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Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

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Re: Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

#131
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do this with rsync as well, including the hardlinked-to-older file method. Have a look at the `--link-dest` option to rsync.

Arq is like Tarsnap/Attic/Borg in that it uses shift-resistant block deduplication - it can efficiently cope with small modifications to existing files, where rsync would have to clone the entire file for each new version.

In the context of Time Machine, it does not use that form of deduplication, so rsync is capable of fulfilling the parent's requirements.

In the larger scope of things, that level of deduplication has never been something I've found all that valuable; but of course most binary files I backup are images and music files; not ones which change frequently (if ever).

Re: Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

#132
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to keep them connected periodically otherwise if you lose it without reconnecting... lost . For backblaze it's even less time.

I believe for CrashPlan, this ONLY applies to CLOUD backups. If you backup to local media or across computers, there is no "auto-delete" timeframe.

Hello Everyone,

Wanted to jump in here to confirm.

This policy only affects devices that have not connected to CrashPlan Central in 6 months or longer. This does not affect volumes that have not connected to the device in that period of time. (i.e. an external hard drive that has not connected in 6 months.) Additionally, there is no minimum connection time for local CrashPlan backups.

It’s important for CrashPlan users to consistently connect their device(s). Part of CrashPlan’s ability to maintain the archive health and integrity relies upon regular connection from the device. CrashPlan is able to routinely perform maintenance on the archive by comparing checksums between both device and CrashPlan Central.

https://support.code42.com/Administrator/3/Monitoring_And_Ma...

Please let me know if I can provide additional clarity.

Best regards,

Jarrod

Re: Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

#133
Off topic: Is anyone else getting an SSL error trying to connect? This page opens fine on my Mac (OS X 10.11.4, Safari 9.1) but my iPhone (iOS 9.3.1) asks me to trust the certificate (ssl376366.cloudflaressl.com)

Edit: Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/wdfDt

Also, this appears to not happen on Wi-Fi. Willing to send any information I can gleam from this -- I'd be interested to know if this is a MITM attack or a mistake on CloudFlare's side.

Re: Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

#134
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took 3 years of disconnection before I got a notice the other day that one of my old backed up PCs was going to be deleted. It makes sense; they're not an open-ended data archival company. If you don't have a copy of the data locally, you can't expect CrashPlan to keep the one true copy indefinitely. Connecting the data to the internet twice a year doesn't seem too onerous to show evidence of that, particularly fo…

Absolutely agree with you - I think CrashPlan/BackBlaze are acting entirely reasonably when they delete old hard drives, particularly if they give a bit of grace after sending the email that they are about to nuke them. It's that just for some of us, who like to archive something like a 100 GB Hard Drive onto Amazon Glacier, for $0.007/GB/Month. (Roughly $0.70/month + $5 upload fees for a 100 GB Hard Drive Archive) -…

”On the Flip Side, backing up users two 5+ Terabyte Hard Drives on S3 with Arq gets a little pricey”

I send my Arq backups to Amazon Cloud Drive using the ”unlimited” plan. It costs $59.99/year. So far I have only backed up [Edited to correct confusing typo.]

Re: Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

#135
post #15

If I understand well, Arq does not backup the whole computer. I am looking for a tool that allows for recovery of single files, but also that has a backup of the whole machine, so that if the HD crashes it is possible to rebuild it verbatim. What does HN suggest for such a tool? I used Norton Ghost for years (but it has been discontinued).

I loved Acronis TrueImage for years until it became bloated. Macrium Reflect has since replaced it. There's a Free edition for you to try out.

Re: Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

#136
post #101

Given the rise of ransomware in the recent months, what protection does Arq offer against that? That thing alone would easily tip the scales for me versus the Time Machine. I see that the AWS S3 IAM user has both read and write access, so if the ransomware authors ever bother with it, they can kill the backups. Would that help if I setup versioning on the bucket? Will Arq be able to restore backups from the older ver…

Why would that tip the scales versus Time Machine? Time Machine should provide the same protection as Arq, i.e. versioned backups from before the ransomware attack should be safe. I know there was some hue and cry a little while ago about Mac ransomware that can encrypt network drives and external hard drives, but there's a reason why the _encrypt_timemachine routine was an unused stub. From what I understand, Time M…

Well, it should, but does it?

Time Capsule's drive is just another network drive. The data could be easily erased. There's also a button in the Airport Utility that nukes all data on the drive. There is no reason for me to believe that this button could not be triggered by rouge software.

It would be nice if you could provide citations to the opposite.

Re: Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

#137
post #41
post #14

How is this, from a technical point of view, more advanced than running rsync in a regular fashion (with hardlinks to keep cheap snapshots)? Just wondering about the technical aspects.

If you are interested in something similar to what you describe, there is always Dirvish. It's basically a program that manages multiple snapshots and backups using rsync and hardlinks. http://www.dirvish.org

Have you tried Dirvish yourself? No stable release for over ten years doesn’t really inspire confidence IMHO.

Re: Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

#138
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

like deleting backups of Hard Drives that haven't been plugged in for 6 months Wait - what? If your hard disk gets lost or destroyed, how do you protect those backups?

You need to keep them connected periodically otherwise if you lose it without reconnecting... lost . For backblaze it's even less time.

"You need to keep them connected periodically otherwise if you lose it without reconnecting... lost. For backblaze it's even less time."

No way. What ?

You're saying that if I dutifully pay my $X/mo for unlimited backup space, but fail to connect, or perform an update, the remote data is removed ?

What ?

Re: Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

#139
post #15

If I understand well, Arq does not backup the whole computer. I am looking for a tool that allows for recovery of single files, but also that has a backup of the whole machine, so that if the HD crashes it is possible to rebuild it verbatim. What does HN suggest for such a tool? I used Norton Ghost for years (but it has been discontinued).

I suggest Arq. You're incorrect about not backing up the whole computer: You can tell Arq to back up an entire drive.

Re: Arq 5: Massively faster backup and restore for Mac and Windows

#140
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe for CrashPlan, this ONLY applies to CLOUD backups. If you backup to local media or across computers, there is no "auto-delete" timeframe.

Don't know whether I'm grand-fathered into a different terms but I've just pulled some files from a back-up on a machine that was last active 5.4 years ago.

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