What is Your Computer Backup Routine? Anyone use BackBlaze, Drive1 or Arq?

[Qs Laptop]

After a disastrous screw up by Microsoft Drive I realize I need to get serious about backing up my computer. The standard recommendation is the 3-2-1 rule which means have 3 copies of the data (the original plus 2 backups), on 2 different media (i.e. local external drive and cloud), with 1 of these 3 copies off site (cloud, family member's house, friend's house.) I'm already doing a local backup to an external hard drive, but right now it's only my day to day important stuff and not everything. I also put stuff into Google Drive but that's getting full and anyway, it's not a true backup.

I want this to be easy and automatic. Either scheduled automatic backups or better, automatic and continuous. I've narrowed my choices to BackBlaze, Drive1, or Arq. I looked at Arcronis but it does more than I really need and it costs more.

What is your data backup plan?
Anyone use any of these 3 backup services?

 

[timbervest]

I use Backblaze which has saved my bacon on several occasions. It is reasonably priced and runs seamlessly. I also store a lot of data, documents, photos on Dropbox and iPhone pictures go automatically to iCloud. I am pretty confident that I am covered. I find that I cannot be disciplined enough to make hard drive copies on my own and have had hard drive backups fail due to drive issues.

 

[sdawson]

External drive only, backed up by Time Machine about monthly. If one does something that is more important (such as taxes) then more frequently to capture that.

If really wanting to geographically disperse the backups, then two external drives will do the trick. Just rotate them at a friend or family members house when one visits them. I suppose the purpose of the off site backup is disaster recovery (ie a house fire or flood). Rotating two external drives will do the trick without being reliant on or pay the expense of 'the cloud'.

Afterthought:
Of course, if using your computer for business or work or school or writing a novel, then I would set Time Machine to do continuous hourly backups.

 

[GenXguy]

I think this has been addressed to some length in previous threads.

I use both a custom script that I wrote to backup some data and use Hasleo backup to backup to my home theater PC and a second hard drive, which keeps several dailies, weeklies, and monthly backups. I did have an incident where Hasleo stopped backing up with no errors or alerts, so I check it from time to time, plus the custom script gives me some confidence that my critical data is backed up if Hasleo failed.

Hasleo also backs up my system drive to a second hard drive, keeping some daily, weekly, and monthly versions.

And I do manual backups to a separate external hard drive occasionally of my full data drive. I plan to setup a separate cloud backup for my non-video data to the cloud using encryption on my end.

 

[cranberryjoe]

I use Arq. I do not recommend it.

Why not? Several reasons. The UI is poorly structured and confusing. When I've needed support, I've had mixed experiences: sometimes good quick and cheerful, sometimes slow and treated me like an idiot. I've used Arq since version 5, and the release of version 6 was a disaster for users (you can google it) and convinced me that the developer had no freaking clue how to upgrade software. Version 7 addressed the major issues with version 6 and is stable. Arq seems to be a one-person operation who in my view treats it as a hobby more than a business. I don't trust that he will keep it going in the long run.

To be fair, Arq version 7 does work. It incrementally backs up my data to a local drive and to the cloud. The data is encrypted with zero-knowledge encryption (I own the encryption keys, so Arq can't decrypt it without me providing the keys). Every time I've had to restore data it has worked. It's reliable with no major bugs at this point in time.

I have a large amount of data backed up to the cloud that would take a very long time (many months) to re-upload to a different service. I plan to switch to something else once I figure out a convenient way to deal with my large cloud backup that's tied to Arq.

 

[jollystomper]

I wrote my own backup process, using python, rsync (to my local NAS systems, which are configured with RAID mirrors) and the Google Drive and S3 APIs (for offsite). At this stage my data files for personal finance, various, documents, pictures, and technology hobbies are the only things I need to back up, and that is a small subset of all the items on the computer. If one of my systems goes kablooey I just reinstall the OS and programs.

 

[rk911]

Two PC's..Win10 Desktop and Win11 laptop. Desktop is primary.

- New files on each PC is backed up to a local external drive every day
- Each PC has a new image created on a local external drive every quarter
- New files on each PC is backed up to a cloud daily. Deleted files on the PCs are not deleted in the cloud...they exist until manually removed.
- All documents (Word, Excel, Quicken, PDF, Outlook PST files, photos, music) on the desktop are copied to the laptop.
- Every quarter I create a new image of each PC onto a portable hard drive kept in a safe.

Backup/Image software is EaseUS ToDo Backup.

Overkill? Maybe but I've been using PCs since DOS amd Windows 3.1 and have been burned several times. And most of these operations are automatic.

 

[razztazz]

I have everything from the internal HD backed-up on an external HD. Then I have only important files, not movies, not sound files, or what you might call fun-files, backed up on a thumb drives.

This protects against computer failures but not against a burglar who might want to lug my machine away (small chance) or tornadoes or meteors. (even smaller chances) I am still skeptical about things like "clouds" and those other metaphysical forms of storage that I don't own or control personally.

 

[jim584672]

Bit for bit drive backup, Clonezilla.

rsync for personal data.
rsync -zavh --delete /home/jim/Documents /...../backupdrive

Timeshift for system data.

Déjà Dup also for personal data.

 

[easysurfer]

I just so happen am rethinking by backup strategy as for my Windows machine, I have been using an old version of Macrium Reflect but looks like that no longer works anymore.

I don't want to do any cloud backups or have any subscription based backups.

This is what I'll do now for my Win machine:

1) Gnome Disk (From a linux distro) - manual full backup of my entire computer's drive once a month

2) Aomei Backupper Pro - automatized scheduled incremental backup of entire computer's drive every night

3) FreefileSync - manually mirror sync my important data folder on internal drive every day, manually sync my important data folder to an offline drive every month. Note the important data folder is also backed up every night from #2 above

As I'm typing, I'm currently running FreefileSync and will run my first Aomei Backupper Pro backup tonight. Wish me luck!


For my Linux machine I've been using Timeshift to make a monthly snapshot and using a copy of Macrium to make an image of the computer every month.

 

[robnplunder]

I back up family pictures, videos, and documents on a remote drive. I do so manually once in a while.

 

[floss187]

rar'ed / password archives
s3cmd to a bucket on aws s3 with proper credentials.

costs pennies a month, and i use it for other stuff so it just gets rolled into that payment.

 

[oldtrig]

I use Rescuezilla for both image and cloning. Totally free but it takes some getting used to. I had used it years ago so it wasn't hard for me. I have two external drives I use for this. I also clone using the same software to a 500 gig Samsung SS mounted in my computer but not plugged up all the time.
Check it out.

Download | Rescuezilla (Clonezilla GUI)

rescuezilla.com

 

[Car-Guy]

Once a month (or whenever I think about it) I simply copy all my personal working files to a USB (actually I make two backups to two USB's). Everything else is replaceable.

 

[sdtech]

Important files are on iCloud. I back up the computer(s) once a month to a samsung external drive using time machine.

 

[old medic]

My phone get backed up online but I down load photos to the laptop a couple times a year.
Have 2 SSD and back up the laptop every couple months. One stays in the safe other is in our outbuilding.

 

[Sojourner]

I use Macrium Reflect (the older, freeware version for home/personal use) to make full disk image backups every week. This happens automatically on a schedule, and the backups are written to a large, fast, external drive. Once a month, the latest backup image gets replicated over to my NAS for redundancy. I've been using this setup for many years and would recommend it to any Windows user looking for a good, easy backup solution.

 

[Tom57]

After a disastrous screw up by Microsoft Drive I realize I need to get serious about backing up my computer. The standard recommendation is the 3-2-1 rule which means have 3 copies of the data (the original plus 2 backups), on 2 different media (i.e. local external drive and cloud), with 1 of these 3 copies off site (cloud, family member's house, friend's house.) I'm already doing a local backup to an external hard drive, but right now it's only my day to day important stuff and not everything. I also put stuff into Google Drive but that's getting full and anyway, it's not a true backup.

I want this to be easy and automatic. Either scheduled automatic backups or better, automatic and continuous. I've narrowed my choices to BackBlaze, Drive1, or Arq. I looked at Arcronis but it does more than I really need and it costs more.

What is your data backup plan?
Anyone use any of these 3 backup services?

I have been using BackBlaze for 2.5 years, and it costs me $95.00 per year. No problems with BackBlaze, and I have had no failures with my SSD, so I have never needed to recover any files.

 

[Sojourner]

I have been using an old version of Macrium Reflect but looks like that no longer works anymore.

Macrium Reflect still works perfectly fine for me (in Windows 11). You just have to make sure you're running the older "freeware" version that was released before they moved to a 30-day free trial model. The version number you want is 8.0.7783. It's available as a free download at various software mirror sites.

 

[easysurfer]

Macrium Reflect still works perfectly fine for me (in Windows 11). You just have to make sure you're running the older "freeware" version that was released before they moved to a 30-day free trial model. The version number you want is 8.0.7783. It's available as a free download at various software mirror sites.

Thanks. I've moved on last night away from Macrium Reflect to a lifetime paid version Aomei Backupper Pro (I bought this license already so now it won't gather dust).

I had been using a paid version of Marcum Reflect 6 for ages.

With your Reflect 8.0.7783, did you install that on your PC to do incremental backups? I really haven't looked at that freeware version since I was using my paid version until yesterday when looks like a Windows update borked Macrium for me.

But I'm happy to go with Aomei for now. I had been setting up Macrium to do scheduled backups of my entire hard drive and my important data folder. But realized I don't think I've ever used in the past to restore from the data back up since I rely on FreefileSync more for my data backup.

So, now I have Aomei only to do daily incremental entire hard drive backup. For my data, I do manually. Trying to keep thing simpler.

 

[mountainsoft]

We have two computers (one for my wife, one for myself). Personal data is shared on a NAS so we can access from either computer.

I backup my computer and the NAS to an external hard drive nightly. This protects against accidental "oops" mistakes if I need to recover data, or if the drive in my computer fails.

About once a month I swap that backup drive with a second drive I keep in our safe deposit box. This protects against more major disasters like a fire, flood, power surge, theft, etc. that would take out both my computer AND the NAS computer.

I use Macrium Reflect to backup my C: boot drive. This allows me to quickly restore the OS and all programs without having to reinstall and reconfigure everything.

I also use FreeFileSync to copy all of my personal files from my computer and the NAS to the backup drive.

As another layer I use the "mini" version of the iDrive.com online service to backup our most important files like financial documents, photos, etc. 500GB is only about $10-15 a year so it's an inexpensive extra layer. Not enough to backup our videos or other large files, but enough to cover the essentials.

Finally, I also burned copies of some of our critical data (videos, photos, etc.) to BluRay discs. It's just another layer of protection. If the data on my main drive is corrupted without me knowing, it could migrate through my backups as well. The BluRay's are read-only, so I know they won't change as long as the disc is still readable.

 

[kgtest]

Phone to PC, and PC to external HDD. I should really get redundancy so not to lose all photos...or print the really important ones. Time is a luxury in my life.

We somehow or seemingly lost some pictures during the period of the birth of our first daughter. My wife retrieved a couple off fb, but man that was a bummer.

My phone was lost in a lake, hers was left on the bumper of our cars. I did not have cloud sync, and her apple did not apparently totally sync. Not quite sure how the gap happened.

 

[Sojourner]

With your Reflect 8.0.7783, did you install that on your PC to do incremental backups? I really haven't looked at that freeware version since I was using my paid version until yesterday when looks like a Windows update borked Macrium for me.

No, I have only ever used Reflect to do full disk image backups. For daily/incremental file backups (e.g., stuff in My Documents, Downloads, Photos, etc.) I just use the File History app built into Windows.

 

[scrabbler1]

I do 2 similar, but different, backups every month. Every 3 months, I copy all my personal files onto a thumb drive. The other 8 months a year I copy only the personal files I have used that month. There aren't too many of them, maybe 30 or 40.

I have a PC-based email system, so I run its backup wizard every month before doing the aforementioned backup. That backup email file gets captured with the overall monthly backup.

I have had to access these backup files a few times over the years, the two biggest times when I replaced my PC or replaced a hard drive. But a few times I had to find a backup file when the current one got corrupted and became inaccessible. Or I mistakenly saved/replaced the file when I didn't mean to.

These monthly backups leave me a little vulnerable in case I have a problem late in the month. Luckily, the PC and HD replacements were near the start of the month, so I lost very little since the last backup.

Back in 2001-2003 when I was working mostly from home, I did daily backups of any work files because I couldn't afford to lose anything I recently saved. This was more crucial when my PC at the time was not working well. Those daily backups allowed me to do several HD replacements without losing a single file.

 

[FIREd]

My files are backed up on the cloud and I have a full disk image backup on an offline drive stored in my safe (I update the drive every couple of weeks).