In day-to-day use, the MPS monitors all of the folders and files you have identified for back up and backs existing
files up as they are modified or new files as they are added. This is the essential "set-it-and-forget-it" experience
that many home and small business users require. What is particularly cool about how MPS works is that it has the
ability to back up open files on Windows XP or Server 2003 systems using an NTFS disk format by using Microsoft's
Shadow Copy service. This capability does not extend, unfortunately, to users running Windows 2000.
The implications for this are pretty profound. I have Outlook open all day long and the MPS is backing up my .pst
files as I work. The MPS also supports version control, saving up to seven copies of a file as it is modified and
re-saved. It's a simple matter to restore any one of these versions to your PC if you've accidentally made otherwise
irrevocable changes that you wish you hadn't.
The Mirra software makes it very easy to assess the state of your local files by attaching a small Mirra icon to every
file and folder included in your backup set (see screen shot below). The system tray icon pulses when files are being
transferred to or from the MPS and turns gray when you are not connected to the LAN on which the MPS resides.
In practical terms, these backup capabilities, when combined with the file sharing features of MPS I'll cover in the
next installment of this review, provide a remote access and synchronization solution less complex than any I've seen.
I can, for example, duplicate my Outlook .pst files to a second machine by installing the Mirra Client software on that
system and copying the continuously backed up Outlook files from the server. Here's the cool part. Any changes I make
on the second system are written back to the MPS and then sync'ed to the first system. Keep in mind that the MPS is not
an Exchange Server and is not intended to support multiple users accessing Outlook data files simultaneously. In order
for the synchronization I just described to happen, I can only have Outlook open on one system at a time.
As I mentioned in the previous post in this review, Mirra recommends that your initial backup and any restore or
undelete operations be performed with a wired Ethernet connection. This is sound advice given the sometimes
inconsistent performance of WiFi. An interrupted undelete operation, in particular, can be difficult or impossible to
finish if interrupted by a loss of connectivity. But for ongoing daily work, I have found that a good WiFi connection
works just fine (albeit a bit slower).
Next: File sharing with the Mirra Personal Server
Review: Mirra Personal Server (part 3)
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. Randy: Sorry if I gave you the impression the Mirra is noisy - I guess it's all relative. The fan noise is only noticeable in a completely quite room (early in the a.m. for me). Any ambient sound (people talking, stereo or TV playing, birds singing outside) cancels it out.
FWIW, my wife's old Mac G3 is a lot louder. Actually so is her external SCSI CD burner.
As far as size goes, it's small enough to tuck away on a CPU pedestal or (wiring permitting) locate in a closet. It fits quite nicely on a shelf on my workstation designed for a printer for example.
The only other device I'm aware of that offers similar capabilities is a new until from Buffalo called the AirStation. The reviews I have read suggest that the setup is quite a bit more technically challenging and the file sharing capabilities are much more limited than Mirra's. You also apparently need to supply your own backup software.
Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Marc Orchant
3. I was one of the very first buyers of the Mirra M-80. For the most part, it is an excellent product. I have two gripes.
First, the company markets Mirra as a continuous-backup device, and as such, provides the user with absolutely no ability to control the timing of backups. This can be a problem when, for example, your email .pst file is over a gigabyte and Mirra insists on backing it up continuously (every hour, I think). When Mirra backs up this file, my PC just about shuts down. It hogs the CPU, disk drive and network bandwidth so bad that I can't get any work done until the task finishes. Even a Ctrl/Alt/Delete can take 30 seconds sometimes to respond. It would be very easy for Mirra to allow the user to customize backup timing. I'd be happy with backing up email 1-2 times a day, times of my choosing. I've discussed this with Mirra a couple times and they just don't get it. Continuous backup is great, but it's not for everybody. And with a little tweaking of the software, Mirra could have the perfect "scheduled backup" solution, a product that would appeal to a lot of people.
My other gripe is that my Mirra just died, I notified Tech Support, and they told me my hard drive is toast. They apparently can't figure out what to do because my warranty has expired. So I am without any backups while Mirra is trying to come up with a fix cost for me. It's been 3 days and they still haven't come up with a cost.
Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by John Squires
4. This seems to be a great system! Too bad it's so large and noisy. Are there any alternatives that have similar functions?
Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Randall Skoglund
5. Randy: Sorry if I gave you the impression the Mirra is noisy - I guess it's all relative. The fan noise is only noticeable in a completely quite room (early in the a.m. for me). Any ambient sound (people talking, stereo or TV playing, birds singing outside) cancels it out.
FWIW, my wife's old Mac G3 is a lot louder. Actually so is her external SCSI CD burner.
As far as size goes, it's small enough to tuck away on a CPU pedestal or (wiring permitting) locate in a closet. It fits quite nicely on a shelf on my workstation designed for a printer for example.
The only other device I'm aware of that offers similar capabilities is a new until from Buffalo called the AirStation. The reviews I have read suggest that the setup is quite a bit more technically challenging and the file sharing capabilities are much more limited than Mirra's. You also apparently need to supply your own backup software.
Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Marc Orchant
6. I was one of the very first buyers of the Mirra M-80. For the most part, it is an excellent product. I have two gripes.
First, the company markets Mirra as a continuous-backup device, and as such, provides the user with absolutely no ability to control the timing of backups. This can be a problem when, for example, your email .pst file is over a gigabyte and Mirra insists on backing it up continuously (every hour, I think). When Mirra backs up this file, my PC just about shuts down. It hogs the CPU, disk drive and network bandwidth so bad that I can't get any work done until the task finishes. Even a Ctrl/Alt/Delete can take 30 seconds sometimes to respond. It would be very easy for Mirra to allow the user to customize backup timing. I'd be happy with backing up email 1-2 times a day, times of my choosing. I've discussed this with Mirra a couple times and they just don't get it. Continuous backup is great, but it's not for everybody. And with a little tweaking of the software, Mirra could have the perfect "scheduled backup" solution, a product that would appeal to a lot of people.
My other gripe is that my Mirra just died, I notified Tech Support, and they told me my hard drive is toast. They apparently can't figure out what to do because my warranty has expired. So I am without any backups while Mirra is trying to come up with a fix cost for me. It's been 3 days and they still haven't come up with a cost.
Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by John Squires
1. This seems to be a great system! Too bad it's so large and noisy. Are there any alternatives that have similar functions?
Posted at 6:20AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Randall Skoglund