Fixing the MozyHome "FilesystemError3" message

So if you’re like me, and you’re paranoid about data loss, you’re probably using something to back up your data. Whether that something be Ghost, Carbonite, Iron Mountain, or simple file copies, you are always making sure you’re data is protected one way or another. Now, I personally use a combination of things. I use Norton Ghost to do full drive images every other day and copy them out to an external hard drive. I also use MozyHome for my most important files (financial data, some source code, school work, etc.). 

If you use MozyHome, and have ever seen this message for an un-explained reason, keep reading:
 

This error, according to Mozy support, means that the temporary location for caching the backups is full. Now, that may be the case for a lot of users, but it wasn’t for me. You see, Mozy is SUPPOSED to use the Windows environment variables to determine where to store its temp files (See the %TEMP% variable). In my case, this variable is set to %SystemRootTemp which is C:WindowsTemp. Where was MozyHome storing its cache? Try G:TEMP. I couldn’t figure out why this is the case, but now that I know, I’ll be sure not to delete it.

So before I realized all of this, I did a little “house cleaning” a few days ago and G:TEMP happened to be one of the directories which I removed completely. Then today I figured, maybe I should make sure my files are backed up (because I like getting warm and fuzzy feelings). So I look and sure enough, they weren’t. I did some hunting into this error and discovered all of the above mentioned information. 

I have since sent a response to MozyHome’s KB article on this error message explaining that this error can crop up if there is plenty of space, but the TEMP directory is simply missing. I then proceeded to jab them with a stick by saying that their backup software was completely ignoring Windows environment variables. Then again when I told them “Why not just create the temp directory if it doesn’t exist?” They shouldn’t be making their software complain about free space when that has nothing to do with what is going on. It is a very misleading error and they need to fix it. This error sort of seems like a “cach-all”.