Considering Backblaze

Can you explain the reasoning behind that? I’ve never found BB to be in Mac like.

Kind of. One of the benefits of CrashPlan was that multiple machines running under the same license could be centrally managed. At least, that’s the way I remember it. (I may be suffering from an AI–Actual Intelligence–hallucination.)

I switched to the Arq Premium Family Plan at CrashPlan’s demise. This is the Arq plan that uses their cloud storage, and backs up five machines under the same license. But you have to make adjustments to the backup plan on each machine’s Arq client. There is no centralized management for multiple machines. :frowning:

Also, for bring-your-own storage each machine is completely independent for quota and de-duplication. I’m guessing that’s also true for Arq hosted storage.

Well there’s always the option that we used before all of those Internet-based backup services came about.

Make full backups to local storage devices (HDD or SSD) and store some in a safety deposit box at your bank. Or if you’re concerned that a natural disaster may wipe out your whole town, in a bank somewhere else. Maybe mail the devices to a trusted friend or relative in another city.

My first employer (in the late 90’s) did that using tape backups of the company servers. Our IT person physically transported the weekly backup tapes every Friday to a bank a few blocks away from the office

Another employer used to FedEx the tapes to another corporate office in another city, where they would be kept in a locked filing cabinet.

There are lots of things you can do. Ultimately, you have to determine your actual needs, what you’re willing to do, and how much you’re willing to spend.

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Another option to consider with Arq is if you can use some or all of any existing cloud storage you might already have. For example, I have a Microsoft 365 family plan because some family members need the apps, but no one uses OneDrive for anything. That’s potentially up to 6 TB I can use to store backups, although I do have to be a little careful how I split things up (each M365 account gets 1 TB of storage).

The main thread on this from a couple of months ago:

For what it’s worth, BLZE’s share price is up 28% since the April 24 date of the Morpheus article. Forgive me for hoping that’s been long enough that the author and colleagues lost money on that shorting. (I have no idea how long the term of their short contracts are.)

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So far, Backblaze is the least expensive cloud-like backup service out there. If anyone knows of less expensive, bare-bones services, please let us know.

That’s probably the ultimate point: No one else exists that offers unlimited storage for one very affordable fixed cost.

Despite the issues raised in this thread, and the one linked below that explains the issues when you have 10s of TBs to recover from the service, among other possible issues:

I used BB for a couple of years and did have to partially restore once. I don’t remember the exact situ, but some files I had became corrupt. It did the job, but I found BB took too long as (at least at the time), BB first zipped the files on the cloud then made them available for dl. Didn’t like the extra step.
I switched to iDrive maybe 3 years ago. I did a partial as a “rehearsal”, jic and I found iD was faster and skipped the zip step.

I didn’t and don’t use a cloud service as my only and entire plan.
TM for me is an utter dog.

I have a much smaller CCC drive on hand that I b.u. monthly.
It backs up just the important (in my view) docs.

I don’t much care about a full sys b.u.
If I had to do that, I’d rather nuke & pave the system, then d&d as needed from my local or iD if I had to do a deep dive.
iD serves mostly to b.u. media, music, films and Pro Tools.

My vCast client is b.u. insane. I set him up with BB until I switched to iD and did the same with him. He also has CCC locally and he d&d’s his projects to 3 4T SSDs.
He has the same set up in 2 locations as well as 2 PCs in his acct.
That was a big reason why I changed to iD. I could put all his gak on one acct.
He had also an iCloud (iPhone photos related) and some other PC specific b.u.
Then his PC guy put him on Googs cloud. Too much.
In the process of getting him off iCloud and removed Goog.
Just a waste of $ after 10TB of iD.

I suppose a lot depends on what your level of fear/confidence is.
Me, I just wanted to reduce the number of “Notifications” I’d get from various parties.
The vCast client was getting so many Notifications that he didn’t understand were just OBTWs.
He call for every one.

Neither he nor I are doing gummint work. As with any client, I hand them files.
It’s up to them to b.u. I work in TV location and post audio. Ain’ nuthin’ I’ve ever worked on that will change the future any more than it did in the past.

One thing I did after the partial was spreadsheet everything as it was installed/updated, so at least I knew what I was missing if the cat weed on my homework.
I also have a cloud doc (Goog) that I noted (in Fritz speak) particular niggly settings that my aging elbow might forget or how things need to come back together the way I like.

Below is a partial example. Prolly gibberish to most.

Keyboard prefs:
disable Caps-Lock & other system Shortcuts
Use F keys as standard function
ShortCuts - Finder/Empty Trash Cntl/esc
Home/View/Show View Options (Command-J); check box to show Library folder.

Install:
Karabiner: Complex mod/add rule/enable Caps-Lock to cmd+cntl+opt+shft
QuickSilver: launch with Caps/Tab
Shelf/Show F7
from Catalog/User - make a copy of Documents folder that will end up in custom.
set Source option depth to 5
d&d User/Lib/AppSupp/QS folder

Enpass: QS - Caps/E. Docs
TypeIt4Me: QS - F4. App Support/User, serial
ProTools: QS - F15
Think or Swim: QS - Caps/Q.
d&d Backup and workspace(s)
Firefox: QS - F12
c&p ~/Lib/App Support/Firefox/Profiles & profiles.ini

CopyLess 2: github
Utilities from b.up

Mail: QS - Caps Lock/M
View: show Favs, Date & Time,
Import: User/Fritz/Library/Mailbox with largest Archive,
d&d - Data/Signatures
Keyboard shortcuts:
Cntl - To, From, Date
Cmd/D - Send
c&p from ~/Lib/Mail/V#/MailData/Signature folder & SyncedRules.plist
Restart
Prefs/View/Show Most Recent Message at Top

d&d: Photos, Movies, Docs, DLs

YMMD