Advice on online backup choices

Lounge
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I need to get serious about data and storage and archiving and am hoping the group could pass on some advice on the best online storage options. I’m currently on a Windows 10 machine and need a decent offline data archive. My biggest issue with backup programs is that they tend to take over and slow down my computer, particularly darktable and Rawtherapee.

I’ve heard some good things about Backblaze and it seems to be a good value with unlimited storage at $7.99/month, and I’m sure there are others, but I don’t know what kind of performance overhead they create and if that can be managed. Ideally I’d like something that will run backups at late night and be inactive during during the day.

Looking forward to hearing from this esteemed group!

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you dont need to run your backup software all the time. make it a daily job or something.
also consider backup software like restic or borg so your backup is encrypted.

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I use Backblaze, though not the option you mention; rather, I use duplicati to provide encrypted backups with Backblaze providing storage only. You can read about it here: Overview of Duplicati Backups to Cloud Storage

I run two backup jobs:

  • home directories: locally, this is about 240´000 files consuming 19 GB; the remote backup comprises 6035 files amounts to 137 GB (since backed-up files are versioned, it’s possible to recover any version in the history – I should look into this, probably I’m storing way to many old versions now). From my last backup:

    Duration of backup: 00:20:20
    Remote files: 6035
    Remote size: 137.69 GB
    Files added: 7350
    Files deleted: 2886
    Files changed: 6341
    Data uploaded: 2.44 GB
    Data downloaded: 66.90 MB

  • My main storage (including photos): close to 200´000 files and 800 GB locally:

    Duration of backup: 00:26:35
    Remote files: 46610
    Remote size: 1.11 TB
    Files added: 485
    Files deleted: 0
    Files changed: 21
    Data uploaded: 1.66 GB
    Data downloaded: 71.55 MB

Last month I paid $6.95.

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I’m starting to use Scaleway’s C14 storage, which is like Amazon Glacier. Its 0.002/euro cents per gig.

Edit: I’m using restic to backup my stuff.

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From what I’ve read, glacier could be costly if you want to recover from a total hard drive crash. Is C14 billed the same way?

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No. When you want to get your data from C14, you promote it back to their S3-style storage and retrieve it, so you’re paying the cost for their S3 storage/transfer.

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I run borg-backup against a Hetzner storage box. 500 Gb for €6 per month, client-side encrypted.

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I’m using Backblaze B2 with a scheduled backup of my data files nightly. I use a client called BlobBU which is now opensource, and I’m on a Linux system.

You could go with the Windows client offered by Backblaze. I believe that duplicate versions of files over 30 days old are removed automatically, so you might want to take that under consideration.

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Thanks everyone for the information. Now I have some options to look at!

@darix, when using the Windows backup program (admittedly, probably not the best), while I did have the actual backup running nightly the program seemed to bog down my computer while it was keeping track of changes. It pretty much took my photo editing software to a standstill.

@Marcsitkin, thanks. I’m not too concerned with duplicate file versions. I use revision numbers for the prior versions that I want to keep, so I don’t think that would be a limitation for me.

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I’m using an iDrive (www.idrive.com) backup solution. I’m having a 10TB subscription, far more space than I have data right now (about 2TB)

My wife and I sync our files, photos and documents to my home nas device. We are using Syncthing for this. For my photos I only sync the last year to my workstations.

At night a scheduled task will backup the changed files to iDrive.
Luckely iDrive has the Readynas app for this. This solution has been working reliably for the past 4 years.

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I hope not to derail the topic, though it seems to be resolved now, but what do people see as the main advantage of online backup compared to hardrive? Hard drives are so cheap these days, you can get 1TB ssd for $100. If you’re paying $10 a month subscription, that cost is covered in 10months, and you own it. No one can hold your files ransom waiting for payment, and no security risk. What am I missing?

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Automatically off site and you don’t really have to do maintenance.

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Mainly that your files are offsite, so you can recover your data if something catastrophic happens at home.

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I’m old and I like tangible things (as well as saving money). I keep one drive at home and one at the office. If both places are compromised at the same time, I’m likely to be in big trouble anyway.

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Got it, cheers!

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I would like to rise my voice for offline Backup.
I bought myself a NAS as main storage. My files are no longer stored on my PCs and Laptops. In this case i dont have to worry about versioning. As backup for the NAS i have multiple external hard drives. I keep minimum one offsite as well, in case at home should happen something.
@Dave22152 maybe you could give us more infos about your current setup and how your backup solution should be.

(sorry English is not my native language. i hope you get what i meant)

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I forgot to add: I manually backup my files again on 2 portable hard disks which I connect to my NAS on a weekly basis. Each disk is stored a different location, one of which not in my house.

Manual tasks are not the best solution and I admit skipping/forgetting it once in wa while, but in case of total disaster (fire, burglary, crytpolocker) I will have at least the biggest part of my data directly available to me.

My online/offsite backup costs me $100/year… for 10TB of storage. The biggest downside of this backup is that my internet upload speed is slow… but as my nas is always on, I just leave it uploading over night…

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Your English is fine, and thanks for the advice

My current system is a Windows 10 unit with a 1TB hard drive and I use a Western Digital 1TB external drive connected by USB. The drives are becoming filled, so I’m considering an additional 3 - 4TB external drive plus online storage so I can offload and archive older photos, records and data an also maintain a backup of my PC. I also need to be able to selectively retrieve archived files as needed.

One other problem I’ve encountered is that the backup programs I’ve used seem to slow the PC to a crawl, even if the actual backup is scheduled for the evening. I suspect the programs are performing some sort of indexing operation that’s tying up the computer. This isn’t a problem when I’m doing office and email stuff, but it really bogs down darktable and Rawtherapee to the point where I can use them.

I’m not intimidated by the technology but there are a lot of choices and I want to make sure I get the right setup.

Thanks!

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I’ve been using and liking restic as backup software. It works well, supports lots of different scenarios, and is fast.

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How about you get a nas for storage of your data or backup of your pc at home. You could then sync your nas to a cloud. You could schedule the sync iver night so you don’t have to worry about slowing down.

I was myself overwhelmed with the options for different backup scenarios. I am still happy with my nas as storage of my data.