Thanks and I appreciate ur pictures and answers!
Could u answer question 3? My purpose is to prevent computer B from uploading anything to the cloud when I turn Computer B on.
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Thanks and I appreciate ur pictures and answers!
Could u answer question 3? My purpose is to prevent computer B from uploading anything to the cloud when I turn Computer B on.
It won't ruin Computer A's backup because they're treated as 2 separate backups - they can't affect each other. So I wouldn't worry about it. The next hour’s backup will update B's backup. Remember, A and B are separate and won't affect each other - think separate folders in a way (duplicate data is possible).
But yeah, I wish there was a way for it to "Pause on Wakeup - X minutes" - I haven't found a way to do that, but I will suggest it as a future feature - I would like that too because OneDrive takes awhile to update once the computer is on.
That is why Arq asks for an encryption password every time you set up a new backup -- so it will be encrypted and 100% different (Computer A encrypted with a different password than Computer B).
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I use Arq with the 'free' OneDrive that comes with Office 365. Office 365 for Home includes 5 users, so you can create extra users (1TB each) and get 5TB storage for 'free'. A bit cumbersome (in 5 x 1TB chunks) so it needs a little management.
Arq reads and writes directly to OneDrive servers. You just need to make sure that the Arq Backup folder on OneDrive is excluded from any OneDrive syncing.
You use OneDrive a lot. My advice is to create one or more extra Office 365 users and use their 1 TB OneDrives for Arq. Avoids any clashes with OneDrive syncing.
Arq has some commands that can be run in Terminal and pause is one of those. You might be able to cobble something together by making an app in AppleScript then run that as a login item?
I have an Alfred workflow that runs this Applescript for example.
Code:
on alfred_script(q)
do shell script "/Applications/Arq.app/Contents/MacOS/Arq backupnow"
end alfred_script
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BigMcGuire, Thanks for ur time to answer my ignorant questions and I appreciate it.
The reason I asked these question was I wish to test an SSD (with ARQ running) as an externally boot drive.
In addition to ARQ and time machine, I also do a daily backup of my entired Mac (which has ARQ working) using carbon copy cloner on a 1TB Samsung T5 SSD. This SSD can be used to externally boot another Mac in case I lose my main Mac.
The first time when I used the SSD (with ARQ's scheduler running) to boot another Mac, ARQ in the SSD started to backup to the cloud (without asking for another password as mentioned by BigMcGuire). I was so scared that I shut down the SSD immediately because it might ruin the ARQ backup in the cloud. As a result, I have not been able to test if the SSD is working as an externally boot drive unless I can stop ARQ from uploading to the cloud.
ARQ support agreed that these steps will stop ARQ from uploading during the test:
(1) before turning on the test Mac with the SSD (with ARQ running) as an external drive, shut off the house wifi; (2) turn on the Mac and hit ARQ's "stop", if it attempts to upload; (3) go to ARQ preference and select "manual"; (4) turn on house wifi.
Also I have been using ARQ to backup the entired Mac instead of the home folder and for a long time I have not been able to test if the backup actually works. Able to disable ARQ's upload and put ARQ on manual will allow me to do a full restore from ARQ backup in the cloud to the SSD. Then test the SSD to see if full restore does work.
For uses who have a need to disable ARQ, arq support offered the following instructions:
"1) When the mac is off, turn off wifi.
2) Turn on Mac, go to Arq's Preferences, double-click each destination and set the schedule to ''manual''.
3) Quit the Arq app and the Arq agent.
4) You can also temporary delete the Arq app. Drag the Arq app to trash after quitting Arq and the agent if you do not want the Arq agent to auto-start after you turn on your computer next time.
- Depending on the schedule you have, Arq might not attempt scanning/backing up, so I am not sure you would need to click ''Stop'' or ''Pause'' at any of the points.
- Hitting "pause" allows stopping Arq for a certain period of time and automatic resuming.
- The Arq agent will remain in quit state until it is "turn on" again or until your computer is rebooted/turned on again."
"1) When the mac is off, turn off wifi.
2) Turn on Mac, go to Arq's Preferences, double-click each destination and set the schedule to ''manual''.
3) Quit the Arq app and the Arq agent.
4) You can also temporary delete the Arq app. Drag the Arq app to trash after quitting Arq and the agent if you do not want the Arq agent to auto-start after you turn on your computer next time.
- Depending on the schedule you have, Arq might not attempt scanning/backing up, so I am not sure you would need to click ''Stop'' or ''Pause'' at any of the points.
- Hitting "pause" allows stopping Arq for a certain period of time and automatic resuming.
- The Arq agent will remain in quit state until it is "turn on" again or until your computer is rebooted/turned on again."
...so I have been chatting both both Stefan (Arq) and B2 about this.
The error is quite specifically:
error reading request: java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out.
It can happen with any file and I get anywhere between about 5 - 20 of these a day.
B2 have just told me (quote):
We see this error when the connection you're on is under a particularly heavy load. This can be resolved by requesting a new upload url, which the Arq software should do automatically. If it's not, then this would be something they need to address on their end.
I have passed this on to Stefan and hope that he can find a way of requesting a new URL when this error shows itself (assuming Arq doesn't do this already).
Meanwhile Stefan wrote that he could implement "retry on error" but gave no timeline or priority for this (which I have subsequently asked for).
I'll keep you guys posted...
How interesting! I am running Arq on 2 Macbook Air 11 2015 (his/hers), 2 Mac Minis (his/hers), a Dell Windows Laptop, and a Dell PC (both work machines). Everything at work and home runs under Frontier FIOS (50/50 (work) and 95/95 (home)).
The only errors I've had is if I add a folder I deleted and saw it come back to life in Arq after I removed it in Arq (a quit and restart helped that). Or if I have a backup to an external drive that isn't connected - I'll get an error when trying to load the folder list (I just ignore these).
I had great success uploading my 150+ gb of data without any problems in less than 24 hours thanks to FIOS and a very willing B2 connection. Are you in England?
Thanks for keeping us updated.
The only errors I've had is if I add a folder I deleted and saw it come back to life in Arq after I removed it in Arq (a quit and restart helped that). Or if I have a backup to an external drive that isn't connected - I'll get an error when trying to load the folder list (I just ignore these).
I had great success uploading my 150+ gb of data without any problems in less than 24 hours thanks to FIOS and a very willing B2 connection. Are you in England?
Thanks for keeping us updated.
Hi,
Yes, In England. My Mac is a 2016 Macbook pro and I have ~20mbps upload speed (70 mbps down).
Its quite strange in a technically interesting way. ...but it sadly means I do not trust my backups right now...
Yes, In England. My Mac is a 2016 Macbook pro and I have ~20mbps upload speed (70 mbps down).
Its quite strange in a technically interesting way. ...but it sadly means I do not trust my backups right now...
Just got my bill - $.80 - Backblaze - for 183 GB (no downloads) for almost a month. Not bad at all. I've been SUPER HAPPY with Arq and Backblaze.
I recently moved my data from one external drive to another and had to delete the Arq backup and re-add the data from the new external drive --- and Backblaze was smart enough to realize the data was already there so no additional space was used cuz all the files already existed (I used the same encryption key as the first drive).
Very happy. $.80/mo is insane for 183GB.
I recently moved my data from one external drive to another and had to delete the Arq backup and re-add the data from the new external drive --- and Backblaze was smart enough to realize the data was already there so no additional space was used cuz all the files already existed (I used the same encryption key as the first drive).
Very happy. $.80/mo is insane for 183GB.
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Saw that - AMAZING. haha. I can't believe it. 1 cent per GB downloaded vs 5 cents just a year ago?
I got that same info in an email.
I swear, I don't know how they are making any money at all. They sure are not going to be able to retire off what I am paying.
I swear, I don't know how they are making any money at all. They sure are not going to be able to retire off what I am paying.
I got that same info in an email.
I swear, I don't know how they are making any money at all. They sure are not going to be able to retire off what I am paying.
View attachment 753907 View attachment 753908
186.7 GB - and my first bill $.80/mo. Just amazing how this company operates! Love it! Looks like this month will be $.88/mo.
I'm not getting off quite as scot-free as you guys but my biggest B2 bill so far has been all of $1.58, and that was in a month when I moved around a huge amount of data as I resolved some issues with certain other vendors Who Shall Not Be Named Here. Guess there must be a lot of us using either B2 or the "regular" Backblaze service, or they'd be in a world of hurt.
but my biggest B2 bill so far has been all of $1.58, and that was in a month when I moved around a huge amount of data as I resolved some issues with certain other vendors Who Shall Not Be Named Here. Guess there must be a lot of us using either B2 or the "regular" Backblaze service, or they'd be in a world of hurt.I'm not getting off quite as scot-free as you guys
I agree. I felt bad so I went and bought a https://www.backblaze.com/backup-pricing.html at the year price just because I really like this company (I'm not going to use it). Figured that would at least make it so I'm a customer who increases their annual revenue. That and I'll have to download some too just to see if it works.
Their blog alone makes the $50/year worth it. I could read those HD stats 20 times over and still enjoy it. lol.Not that I think that people just storing data are causing loss - my guess is there is profit, just tiny amounts because they only have 1 data center and storage is fairly cheap. I think you're right tho, they make most of their $ on downloads.
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Moved my desk from one room to another and had a drive failure - my 1TB external - won't power on no matter what I do (have had it for ... many years) - took out the drive from its enclosure and plugged it into another enclosure and yup, it's gone. Had my photo library on there (a backup of my iPhone 8+'s photo library) - restoring that right now via Arq ( backed that up to B2 ) just because I can. Everything else on that drive was just Timemachine backups.
Very cool!
Edit: It worked!
Very cool!
Edit: It worked!
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Just wondering if u would be kind enough to show the steps on how to use an external drive as source and also as a destination for ARQ backup.
I am confused about how ARQ identifies or recognizes the external drive. My questions are: (a) does the external drive has to be plugged in to the same USB port(x) every time for ARQ to work? (b) what will happen if a second external drive that has been using for time machine backup is accidentally plugged into that USB port(x).
Would appreciate your help.
Are you using Windows or Mac?
The external drive is identified by its name so it doesn't matter what USB port it is plugged into. I have had 3 drives plugged in at once and have had Arq work with all of them.
Just hit the + in the Preferences --> A folder on your hard drive or NAS --> Then open the drive on the left that you want to use and hit Open.
Now if you disconnect your backup drive, Arq will give an error when you open it, but it won't prevent it from backing up to other sources if you use them.
Does this work? I can provide screenshots too.
Thank u for helping! I am a Mac user. Only if not too much trouble, screen shots will help me more.
I am very confused about how ARQ identifies an internal or external drive. From ur answer, ARQ identifies drives by their names. I have a Mac1 and ARQ is doing hourly backup. This Mac1's main drive is called Macintosh HD1. I have an spare drive named HD2 and I make a clone of HD1. I put HD2 in a new Mac2. When the Mac2 is powered up, ARQ should not run as ARQ's scheduler is looking for the source named HD1, but can not find it. Yes?
But I believe that is not the case as I asked ARQ support this question and his answer was:
"ARQ backs up whatever paths you tell it to back up.
If you mount a drive at /Volumes/thing and back it up, and then unplug it and mount a different drive at /Volumes/thing, Arq will back the new drive up as /Volumes/thing."
----- I don't really understand what this means.
Support also said that:
"If you create a clone of a Mac that has Arq installed, the second Mac will start using the same backup set as the first Mac, and they will corrupt each other. DO NOT DO THIS."
Does his answer means ARQ treats external drive and internal drive differently?
On another matter, I understand that u are backing up to more than one cloud providers and also understand that most cloud providers employ RAID to safeguard their data. Does backing up to two cloud providers provides more safety to data lost?
Volumes is going to change based on the name of the drive. For example: one drive could be named BackupA, another drive could be BackupB. On a Mac, they'll show up as /Volumes/DriveName --- replace drive name with the name of the drive. : /Volumes/BackupA and /Volumes/BackupB.
For example:
This is my external drive, right? Called Mac Storage. Apple sees this drive as: /Volumes/Mac Storage
See Arq:
See how Arq sees this?
So depending on the name of the drive, it will be a separate entry. In Arq's reply to you, /Volumes/thing --- thing will change based on the drive's name. In my case: /Volumes/Mac Storage
All Arq support is saying is, if you create a clone copy (by cloning the hardrive of a Mac to a separate Mac) - you don't want both of those Macs backing up with Arq at the same time (they will have the same encryption key and computer name).
I don't think Arq treats external/internal drives differently - all it is is a location to Arq. I have Arq running on my Mac Mini (above), my Macbook Air (laptop), my Work PC, and my Work Laptop (PC). All my data resides in OneDrive. One Drive is on all my computers.
My Mac Mini backs up to B2 Backblaze.
My Macbook Air backs up to Google Drive.
My Work PC backs up to several external drives.
My Work Laptop backs up to Google Drive (different account).
I believe in backing up many times because redundancy is cheap and I only have 180GB.
In your case - if you're using an external drive on two separate Macs --- only have one of them with Arq backing up the external drive to the cloud. No need to have the Second Mac back up the external drive to the cloud if the first Mac is backing it up to the cloud. I think Arq support thinks HD2 is internal.
If you have Arq on multiple computers it will save the data based on the computer. See?
I have my wife's two computers backed up to B2 via Arq, my 4 computers backed up via Arq to B2. It separates them via computer. So you can't have duplication - it is each separate.
[doublepost=1520888446][/doublepost]Now to address your internal vs external drive Question:
B2 is Cloud. Arq Backup is an external drive (red dash). No difference for Arq from what I can tell. Same for my Macs. It will say B2 and "Mac Storage" or whatever the external drive is. It treats them as locations to back up to.
[doublepost=1520888604][/doublepost]Even deeper:
Top two folders are internal drive folders.
Photos exists on external drive. Yet Arq treats them all the same. Backup folders to backup (to B2).
[doublepost=1520888775][/doublepost]
My guess is, it's just a location on the hard drive - so it shouldn't matter. If you're using Windows it's a C:\users\username\foldername thing, if Mac, kinda same thing. It's a service that runs that has Admin (or System) privileges so it can backup all data even if you're logged out and the computer is on.
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Thank you for ur instant and detailed reply and screen shots on how to use external drives, as well as answering my other questions. Ur answers have been informative and educational for me and I sincerely thank u for ur time! Now I have a good understanding of how to use an external drive for ARQ backup.
I have been thinking what u said all night and I believe I finally understand what my problem was. I misunderstood and had regarded the Mac's main drive in which the OS and ARQ program reside as a drive with a name, just like any other external drive. But if I just think the function of the main drive is to boot the computer with the OS and run the ARQ program, then my problem seems to go away. When ARQ starts running, it looks for all these external drives which it has a record for such as /volumes/backupA, /volumes/backupB, ...etc. and then carries out the scheduled backups to the destination or to use them for restore from the destination.
When I make a clone of the first Mac's main drive on a SSD and then use it to externally boot a second Mac with or without ARQ installed, the SSD will perform exactly the same function as the main drive of the first Mac, that is to boot the second Mac with OS and run ARQ. In fact, ARQ will run in the second Mac just like it did on the first Mac. That is if I put the first and second Mac each in a black box and power on only one of them, I would not be able to tell which is which except for the second Mac, the booting SSD will see an extra drive which is the main drive of the second Mac but the OS and applications on this extra drive are not executed. Thus, if the first Mac is power off and the second Mac is powered on, ARQ does not know the computer has been switched. That is ARQ in the second Mac will continue to backup to the same data set in th cloud starting from where the first Mac was left off. There after, I shouldn't use the first Mac again else the dataset will be corrupted. Is my understanding correct?
Likewise if I use the second Mac to clone the first Mac and then retire the first Mac permanently after cloning, ARQ will not know that the two Macs has been swapped and will continue to backup the second Mac from the point where the first Mac stopped its ARQ backup. This seems to make sense as the two Macs are identical and ARQ should not know the difference.
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Correct - yep, if you're cloning a Mac - you want to only use the latest one to back up to Arq - the second mac that you're booting externally with the hard drive. You are correct. "I shouldn't use the first mac again else the dataset will be corrupted." - Correct - because Arq on both computers thinks it is the same thing. So you're fine leaving one and going to another, but make sure not to go back to the original and update with Arq because it will override the second computer's progress.
So I'd update manually.
Interesting setup you have!
Interesting setup you have!
Thanks again! I sincerely appreciate your confirming my understanding is correct.
"Interesting setup": Using a 1TB SSD($$$), I also use Carbon Copy Cloner to backup my Mac daily. When the Mac is stolen or damaged, I can use the SSD to externally boot another Mac or clone the SSD to a new Mac. Downloading 500GB from ARQ backup data set from the cloud does not seem to be practical. So it is a real life scenario. I also do time machine backup on a hard drive because it is cheaper.