Once upon a time (back about twenty years ago), if you wanted to back up your brand-new ten megabyte hard drive you went out and bought yourself a box of floppy disks.  If you were really lucky you owned a brand-new 5.25? floppy drive capable of using disks that could hold up to 1.2 megabytes of data.

Back then, backing up a hard drive mainly involved buying a box of floppies and zipping data across disks.  As years passed, however, the size of hard drives continued rising?and the size of floppies didn?t.  The widespread move to 3.5? floppy drives in the early 90s increased storage capacity to 1.44 Meg, but by then hard drive capacity in even the average computer was well past 200 Meg.  A number of manufacturers introduced products designed to bridge the gap between floppies and hard drives.  Some, like Iomega?s Zip drive, had limited popularity, others, like the ?floptical? drives of the early 90s were expensive failures.  Capacities either tended to be too low to promote adoption over the floppy, or the drives and disks were too costly.

The introduction of the CD burner temporarily gave the edge back to removable media.  Although CD burners were slow, a typical CD could hold 600 Meg, which made backing up even multi-gig hard drives quite possible.  By the late 1990s, however, CD burners were already losing backup value.  Backing up even a 10 gigabyte hard drive took 17 CD?s and over two hours of burning time on a modest 8x burner.  Moreover, because CD?s had to be swapped by hand, it wasn?t an operation that could be easily automated.

The introduction of DVD burners hasn?t changed much.  While DVD?s hold up to eight times as much as CD-ROM?s (up to 4.8 GB), hard drive storage has increased by entire orders of magnitude.  DVD-R?s are also significantly more expensive than CD-R?s?picking up 25 of them to back up a hard drive probably isn?t the most cost-effective measure available.  Then, of course, there?s also the time needed to create the backup copy itself, the risk of damage, and the need for backups to be handled manually. 

In the meantime, the cost of hard drives has dramatically dropped.  With 120 gig drives now costing as little as $80, this puts the effective cost per gigabyte as low as sixty-six cents.  Although this is higher than the cost-per-gigabyte of a DVD-R, hard drives sustain much higher transfer rates than the slower burners and backups from drive to drive can be left unattended.

The most cost and time-effective means of backing up a hard drive for the home and small business user, therefore, may well be another hard drive.    Enter the Mirra Personal Server, a device designed to offer continuous backups, remote access, and customized file sharing across both a local network and the Internet

Conclusion

Simplicity:  Mirra?s Strong Point

From set up to backup to file sharing, Mirra is damn easy to use.  Anyone familiar with navigating the Windows file system on even the most basic level (ie, selecting directories and folders) will have no problem configuring the system properly.  If you aren?t familiar with even these basics, Mirra?s shipping documentation does contain guides to how to use it. 

Simplicity is where Mirra shines.  As Mac users are fond of saying, it works. It works well, and as far as I was able to test, it works flawlessly, as long as you keep in mind that this isn?t a system designed for enterprise-level backup.  If you attempt to launch simultaneous multiple backups, the system queues them?Mirra isn?t powerful enough to run them simultaneously. 

I started this review highly dubious of whether or not the M-120 could justify its $499 price tag.  After two weeks with the unit, I think its worth it over buying another PC to do the same thing.  Granted, if you?ve already got the components, $499 for the Mirra software package alone isn?t going to be justifiable?but if you?re contemplating a purchase to fulfill your backup needs, I?d say this one?s worth it.

Perceived Value:  Mirra?s Achilles Heel

The biggest problem the M-80, M-120, and M-250 have to overcome is the perceived lack of value relative to their prices.  Even the cheapest unit, at $399, doesn?t stack up well against a full-sized PC for the average customer. 

Are the systems easy enough to use that it justifies their price?  For at least the M-80 and the M-120, I?d say so, assuming you?re going to use the features Mirra offers.  The M-250 is so expensive it?s harder to claim it?s a real value when you compare it against what $750 buys in the PC world these days.

While I like the Mirra concept, it?d be nice to see these units drop in price; hopefully they will as additional volume begins to ship.  Mirra would probably ship enough in volume at a $299 and $399 price point to make up for the loss in raw margin.  The M-250 is probably pure gravy?I?m not sure how many home office / small office users have a need for a backup capacity of 250 gig. 

The Bottom Line: 

The M-120 accomplishes everything Mirra claims it does, and does it while remaining easy to use and access, even from remote locations. Mirra?s cost is justified not simply by the capabilities of the system, but by the simplicity with which they can be executed.  Although Mirra primarily sells the unit as a solution for home users and the technically clueless, this is a system with appeal to anyone who wants a backup solution they don?t have to design and test themselves.

Is it possible to build a PC yourself that?ll do everything the M-120 does?  Yes.  Continuous backup monitoring and remote access aren?t ideas that Mirra invented, and I?m sure there are software solutions (both free and commercial) that?ll handle them without any problem.  If you?re the kind of user that enjoys building the system, researching and installing the software, configuring your network, and then tweaking the entire thing for optimal performance, than Mirra isn?t a product you?ll be interested in.

If, on the other hand, you?re looking for a backup solution that plugs in, powers up, and is ready to work in less than ten minutes, than the Mirra Personal Server series really may be right up your alley.  Speaking personally, just because I *can* build myself a custom backup solution doesn?t always mean I want to or have time to.  The great advantage of the Mirra M-120 in these kinds of situations is that it plugs in and is ready to go, fully auto-configured for remote access. 

Mirra?s product team was responsive to our questions and genuinely interested in feedback, both positive and negative.  They, in turn, discussed some ideas for types of Mirra servers and product lines in the future, as well as where current Mirra designs might be upgraded or enhanced. 

After evaluation, I?d say that the M-80 and M-120 deliver everything they promise and are just as easy to use as the literature claims.  Despite appearances, the hardware the systems ship with is adequate to the goal of providing a backup solution for the home or home office, and I?d strongly advise against allowing weak hardware specs blind you to the product?s potential.  It matters less than you?d think.

If you just want an occasional drive to dump data on, pick yourself up an external hard drive.  If you want the joy of setting something up yourself, find some PC components (or a box) and dive in.  But if you want something built out of the box that takes minutes to set up, and can be accessed remotely by default by yourself or others, check out Mirra. 

< previous - (5 of 5)

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• Internal, External Design (1 of 5)
• The Pitch: What Mirra Claims (2 of 5)
• Installation, Setup, Features (3 of 5)
• Remote Access (4 of 5)
• Conclusion (5 of 5)