Arq has been my choice for many years. Excellent software. It backs up internal, external, NAS, etc. Has TNO (Trust No One) encryption, and you can choose your cloud storage provider (Dropbox, Google Drive, S3, B2, etc. or the Arq Cloud)
Yes, Arq ran constantly on my old 2011 Mac Mini until a few days ago when the mini died. I had it configured to backup the two internal drives and multiple external USB drives. One USB drive was used as extra storage and constantly attached to the Mac. Others were attached from time to time and synced via ChronoSync with directories on the internal and external storage drive.
One of Arq’s features is to ignore any volume that isn’t mounted so it didn’t complain if one or more drives were disconnected when a backup started. If identical files were present in multiple directories or on multiple drives, Arq only backed up one copy.
Because I’m a cord cutter, I configured it to only run between 11PM and 7AM so backups didn’t interfere with streaming.
Currently, I’m debating what to do about backups now that the mini is gone. My iPad has been my primary computer for nearly a year and I have no need for another Mac.
Arq is now available for Windows and I’m considering purchasing an inexpensive micro pc for backup only. I always format my external drives with exFAT so they can be used by a Mac or a PC. And because Arq data files are identical, I can add to or restore from my existing Arq backups (dating back 7 years) on S3 using Mac or PC.
I highly recommend Arq and encourage others to give you their opinion.
I started with Arq years ago on an MacBook Air (I think), backing up the internal SSD & 1 external drive.
I managed a call center and changed computers often. If an executive needed a laptop “this afternoon” and nothing was available I would wipe mine, reinstall OS & standard apps from a SuperDuper image, hand it to its new user, and order a replacement. So I kept the bulk of my personal files in the cloud and on a USB drive that I kept with me and backed up everything with Arq. I also kept copies on a second USB drive that stayed at home.
After I retired I moved everything to an old mac mini and continued with what had worked well for years. And by keeping my system as light & portable as possible, I can leave it with family to run headless & unattended if/when I am away for extended periods of time.
There are many excellent backup solutions available today. This method and Arq works for me.
So for data that’s more then 2 TB, let me challenge you to examine what exactly your backing up and if it’s really needed to be backed up additionally to Backblaze.
Everything here would be non-recoverable again if something were to happen to my Backup Strategy. The only thing I would be able to regain would be my PDF Reference Library, because it’s a shared folder on several services.
I continuously add each week to these growing projects. The next question is how often do you go back to them (maybe glacier would be better). I go back to them occasionally either due to see if this is a duplicate or at someone’s request. It’s frequent enough I wouldn’t put at cold storage.
Side note - I have also been tempted to just delete everything and only keep the Audio, Photos and Video Libraries. Projects come and go, but APV are memories that can’t be “done again”.
Side note 2 - Tempted to at times delete it all, previous generations didn’t have all this tech and relied on their own memory or printed photo albums. A roll of 24 memorable pictures. Today, a single picnic ends up being 50-60 pictures that get saved and only 1-3 “good quality” pictures. An argument for another day.
I would recommend Hyper Backup. It is a package you can install on the NAS that is made by Synology. You can select what data you want to back up and point it to a bunch of different cloud options to choose from (or use more than one). You can do versioning (they call it rotation) and you can have client side encryption. I have 6TB backed up from my Synology to a Google Drive with it with no issues.
I’ve been using Wasabi for backup storage for my VPS’s and my Mac Pro for about 5 months now, Mac Pro is backed up via Arq to Wasabi. I’ve never had a problem with backing up to them, and it’s always much fast to recover a file from Wasabi Arq than BackBlaze B2 Arq. I also backup my Synology via Arq to Wasabi, mount the drive and configure the drive to backup to Wasabi and you’re all set.
I also use Wasabi for data storage for websites and files I share, it’s ridiculously fast and you don’t pay for egress or API calls, so much better than S3.
It took 10 days but I was able to backup to Wasabi. I was using Synology’s own Hyper Backup App for the uploading part.
From what I gathered, Wasabi doesn’t store the information the same way that it’s stored on my Synology. It’s a random list of folders with random numbers.
Any kind of “restore” that needs to happen (assumption) via the Synology Hyper Backup App. I don’t think this will work for me (someone chime in) as I would like to have a file access system in the cloud.
Next items
Test out using Arq to backup to Wasabi (instead of the Hyper Backup App)
Still can’t figure out why my Synology displays I have used 6TB so far, but my upload to Wasabi is only 4.2 TB (without errors) and Hyper Backup states a full backup has occurred. Trying to find the difference of the missing 2 TB. I almost very tempted to make an additional backup on a few external home drives. Scrub the Synolgoy, complete reformat, and upload it all again from a clean copy.
Yes, you will have to restore Hyper Backup back through that app. Same for Arq. They are backup programs, not cloud syncing apps. Backup apps will keep data in a database to keep track of versioning and allow restore from earlier points in time. Both are similar, and have some overlap, but are for different purposes.
Syncing, like iCloud, Dropbox, nextcloud, or OneDrive allow you to see files in the same folder structure. But if you were to need to restore multiple files to an earlier time (from ransomware for instance) those services don’t let you do that in bulk. Older versions of files are hidden from users on their back end.
Backup programs (like Hyper Backup, Arq, Carbonite, Backblaze, will have more powerful restore options, but you usually need to use their service or software to restore and they cannot be used to access files for quick access remotely without the restore process.
Same folder backed up again via Cloud Sync to B2
Backblaze C2 (Successful) - Size 370 GB
I am going crazy. Either I am doing something completely wrong or beginning to question “cloud backups” and just invest in another Synolgoy or external drive that I can see myself and monitor.
Are there a lot of files in the folder you are backing up? If the source location has a different block size than the destination then that might explain it.
But the best solution to verify if it is working is to now restore the data into another location, and then compare the original and restored. That will tell you if the data was indeed backed up, and while is is usually overlooked, testing restores is an important part of backup anyway.