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Looking for Reliable Backup Software with Specific Needs

MLMcMillion

MLMcMillion

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 8, 2012
122
244
Arkansas, USA
I currently use Time Machine with a Time Capsule to manage my immediate local machine backups. Seeing as how Time Machine likes to periodically invalidate backup sets, this isn't a viable long-term option. I also use BackBlaze for off-site backups, but given it's policy for only maintaining deleted files for 30 days, it's not a long-term option either.

In a nutshell, here's what I need:
  • One-way (possibly incrememtnal) backup to a large NAS that *never* removes files from the destination
  • Ability to incrementally update backup periodically when connected to local network, and also immediately after reconnecting to local network
  • Data integrity validation is a plus

I had something that fit this well when I was on Windows, but since moving to OSX, I haven't found a viable solution. I've meddled with using rsync, but I'd like a more polished ad well-tested solution if possible (without having to roll my own).
 
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dukefan71

macrumors newbie
Jun 12, 2010
23
1
Might want to look at Crashplan. It doesn't delete files, validates data, and allows backups to other computers among other options. I don't find the UI as polished as Backblaze, but it works well.
 
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Xe89

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2009
119
0
I'm a fan of Arq, although it only backups to Amazon S3 or Glacier, not local storage.

It does however meet the most important criteria, in that it doesn't delete older files:


Arq backs up everything you tell it to back up:

It doesn’t skip videos or ignore certain file types.
It backs up files of any size -- 4GB, 40GB, it doesn't matter.
It backs up your external drives and your network drives.
It doesn’t delete backups of your external drives just because you haven’t plugged them in lately.
It doesn’t forcibly delete backups older than 4 weeks

from http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/
 
B

Bear

macrumors G3
Jul 23, 2002
8,088
5
Sol III - Terra
MLMcMillion said:
I currently use Time Machine with a Time Capsule ...
Click to expand...
Just remember that no matter what solution you go with you should still keep a Time Machine backup or else use a backup utility that makes a bootable clone to be able to recover quickly from a disk failure.

Having to install OS X then restore all of your data via the internet could take a while.
 
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eschw95458

macrumors member
Oct 30, 2007
38
1
Take a look at retrospect

retrospect.com

You can set it to do incremental backups to has over afp. You can also set it to do grooming. The base Mac option gives you five client licenses, so you can back up your mac and 4 others or your mac + your win gaming rig :)

Here is a excerpt from user guide on one choice of grooming

Groom to Retrospect defined policy: When the backup drive fills up, or when you run a scripted or manual groom operation, Retrospect uses its own grooming policy to delete old backups. At a minimum, Retrospect’s policy retains two backups for each source, saving the last backup of the day for each source from the two most recent days on which each source was backed up. Given enough space in the Media Set, Retrospect keeps a backup of each source for every day in the last week, a backup for each week in the last month, and a backup for each previous month.
 
Last edited:
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dukefan71

macrumors newbie
Jun 12, 2010
23
1
Xe89 said:
I'm a fan of Arq, although it only backups to Amazon S3 or Glacier, not local storage.

It does however meet the most important criteria, in that it doesn't delete older files:


Arq backs up everything you tell it to back up:

It doesn’t skip videos or ignore certain file types.
It backs up files of any size -- 4GB, 40GB, it doesn't matter.
It backs up your external drives and your network drives.
It doesn’t delete backups of your external drives just because you haven’t plugged them in lately.
It doesn’t forcibly delete backups older than 4 weeks

from http://www.haystacksoftware.com/arq/
Click to expand...

I use Arq also. It's fast and well written. It uses Amazon servers, so it's quite reliable. Plus, the new update now allows for better (at least in my opinion) file restoration in that it restores the files in the original location.

I did a lot of research in this area, and what I found was there are a lot of good backup programs available; it mainly depends on your specific needs and taste. For me, I like the unlimited backup option in Crashplan, and the fact it does not delete older file versions like Backblaze. Crashplan also allows seamless backup of NAS devices. Backblaze requires a periodic physical connection or the files are deleted from their servers.

I use Arq to backup my photo library, and Crashplan backs up my entire Macbook. Redundant I know, but I have peace of mind.
 
MLMcMillion

MLMcMillion

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 8, 2012
122
244
Arkansas, USA
Thanks for the replies.

Arq looks really interesting and clean, and if I hadn't already built an 8TB NAS, I'd use it :). That being said, I'll definitely investigate it for use with our company's backups.

As far as Time Machine/Time Capsule, I'll still definitely be using that for my local backups and system restores. I've used it to do full restores a few times, and it's been flawless. My only qualm with it was that if I delete a file and months or years down the line it decides to redo my backups, I may lose something. I have a bad habit of cleaning up folders and then deciding a year later I'd like something back. That's where the NAS comes in.

For now, I'm giving CrashPlan a try. So far so good. It may even pull me away from BackBlaze, since I could do my long-term backup and off-site backup from the same software.

Anyone have any experience restoring files from CrashPlan's Cloud service? Reliable enough to consider ditching BackBlaze?
 
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dukefan71

macrumors newbie
Jun 12, 2010
23
1
I have done a few test restores; fortunately I haven't had to use it for anything important. I have restored a few gigs of pictures and videos with no problem. I have no complaints. I liked their restore methods better than Backblaze. Just me though.
 
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flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
dukefan71 said:
I have done a few test restores; fortunately I haven't had to use it for anything important. I have restored a few gigs of pictures and videos with no problem. I have no complaints. I liked their restore methods better than Backblaze. Just me though.
Click to expand...

Same here... I have done test restores of files & directories with no problems. I've never needed to do a full restore.

They also support an encrypted HDD via FexEx for quicker backup and restore. That is limited to 1TB after compression. I've used it for initial seeded backup. I got about 1.2 TB of data onto the 1TB drive... and then the remaining 300GB (of my 1.5TB) completed over the internet. I have not tried a restore via FexEx... and I have no idea how it might work with my large dataset.

/Jim
 
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