I'm running a fund raiser to do this work (check out Update: 09 August 2010 at the top of the page)

Like many people, I have a job and family (and I'm moving home at the moment) and finding it difficult to sit down and make the time to do this.

I don't want to sell the software & I want it to remain free - however I need an incentive to do this extra work as the software works perfectly well without it (especially on my system!)
As an aside, I meant to put £100 rather than $100, but only noticed after the first donations. So I'll stick to my end of the bargain.

100 whatever, that's fine, pretty cheap either way - you're doing the Lord's work (I understand there are a lot of Lords in the UK, probably an inappropriate reference, huh?) - I donated and I'm going to bully anyone I know using Mozy to donate also.

Thank you very much.

Bruce

P.S.
If you're reading this and you haven't donated...why? You probably tipped the wait staff an extra $5 this week and I guarantee you at least ONE of them left some DNA in your food. Dan just writes helpful software - no DNA!

Bruce, thank you for your donation and your comment. I'd like to think I put a bit of myself into the work I do, but it's true I don't leave any DNA :)

Thanks a lot for the wonderful tip.
I downloaded Mozy Network Share Enabler and donated.
But it doesn't do its job on my Win 7 (32 bits).
Please, users, donate!
Stephane

Many thanks for your generous donation Stephane.

You're welcome Dan.
Huh, would you start to adapt the 32bit version only when donations sum up to 50£?
In this case, we would only need 9£ more to get it :)
Stephane

Hi Dan,

I've got an issue on XP that looks like it'd be quick to fix... I have installed both Mozypro desktop (2.2.2.3) and Mozyhome (2.2.2.3) on the same XP machine, but right clicking the Mozy Network Share Enabler in the system tray and it only shows 'Mozy Pro 64 bit detected'. Mozy Pro already allowed me to add a network share, but Mozyhome doesn't - I can change the registry value myself and activate the feature, but after I add the network share to Mozyhome and backup, the registry key is reset, and no files are uploaded (it just completes 'successfully' with no files transferred).

Please could you look into this and tweak it so it recognises both versions of Mozy on the same machine? I'll be very happy to donate only this works :)

Cheers

Bob

Stephane,
I'm moving home on the 23rd-26th September this month, so things are very busy. However you've been very generous, so what I'll start on the 32bit version a little before I move and concentrate on it afterwards and I'll send it to you as a tester.
I'll also send an email to anyone else that has donated that may wish to test either version. I'll keep you all posted.

Regards
Dan

Bob,
I'd not considered that configuration in my code. Should be easy enough to fix, but can you confirm you are on 64bit or is it detecting the OS type incorrectly as well?

Hi Dan,

Thanks for getting back to me - I'm on 32 bit Win XP pro, so it looks like it's detecting the OS incorrectly. If you need me to run some tests just let me know

Cheers,

Bob

Hi Dan,

Not sure if you got my previous reply as I replied to your comment instead of adding a new post. I confirmed that I'm on 32 bit XP, so it's detecting the OS incorrectly.

Looking forward to trying out the new build - let me know if you need my help testing at all

Many thanks,

Bob

OK, thanks Bob.

mozy network share enable just stopped working. i no longer see network drive as option in mozy

I installed mozy 32 bit version on my windows xp system. when i right click on the mozy enabler, it says "mozy home 64 bit detected"

but my machine is 32 bit.

Yes, the new version will have an improved Mozy detection routine.

Thanks a lot.

I found the other registry option in order to choose a network destination folder for any backup.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\mozy\options\restrictrestores

to be set to value 1

Dan, I just donated what I could right now. Please do what you can to get this great app working on Windows 7 Pro 32bit!! Thanks!
Pasqual (eyardsale)

I don't know if you've looked at this option or not, but you can actually receive events when a registry tree, key, or value is changed. Currently, it looks like your tool is constantly reading the registry in a constant loop consuming some, if minimal, system resources. You could instead register to receive an event when the value is changed and then update the value appropriately. The details are here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa393035(VS.85).aspx.

Also, as a side note, I had to update the permissions on the options registry key to grant Full Control to all users before the process was able to update the values. This is using Windows 7 64-bit.

Thanks!

If I backup content from NAS drive what is the risk that it is deleted by Mozy or that I will not be able to restore it later on?

Dan, I see you started work on the new version and are offering pre-release test versions for those who donated. Please Email me and let me know when a test version is available, I'd love to test!
Thanks
Pasqual

Anybody experienced Mozy deleting stuff? Over several days I have backed up 100GB out of 225GB from my network drive but today it seems it has begun from zero again. As if nothing has been backed up at all :( No notice or anything from Mozy.

Any ideas?

Dan -

Glad to see the goal was met - sad that it took so long. I'd love to beta any new builds should you desire - I have a safe, generic, Win 7 x64 environment to test it in - just Mozy client and your enabler installed. You can email me at:

blautens at gmail dot com

Thanks,
Bruce

Thank you all for the donations.
Sorry for the delay, I've been moving home this last few weeks and it's a stressful process to say the least!
Anyway, I'm settled now, and can now get concentrate on this project once more.

I have everyones email that donated, and beta builds will emailed out shortly.

Bruce, thanks for your offer, but at this time only people that have donated will get the new version.

It will be released to the general public in due course, as promised.

Hi,
(first sorry for my bad english...)

I installed Mozy 2.4.3.0
Since the Update Mozy dont backup my networkshares. But I can add them in mozy->filesystem.

Is that a known bug?

David G.

Dan

Is there the possibility that you could enable MozyHome to do a Local Backup to a network drive. I currently have a NAS that I have to ROBOCOPY the files to after doing a backup. It would be nice to be able to conduct the backup straight to the NAS drive.

Thanks

I am having a similar problem as someone mentioned. Since Thursday, I am no longer backing up my network files. I can get to them just fine, even do a restore (at least until 30 days have transpired). I've tried redoing the share, putting the username for the target filesystem, but no help. Any ideas? Did Mozy close a loophole perhaps?

Please read the 13th November update at the top of the page.

Dan,, I'm in the unfortunate position that I foolishly allowed Mozy to automatically update my client so I'm currently locked out of using mozy to back up my NAS.

Do you have any thoughts how long the update to your great software will be to allow us to backup NAS's again ?

OR - Any ideas where we can get the old versions of Mozy to allow us to "downgrade" to a version that allows us to backup NAS .... My backup was working fine until this last upgrade !

Many thanks and keep up the great work

Hi Dan,

Any idea where I can snag the older version?

Thanks,
Daniel

The files are still on Mozy's servers:-

https://mozy.com/downloads/mozy-1_16_4_0-9388.exe
https://mozy.com/downloads/mozy-2_0_12_3-12645.exe
https://mozy.com/downloads/mozy-2_2_2_3-13808.exe

I'd get them quick while they are still being offered.

Hi Dan,

I can confirm that network backups still work with version 2.2.4.0.

Regards,
Daniel M.

2.2.4.0 can still be downloaded from https://mozy.com/downloads/mozy-2_2_4_0.exe

It's very annoying that these firms haven't gotten with the program: tons of folks use NAS nowadays. Of course, they can try to ream you with an "enterprise" version of the product, but no one is going to do that for their home network.

I couldn't get things working until I stumbled on this article on Mozy's site: http://mozy.force.com/support/mozyKnowledgeWidget?DocId=81625

Key finding: If you have a NAS (as I do), even if it doesn't require a username/password at all you STILL have to enter your username into Mozy in the form "machine\username". Their software must stupidly be looking to split on the "\". Once I did that, even though the username/password I entered was bogus (my NAS doesn't require any), it worked. Good luck!

Ryan

I uninstalled version 2.4.3 and reinstalled 2.2.2.3. I cannot get the
prompt for Network Drives to appear nor able to see any of network
drives to choose from. Any ideas?

Oleg

Oleg, no idea. Perhaps you could tell me what version of Windows you are running including the architechure (32/64 bit).

Also try disabling UAC completely and run as an Administrator account (purely for diagnostic purposes, I do not recommend doing this for day to day running) and see if it works then.

v1.12 (64 bit) seems to disappear from taskbar after resuming from sleep state.

I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit. I am already running as an administrator.

Hi Dan,

With Mozy now limited and uncompetetive (I daresay unreasonable), have you any plans to devise a solution for network backups via the truly unlimited Carbonine service? Let me know if I can assist.

Thanks,
Daniel

Hi Dan,

I haven't looked at Carbonite yet. I take it suffers from the same problem?
How do we know Carbonite won't move the goalposts in a few months once they see how much money they can save by cutting out the heaviest users?

I see the online backup market working like the ISP's a few years back. Everyone offers "unlimited" services and then they all quietly ratchett them back once they have market share...

Dan,
Hi - things working great thus far using MozyHome 2.2.4.0 on an XP Home SP3 machine. I ran your utility v1.12 - first I had to locate a copy of schtasks.exe from an XP Professional machine - the utility seemed to run but no resulting icon in the system tray - how do I know the program is running? In the meantime, I used regedit to enable (under options) share support and got my first backup underway. In Windows Task Manager, I see a mozystat.exe and mozyconf.exe. Does your utility program need to be running all the time under XP?
Also, is there the possibility that you could enable MozyHome to do a Local Backup to a network drive? I can now see the NAS in my "files to be backed up" list (thanks to you); however, I'd really like to be able to direct a local backup to the NAS drive.
Thanks again, Steve

Dan,

I tested Carbonite about a year ago when I first explored offsite backup solutions for my home NAS (as well as for my work's VM backup server). I determined in my testing that Carbonite does not allow the backing up of network shares - I later learned from their CEO in an online post that they do not even allow their users to backup the contents of external hard drives!

At some point in the next month, I need to test Carbonite by adding a Samba connection as an NTFS folder contained within an internal HDD's filesystem. Another service I need to test is CrashPlan, which is apparently unlimited, cheaper than Carbonite, and has the ability to backup network drives (this is information from a colleague, I cannot attest to its validity).

I agree with your observation of these services. While some customers may find this to be reasonable, I feel it's deplorable. For what it's worth, Carbonite has said via their Twitter following Mozy's announcement that they "remain committed to providing unlimited backup for a flat fee because of the simplicity it provides to our customers. ... We've got your back!"

Best regards,
Daniel

Steve,
Just in case, here is the original XP/non UAC version. I crazily did not test the new one on XP (Pro or Home)
Ideally it should run all the time and you should see it in the system tray in the bottom right near the clock.

Original XP Mozy Network Share Enabler

(Regarding the other request, I'm afraid not. If I could make MozyHome think a network drive was Local, then the new version would not be a problem!)

Daniel. Interesting to note.
I have no plans to attempt getting Carbonite working on network drives. The reason it happened with Mozy was simply luck that the Mozy team made it so easy to activate (it was in the registry!) I have also (since I am a geek) made my own backup more robust independently so I have less need for Mozy at home these days.

I used to use an older version of the mozy home software. But recently had to delete a computer and add it again. Now the software forces the latest client version (windows) or it generates an error. Now my NAS drives are showing in the list, files are even checked, but they are not backed up.
Any ideas if I can downgrade once the newer version is on and the first backup made?

Is it possible to prevent auto update anymore? Mozy seems to force this now with no option to disable. I still have over a year left but this might make me move soon :( They are really trying to annoy the power users...

This thread has been very useful. I have 20GB music, 50 GB photos, 200GB home videos on a NAS. I also have 60GB of "documents" stored on a local drive. There are TB's of movie backups, but I don't need Mozy for that. The NAS parity backup system works well enough. After all, these files are not irreplaceable like the photos and home videos are. After reading all of the efforts and hassle with registry settings, I have decided to use one of my extra 2 GB drives internally (they are $100) to make the files local to please Mozy. Then, use scheduled SyncToy backups or Mozy itself to backup to keep to the repositories of data in Sync. The game will change completely when my "unlimited" service ends in 2013. I don't fault Mozy one bit. They are making a business choice that is needed to remain viable. The entire industry is following this approach.

Yes, you can disable this functionality by flipping the "autoupdate" option in the registry from it's default setting of "1" to "0".

Yes, this can easily be done by flipping the "autoupdate" key under options in the registry entries to "0" vs. it's now default setting of "1".

Nice work.... well done