

Arq 2 (OS X backup-to-S3 software) has been released. - cylo
http://www.haystacksoftware.com/blog/2011/08/arq-2-is-out/

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jambo
cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy&...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&biw=1514&bih=1015&source=hp&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.haystacksoftware.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F08%2Farq-2-is-
out%2F&pbx=1&oq=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.haystacksoftware.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F08%2Farq-2-is-
out%2F&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=8698l11226l0l11425l8l7l1l0l0l2l225l989l1.3.2l6l0)

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sreitshamer
It's back up, and cached. Sorry about that!

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drothlis
Arq does incremental backups... but does it do incremental _restores_? i.e. if
I have already restored the backup to another computer, can I later fetch just
what has changed? This is the only feature missing from duplicity[1] to make
it perfect.

[1] <http://duplicity.nongnu.org/>

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sreitshamer
No, but it's on my to-do list. It'd be awesome for, for example, restoring
from an older Time Machine backup (fast) and then merging in the latest Arq
backup.

(I wrote Arq)

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jmah
Nice. I checked, and the source to the restore tool has been updated too:

<https://github.com/sreitshamer/arq_restore>

(I haven't run a test restore with it yet, though.)

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Emore
Nice! I've been using Arq for some time and it's great for selective backup (I
use Backblaze for bulk backups.) Stefan, the developer of Arq, is also quick
to reply and very helpful.

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HaloZero
Could someone explain the benefit of backing up to S3 as opposed to just a
service like Mozy, Backblaze, or Dropbox?

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jarin
It's probably a little cheaper, plus you have slightly more control over it.

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HaloZero
I think Backblaze offers unlimited for $6/month, Mozy offers 125GB for
$10/month.

That same pricing $0.140 per GB (on S3) is $17.5/month unless I misunderstand
S3 pricing.

<http://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/>

<http://mozy.com/home/pricing/>

<https://secure.backblaze.com/buy.htm>

Dropbox is more expensive but is syncing as opposed to backup.

~~~
Groxx
I don't think you misunderstand S3's pricing. They're not cheap. What they are
is flexible, generally-high-availability, and you can choose the region you
want to serve out of. For sheer storage costs, they're moderately high, same
as their EC2 costs for sheer compute power.

~~~
rbranson
... which is why it's inappropriate for a desktop backup solution. The chances
of simultaneously losing your hard drive AND the entire RAID array in the
Backblaze container that stores your data are so small that it's not worth
paying extra.

~~~
sreitshamer
If Backblaze loses your data and it's your only backup, you need to re-upload
all your data. If that takes a long time and your hard drive fails during that
time, you lose your data.

(disclosure: I wrote Arq)

~~~
jarin
I think with remote backups, a 2-part backup is probably the best strategy.
Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner on an external hard drive, and remote
backups with Arq, or BackBlaze, or Carbonite, or whatever.

It's possible to lose your S3 data too (and then you're in the same situation
as BackBlaze losing your data). For example, I once accidentally removed all
permissions from files in a bucket with Transmit, including the permissions to
read files or set permissions.

I think Arq is great, just playing devil's advocate.

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piggity
Just use Crashplan - <http://www.crashplan.com/>

Unlimited backups on one computer for $50/year (USD) -
<http://www.crashplan.com/consumer/store.vtl>

Encrypt your files with your account password, a passphrase, or a local
encryption key. Incremental backup and lots of other goodness.

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huhtenberg
^ astroturfing

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yanowitz
Given that the account was just created, I tend to agree. Which is sad, as
Crashplan is a genuinely good product (disclosure: I've been using it for 2+
years and am paid up for the next few years). It gives fine grained (up-to-
the-minute) off-site backups w/versioning and easy restores (I've only done
one-off restores, not full disaster recovery).

I've used it in production and personal environments.

But I hate the idea that they are farming out this kind of astroturfing. Gack.

~~~
piggity
Nah, it wasn't astroturfing; I lurk most of the time. It does everything that
submission does, does it well and does it inexpensively compared with rolling
your own or having to deal with the vagaries of S3 (who lost S3 and EBS data
irretrievably in the EU last week).

So you can downvote me, but don't think that it was Code42 doing it - I have
no relation to them.

