Done. Drive #2 ordered and due the same day the iMac is due, so that should work well. Thanks for the tip.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Done. Drive #2 ordered and due the same day the iMac is due, so that should work well. Thanks for the tip.
So, now, I essentially will have 8 TB (two 4 TB drives) backing up 1 TB (iMac). Seems somewhat wasteful. Wonder if it would be safe to partition at least one of them for backing up a Windows PC with a 1 TB drive that I have in-house for maximum compatibility with my Windows-only workplace? IOW, it'd be (e.g.):
- Partition #1, 1.5 TB, partitioned for now as HFS+ -- TM.
- Partition #2, 2.5 TB, partitioned as NTFS -- Backups from the Windows box.
That would work, but it is a little like the earlier issue of having your eggs all in one basket (drive). But if you are okay with that, it will be fine.
Yeah, true. Perhaps I'll just consider the extra space to be for future use if, indeed, I do end up having to go with DAS or NAS as I add content -- in that case, the drives I'm getting now could hold content while the DAS or NAS could be the backup for those drives. Since I got each drive for a good price from Amazon, it's not that big a deal.
You're welcome! I am happy to do the math and share the findings to save you time.
Thank you very much and well done on the effort.
I have been following this thread for a while, but never made the decision to jump on the Arq/Amazon Cloud Drive solution as I thought having backups on two different hard drives was sufficient for me. While traveling last week, I lost all of my music and photos on my main media drive due to carelessness on my part. Fortunately, I have Time Machine & CCC backups/clones back home. However, I am away from home for 5 weeks, so the only way to restore them is having to wait until I'm back home.
This has made me revisit this thread, and am now testing Arq on a trial basis before I purchase it. I am also very grateful that you put all the effort into researching. So after reading your posts intently, and have used it for a few days, I'm very happy with Arq and BackBlaze B2 as my cloud storage provider. I now have the option of restoring my files/computer remotely. I know you don't work for them, but I think they should give you a commission, haha!
Got the new iMac a couple of days ago and set up Arq on it yesterday. I have about 182 GB in my directory in /Users. Am I correct in understanding that it will take a really long time for the first backup to B2 to finish (I'm seeing speeds ranging from 400KB/second to somewhat over 2 mB/sec), whereupon subsequent scheduled Arq sessions will be incremental only?
Yes... exactly. Just set the Mac not to sleep and let it run 24/7 until that initial upload is done.
I should've asked previously, I guess. I actually had to stop the process while I changed the power outlet into which the iMac was plugged. So do I start over, or does Arq simply go back and say, "Hmm, I didn't finish, so let's try that again"? I'm curious as to whether I should go into B2 and delete what's there now so Arq can get a fresh start (and I don't get charged for storage of what essentially would be an aborted backup bucket).
Last edited:
Nah... it keeps track of what you did and will just keep going. You are fine.
When you get all done, there is an option in the Arq menu to validate data... I would run that once when it is done.
When you get all done, there is an option in the Arq menu to validate data... I would run that once when it is done.
Thanks. Oddly enough, it reports it's done anyway. :-/ And an examination of B2 seems to confirm that. Not sure how that could be, but, hey. As for the validating the data, I assume you mean the thing at the bottom?
Hey guys!
Quick question. I'm wondering what some of the differences are between using the Backblaze backup service vs ARQ with B2 cloud storage?
I'm a touring musician and I go away for 3+ months at a time. I want to keep my files stored on the cloud should there be a catastrophe at home. I don't need to access them, just store them safely. Currently I'm using 3 external drives running Time Machine, but I would only be bringing portable external drives with me while I'm away.
Crashplan just seems too slow to backup 1.2 TB of data or so. Backblaze makes me nervous because if you detach external drives it tries to remove the data from their service. Am I right in thinking ARQ + B2 is the best way to archive and backup my years of photos / videos / music and is a pretty cheap option? I'm new to cloud storage / backups.
I don't care for versioning and keeping deleted files... I only need short term backups for the most part in addition to storing a few 400 GB Photos Libraries etc.
Thanks!
Quick question. I'm wondering what some of the differences are between using the Backblaze backup service vs ARQ with B2 cloud storage?
I'm a touring musician and I go away for 3+ months at a time. I want to keep my files stored on the cloud should there be a catastrophe at home. I don't need to access them, just store them safely. Currently I'm using 3 external drives running Time Machine, but I would only be bringing portable external drives with me while I'm away.
Crashplan just seems too slow to backup 1.2 TB of data or so. Backblaze makes me nervous because if you detach external drives it tries to remove the data from their service. Am I right in thinking ARQ + B2 is the best way to archive and backup my years of photos / videos / music and is a pretty cheap option? I'm new to cloud storage / backups.
I don't care for versioning and keeping deleted files... I only need short term backups for the most part in addition to storing a few 400 GB Photos Libraries etc.
Thanks!
Last edited:
@bwintx Just beware: "Validate backup data now" runs single-threaded. And if your backup wasn't complete, the validation will back up your missing data... at a slow single-thread speed.
You should first run "Back up now" from the menu to do a normal backup, then after that you can validate.
The validation hashes all local files and checks that the objects exist online, and uploads any missing objects.
@TDF External drives aren't handled well by Backblaze's and Crashplan's own apps since they both try to limit the amount of data people store, so they'll both delete external drive backups after they've been disconnected for a while. If you want to keep your external drive backups forever your only option is Arq, and just tick this box:
Arq is also way faster and less resource-intensive than Crashplan's and Backblaze's own backup apps (those are both written in Java). And I trust it more since I own the encryption keys.
You should first run "Back up now" from the menu to do a normal backup, then after that you can validate.
The validation hashes all local files and checks that the objects exist online, and uploads any missing objects.
@TDF External drives aren't handled well by Backblaze's and Crashplan's own apps since they both try to limit the amount of data people store, so they'll both delete external drive backups after they've been disconnected for a while. If you want to keep your external drive backups forever your only option is Arq, and just tick this box:
Arq is also way faster and less resource-intensive than Crashplan's and Backblaze's own backup apps (those are both written in Java). And I trust it more since I own the encryption keys.
I guess it's moot now as Crashplan have ended their consumer plan, but it had no limit on the amount of data you could backup and you could keep files forever. Crashplan also did not remove external drive backups after disconnection (Backblaze only retains for 30 days).
So (if you haven't guessed) I am/was a Crashplan user, also using Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) with I think is excellent. My setup was/is:
Onsite:
CCC daily to a USB drive
Crashplan to a different partition of the same USB drive (yes, just realised that is dumb and will get another drive - thanks for pointing that out above, @Weaselboy)
Offsite:Crashplan to a different partition of the same USB drive (yes, just realised that is dumb and will get another drive - thanks for pointing that out above, @Weaselboy)
Crashplan to my Dad's Mac (he backs up to me too).
Crashplan to their servers
Crashplan to their servers
Thanks for everyone's input here as I will now try Arq+B2 (ilo Crashplan). ...however, I spotted that Amazon Drive unlimited seems to still exist - when I clicked on their 1TB plan, I got an "unlimited storage" advert.
Attachments
Thanks to everyone for their input on this excellent thread. I too am a crashplan user looking for a new home soon. I have my data on a Mac mini running OS X server so backblase B2 sounds like a good replacement for crashplan. The person I spoke to at back blaze recommend cloudberry for a front end. Is this good advice, I realize this is a Arg thread so I figure what better place to ask this question.
Last edited:
There are trials for both and your first 10GB with B2 are free so take them for a spin.
I was trying Cloudberry and it kept stalling out on different files. Switched to Arq and I've had no problems with it so far.
Hope someone can help answer some basic questions about how to use ARQ.
I wish to protect 500GB of precious research data on my Mac. I have been using time machine for backup and very worry about losing years of research data due to an unforeseen catastrophe. Anxiously looking for an online backup solution and came across many good reviews of ARQ and this forum.
I am not a computer person and have the following elementary questions and hope someone can help answer them.
1) ARQ suggests and make it very simple to backup only the home folder. Does home folder include all the data the user has ever had on the Mac?
2) Assuming I lost my Mac and the time machine backup, after installing the OS on a new Mac, Is home folder all I need to restore the new Mac so that the new Mac is equal to my lost Mac? Or I also have to reinstall all the application softwares installed on the old Mac?
3) Is it possible to setup the ARQ backup such that all the new Mac needs to install is the OS and without the need of installing any other software, just like the time machine restore? I know this is not recommended, but for a non computer person, it is the simplest way to make a new Mac equal to the lost Mac.
4) If time machine and ARQ are doing their backups at the same time, will it result in data corruption due to conflict?
I wish to protect 500GB of precious research data on my Mac. I have been using time machine for backup and very worry about losing years of research data due to an unforeseen catastrophe. Anxiously looking for an online backup solution and came across many good reviews of ARQ and this forum.
I am not a computer person and have the following elementary questions and hope someone can help answer them.
1) ARQ suggests and make it very simple to backup only the home folder. Does home folder include all the data the user has ever had on the Mac?
2) Assuming I lost my Mac and the time machine backup, after installing the OS on a new Mac, Is home folder all I need to restore the new Mac so that the new Mac is equal to my lost Mac? Or I also have to reinstall all the application softwares installed on the old Mac?
3) Is it possible to setup the ARQ backup such that all the new Mac needs to install is the OS and without the need of installing any other software, just like the time machine restore? I know this is not recommended, but for a non computer person, it is the simplest way to make a new Mac equal to the lost Mac.
4) If time machine and ARQ are doing their backups at the same time, will it result in data corruption due to conflict?
You may want to look a a more strange forward solution such as carbonate or Baclblaze Personal backup. I also strongly recommend a 2nd on site back using super duper or carbon copy cloner to a separate disk (other that you time machine disk). Time machine is good but it is not bulletproof.
Arq would work fine for online/offsite backup of your data like this.
1) It would unless you have manually stored data in some non-standard location. For example, if you made a folder at the root of the drive and stored data there, that would be outside the home folder and not get backed up by default. But you could add that folder to Arq's backup manually.
2) No... you would need to reinstall any apps you had, as they are not part of the Arq backup. Arq is typically used just for personal data and not the operating system or applications.
3) This is kind of related to #2. Arq is just for your personal data. So you would need to reinstall any apps and the OS, then use Arq to recover your data.
4) That is not a problem at all.
dimme and weaselboy, thank u both for taking the time to answer my questions.
So the definitive answer to the question of whether it is possible to use ARQ to backup all the applications the user had is: ARQ can not be used to back up any application even though it allows the user to add folders in addition to the selected home folder. Is this understanding correct?
A question about restore:
OK, so I use ARQ to back up the HOME FOLDER, which contains twenty thousand research papers. During restore to a new Mac, do I have to download one file at a time by clicking each and everyone? Or I could download the entire home folder by one click? I read ARQ's document several times but still fuzzy about how to do a full restore.
Will start bootable backup using carbon copy cloner, which seems to have simple user interface for non technical person. Just bought a 1TB Samsung T5 to do CCC backup.
So the definitive answer to the question of whether it is possible to use ARQ to backup all the applications the user had is: ARQ can not be used to back up any application even though it allows the user to add folders in addition to the selected home folder. Is this understanding correct?
A question about restore:
OK, so I use ARQ to back up the HOME FOLDER, which contains twenty thousand research papers. During restore to a new Mac, do I have to download one file at a time by clicking each and everyone? Or I could download the entire home folder by one click? I read ARQ's document several times but still fuzzy about how to do a full restore.
Will start bootable backup using carbon copy cloner, which seems to have simple user interface for non technical person. Just bought a 1TB Samsung T5 to do CCC backup.
The answer is... maybe.
Some apps are fully self contained, meaning they have no support files needed or anything. Apps like this typically come inside a DMG file that you open then just drag the app into the /Applications folder. Apps like that could be backed up using Arq then just restored and they would open and run fine.
However, apps that come with a .pkg installer that install support files in other folders would not work like this, and even though you could back them up in Arq... if you restored the app, it likely would not work.
You just select the home folder then it is one click to restore that entire folder.
The answer is... maybe.
Some apps are fully self contained, meaning they have no support files needed or anything. Apps like this typically come inside a DMG file that you open then just drag the app into the /Applications folder. Apps like that could be backed up using Arq then just restored and they would open and run fine.
However, apps that come with a .pkg installer that install support files in other folders would not work like this, and even though you could back them up in Arq... if you restored the app, it likely would not work.
This is a great help! If I chose to back up the /Applications folder in addition to the Home folder, during restore, I only need to reinstall those applications which do not work.
I sincerely thank u for answering my questions. Your clarification will allow non technical users like me to use ARQ with more confidence.
Last edited by a moderator:
One word of caution in the "D'oh" category ... as I learned yesterday, when Arq's trial period ends, you won't get any email warnings that it's time to pay up (which, TBH, I thought I had already). Instead, you'll start getting emails -- assuming you've set up error message emails, as you probably should -- indicating your backups are failing with a "Not registered" error. Again, "D'oh."