I am not aware of any backup product that uses iCloud. Remember that iCloud and iCloud Drive are for synchronisation.
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Backup strategy - what do people recommend?
- Thread starter jclin10
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There is no iCloud backup for MacOS. At best, it's a syncing service, which is very different than a backup solution as it doesn't save versions.
Because the Synology supports it to back itself up and it's super cheap. I never claimed it to be optimal, it was a good idea at the time but the time has passed.
'NAS, external drive, and iCoud. I don't need terabytes of space for photos, music and sensitive material. I pay out for the iCloud and in turn have easy access in my eco system. There are of course superior options than iCloud but I am lazy in my somewhat old age.'
One can do incremental or differential backups on the NAS and DAS (external hard drive) and use the icloud option for as you say synched data store (mirror) of target items. For me, I go through handfuls of photos daily and those that I keep are put in a location on my mac that will be also kept on my icloud storage. Similar for non iTunes music files and sensitive documents. I consider it just additional safety and have mentioned there are better cloud options out there.
1. Why is that? I'm looking at TM backups over WiFi for a MBP's internal to a Synology NAS. Is it an issue with 3"5 NAS HDDs or also 2"5 SSD's in the bays? Note: I would not be using Synology branded drives.
2. I have SuperDuper (paid). Could this theoretically also work with option 1. above, instead of TM? Or must SD be DAS?
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I use to use a time capsule wireless back up with Time Machine and that would create files into a container called a sparsebundle and that would very often corrupt. Sometimes once a year. I’m not sure if a synolgy uses a sparesebundle but if it does then I can vouch for them being unreliable.
Thanks for the warning, I believe I've read that sparse bundle is also used with Synology's backup. Indeed their software can in itself make snapshots but only with their own branded drives (ridiculously expensive).
I also wonder, can cloning i.e. Super Duper (paid) work wireless? Would that then also be at high risk of corruption in this scenario? Cloning wireless to the Synology?
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Honestly, I don't think WiFi is a good idea at all. However, there are ways to do it that afford some level of safety such as backup to a local drive then that drive becomes the source for data going to the NAS. This should also help free up your system with faster backup and less prone to errors.
I had such a bad time with time capsule over wifi its put me off wireless back ups. What are you backing up exactly and how often?
if I was in your shoes I'd just buy a Samsung 2TB SSD if thats enough and just back it up to that when required. I'd buy a 2nd one as well for redundancy.
I was using a Lacie 2 big but have since been using the Samsungs as I find them lightweight and convenient but also very quiet!
OK, my suggestions.
Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
DO NOT use time machine.
Use TWO backup drives (at least).
One is kept at home, near the computer.
The other is kept "off-site" (i.e., not "in the house").
I keep my "off-site" backup in the car. It's the only drive that has encryption on it.
If someone stole the car, they'd get "a drive" -- but NOT my important data.
Use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
DO NOT use time machine.
Use TWO backup drives (at least).
One is kept at home, near the computer.
The other is kept "off-site" (i.e., not "in the house").
I keep my "off-site" backup in the car. It's the only drive that has encryption on it.
If someone stole the car, they'd get "a drive" -- but NOT my important data.
"I presume you live in a mild weather country?"
It gets to the mid 90's (F) here in summer, and a few days around 0F in winter.
The "car backup" is an SSD, not a mechanical platter-based drive.
Been doing this for several years now, the SSD's seem to do fine (kept in a zip-loc bag with some moisture-absorbing gel in them).
It gets to the mid 90's (F) here in summer, and a few days around 0F in winter.
The "car backup" is an SSD, not a mechanical platter-based drive.
Been doing this for several years now, the SSD's seem to do fine (kept in a zip-loc bag with some moisture-absorbing gel in them).
I have two external drives that I use with Time Machine. One I keep at home plugged into my mac, the other I keep at work locked in my desk. I rotate them monthly.
I've setup/restored every new mac I've had since 2008ish from a Time Machine. Never had an issue.
I've setup/restored every new mac I've had since 2008ish from a Time Machine. Never had an issue.
Much of the same opinion and if one insisted on a NAS copy, use the eternal drive with the backup and synch it via USB directly to the NAS.
Very happy with Backblaze for my offsite backup. Just tell it what you don't what it to back up and let it run in the background.
I also do local backups with Time Machine.
I also do local backups with Time Machine.
Not a storage media issue but WiFi would make it worse. Every TM backup I have tried to both QNAP and Synology was corrupted and had to be wiped within a few weeks. In addition they were glacially slow, maybe 1/2 a day for a single backup, even with very fast (Thunderbolt and 10 GbE) connections. It may have to due with the size of my backups (2-3 TB) as others have reported no problems.
Don't know about using Wifi but my direct connect CCC backups have been flawless.
Ok. I haven't as yet bought any NAS equipment yet, researching. You mean backup my internal to a DAS and take that to the NAS?
Documents, photo editing with Capture1, all on the internal. In a way I presumed this would immediately then be mirrored on my TM NAS as I'm working. We're at most talking RAW conversions of in the lower GB territory.
similar to my use. I am biased due to my bad experience with NAS but I would recommend either a Lacie 2 big set up or my current set up which is a couple of the Samsung T7 in rotation. I only started using these because they were cheap to buy but also very fast and silent. The Lacie 2 big is great but its only when you use the Samsung you realise how nosey they are.
Indeed my initial plan was buying 2 x 2TB NVMe USB-S drives. One local for with TM, the other offsite, rotated with Super Duper. Off course this equation wouldn't have worked out as I'd need a much larger drive for TM. That's where I thought the Synology would come in handy with either 2x 4TB SSD and/ or 3"5 2 x 8TB NAS HDD's.
I've used SD the last 15 years but directly connected. Is it theoretically even possible to use SD (paid) to clone wireless to a NAS?
Have you had much grief with TM? TBH my "thoughts" were to avoid been slack remembering to daily insert backup drives and let the NAS sort it as an automation. Wireless off course this way seems to be quite a risk from reading other's comments.
That's another consideration I guess with NAS. I'd would need to be in the living room and would solely only be used for backups from this one MBP. I've no idea how noisy a couple 3"5 8TB and 2 fans in the NAS enclosure would ultimately be. It would have been a 4 bay Synology, 2 8TB NAS IronWolfs Pro and or 2 4TB Evo870s, a network switch and reliance on my tethered master mesh node to play nicely. It's a lot of money. If this had 100% no risk of corruption possibility I wouldn't be second guessing all this.
Before the NAS idea I had ordered 2 T7s but returned them as for the same money a couple NVMe's + USB-C enclosures were the same price. Then I read about unreliability of wireless TM NAS backups.
How often do you back up? Do you still use TM tethered then and SD/CCC?
Off course the least risk-free strategy for me would be to use the above mentioned 2 TB NVMe's, one onsite, one offsite for Super Duper. Then a larger SSD for Time machine. Off course it would come back to having to remember and physically plug them in at regular intervals. Deskbound would have been no problem but this MBP is moved around inside my house.
Belt and suspenders kinda guy here.
I let Time Machine do its thing to an external HDD. I have iCloud, OneDrive, Sync and an external SSD and I copy revisions as created over to them (though not materials that are essential or privacy/banking-concerned to any Cloud service), and once a month I copy over to a USB drive, stored in a secure location.
I let Time Machine do its thing to an external HDD. I have iCloud, OneDrive, Sync and an external SSD and I copy revisions as created over to them (though not materials that are essential or privacy/banking-concerned to any Cloud service), and once a month I copy over to a USB drive, stored in a secure location.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
3 or more drive very secure personal backup
However in a flood/fire/theft scenario, the regular swaps of B & C to an offsite location (safe deposit?, trustworthy family member?, secure storage at work?) means the risk of data loss is maxed out at only about 30 days if one is on a monthly swap schedule. If this is too much, cut the swap schedule down... and vice versa.
Odds in a complete data loss that is unrecoverable in a Mac + A + B + C system is extremely long. Both the home and off-site location must burn/flood/be robbed at approx. the same time.
Yes, Cloud storage could sub in for the offsite storage but offsite is probably FREE (or close to it) vs. renting storage in the cloud. Big HDDs are dirt cheap, so it seems best way to go vs. renting storage and trusting total strangers to maintain that cloud for you (and not be messing around in your data).
Cheaper option with more risk: drop one drive.
This option is still pretty good as you actually have three "backups:" the 2 drives + the Mac storage itself.
Hybrid option with NAS RAID (my own preferred way)
Use a Synology as your home network storage. Turn on its network TM storage feature. Set TM to also backup to that NAS.
Synology has its own version of RAID which can recover if a drive fails. So, a TM backup to Synology is like backing up to 2 drives.
+ One dedicated external (A) to be another, direct-connected TM backup.
+ One dedicated offsite drive (B) to regularly swap with A.
This yields current data on Mac, backup within 2 hours on the currently attached external, backup within 2 hours on the Synology, RAID-type backup on the Synology in the event of one NAS drive failure and worst case, no older than 30-day old backup on the drive stored offsite.
As you can see in all 3 options, a VERY IMPORTANT element of a backup strategy is to get one reasonably recent backup securely stored OFFSITE. Fire, flood, thefts and similar happen every day. You can lose any combination of storage if all of it is at one location. Even if someone had 50 drives for TM at home, one catastrophic home event could eliminate all 50 drives. However, get at least one backup away from the single location and the odds of being able to recover almost all of your data goes way up.
- Drive A for Time Machine (automatic, don't have to think about it, backup approx. every other hour)
- Drive B also for Time Machine (also automatic, automatically alternates with A for TM backups).
- Drive C also for Time Machine: swapping with B approx every month while the other is stored in a bank safe deposit box.
However in a flood/fire/theft scenario, the regular swaps of B & C to an offsite location (safe deposit?, trustworthy family member?, secure storage at work?) means the risk of data loss is maxed out at only about 30 days if one is on a monthly swap schedule. If this is too much, cut the swap schedule down... and vice versa.
Odds in a complete data loss that is unrecoverable in a Mac + A + B + C system is extremely long. Both the home and off-site location must burn/flood/be robbed at approx. the same time.
Yes, Cloud storage could sub in for the offsite storage but offsite is probably FREE (or close to it) vs. renting storage in the cloud. Big HDDs are dirt cheap, so it seems best way to go vs. renting storage and trusting total strangers to maintain that cloud for you (and not be messing around in your data).
Cheaper option with more risk: drop one drive.
- Eject TM drive with most recent backup.
- Take it to bank or wherever you store the off-site copy.
- Swap with the off-site drive #2.
- Bring drive #2 home and let it take over as TM storage.
- Repeat this swap in X days (X being whatever number of days you are willing to risk losing very recent new data)
This option is still pretty good as you actually have three "backups:" the 2 drives + the Mac storage itself.
Hybrid option with NAS RAID (my own preferred way)
Use a Synology as your home network storage. Turn on its network TM storage feature. Set TM to also backup to that NAS.
Synology has its own version of RAID which can recover if a drive fails. So, a TM backup to Synology is like backing up to 2 drives.
+ One dedicated external (A) to be another, direct-connected TM backup.
+ One dedicated offsite drive (B) to regularly swap with A.
This yields current data on Mac, backup within 2 hours on the currently attached external, backup within 2 hours on the Synology, RAID-type backup on the Synology in the event of one NAS drive failure and worst case, no older than 30-day old backup on the drive stored offsite.
As you can see in all 3 options, a VERY IMPORTANT element of a backup strategy is to get one reasonably recent backup securely stored OFFSITE. Fire, flood, thefts and similar happen every day. You can lose any combination of storage if all of it is at one location. Even if someone had 50 drives for TM at home, one catastrophic home event could eliminate all 50 drives. However, get at least one backup away from the single location and the odds of being able to recover almost all of your data goes way up.
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To be fair i don’t really follow my own advice lol.. I use iCloud Drive with all my documents living there and downloaded to my internal drive and then my photo library is in the cloud but optimised on the internal drive and then i just manually save files to my external hard drives as i go. my folder structure is usually date/month order so i know to manually move files over each month or sometimes sooner if I’ve taken loads of photos that are important or work files that are important.
Time Machine is on the lacie 2 big drive connected via usb 3 and i might only do a back up once every couple months using that method When I’m in my office upstairs.
Time Machine is on the lacie 2 big drive connected via usb 3 and i might only do a back up once every couple months using that method When I’m in my office upstairs.