Duplicati works like Arq in that it lets you backup your Mac to a range of different cloud storage services. In fact, the options are much broader. Duplicati includes most of the options Arq has. Arq Backup is even available for Mac (Image Credit: Arq) Final verdict The strength of Arq Backup is that it gives you the flexibility to move to a different cloud storage provider easily, as it.
That's right — to the cloud! Backblaze; Carbonite; iDrive; Arq; Acronis; Backblaze How to backup. Set up a new account and download the software from Backblaze. Follow the installation instructions. Backblaze will immediately begin to back up your hard drive. The initial backup can take days or weeks depending on the upload speed of your. Arq is super-easy online backup for the Mac. Back up to your own Google Drive storage (15GB free storage), your own Amazon Glacier ($.01/GB per month storage) or S3, or any SFTP server. Arq backs up and faithfully restores all the special metadata of Mac files that other products don't, including re. Cloud backup for Mac and Windows: Arq Stefan started thinking about Arq back in early 2009 because he wanted an easy-to-use backup program but couldn't find one that worked well. Stefan liked Time Machine and even bought a Time Capsule so he wouldn't have to remember to plug in an external hard drive.
Arq Backup Overview
Arq Backup automatically backs up Macs and PCs to cloud storage while encrypting the data in an open and documented format.
Requirements
- You have an account and are logged into console.scaleway.com
- You have an Object Storage bucket
Installing and Configuring Arq Backup
1 . Open your web browser and go to the Arq website and download the application.
2 . Double click on the downloaded file to open the setup tool. On a Mac double click on the Arq icon to install the application:
On a Windows, follow the instructions of the setup tool to install the application.
3 . Once installed, start the Arq application and enter the Preferences Menu:
4 . The preferences screen appears, click on + to add a new storage location:
5 . Select Other S3-Compatible Service in the list of destinations:
6 . Enter the Object Storage credentials:
- S3-Compatible Server URL: The URL of the Object Storage endpoint:
- For FR-PAR (Paris, France) enter
https://s3.fr-par.scw.cloud
- For NL-AMS (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) enter
https://s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud
- For PL-WAW (Warsaw, Poland) enter
https://s3.pl-waw.scw.cloud
- For FR-PAR (Paris, France) enter
- Access Key ID: The Access Key of the API Key used for authentication
- Secret Key ID: The Secret Key of the API Key used for authentication
- Request Signature Version: Signature Version 2
7 . Choose the bucket to be used for storing backups. Two options are proposed:
- Create a new bucket
- Choose an existing bucket from the drop-down list
8 . Choose the local folders to backup. Click on Add a folder to Backups …
To backup all files in the home folder (excluding temporary files), it is also possible to click on Backups in the menu bar, then on Add Home Folder to Backups
9 . Arq encrypts backups by default. Enter a password to decrypt a backup when needed:
Important: Make a note of the password and keep it in a safe place. It is not possible to decrypt a backup without having the password. An open source restore tool is available to decrypt a Backup on a computer without having Arq installed.
Arq Cloud Backup For Mac Osx
10 . The added folders appear in the list on the left and Arq stats to backup them hourly on Object Storage:
11 . If required, the backup frequency can be adjusted from the preferences by clicking on Arq in the menu bar, then on Preferences. Select the Object Storage bucket and click on Edit
12 . Edit the backup schedule as required:
Restoring Files
- Go to the Restore Files section of Arq
- Expand the menu on the left to see a list of all backups. They are sorted by the time/date of their creation. Click on the desired backup, the contents of the backup appear on the right.
- Click on the Item to restore, then click the Restore… button. This restores the item into its original location
- If the item already exists in the original location, choose Overwrite to replace all missing and changed files with the contents from the backup. Choose Do Not Overwrite to create a Restored by Arq sub-folder which contains all restored data.
- Arq may prompt for an administrator username and password to avoid permission issues when restoring files.
3 . Alternatively it is possible to restore files anywhere by dragging-and-dropping them from the backup window to the desktop or a Finder window
For advanced configuration options, refer to the official documentation.
Arq 6 Adopt Backup
Arq encrypts and backs up data from your Mac to Amazon S3. It's exactly as simple as it can be, and it fucking works perfectly.
I use various other backup software to completely backup my main workstation[1], but use Arq to assign peace-of-mind to certain applications on certain workstations and servers.
Example: we manage paper documents at each location by feeding them through a ScanSnap and into a PDF archival system. I tell Arq to clone the folder that stores the archival system's data to Amazon's cloud. All hardcopy can be shredded at the end of the day without worry, knowing we have a local copy and another copy, safe and encrypted, in some West Coast US datacenter.
Arq Backup Mac
Other one-off things that it might be handy to back up separately:
Arq Cloud Backup For Mac Reviews
- master svn & hg repositories
- phone system (voicemail audio & call data)
- customer inquiry/support system (email and ticket data)
- financial/accounting software data files
- any set of very important documents
- ok pr0n too why not
Arq makes it EASY AND QUICK to set up, and its backups FULLY WORK, which is unfortunately not true of most Mac backup tools. Arq:
- passes all the backup bouncer tests (in other words, it really backs up your data, not a partially-corrupted copy of your data with various bits and attributes missing)
- fully documents the file format of its archives, providing confidence that you can get your data back even if Arq stops working and Haystack Software tells you to go fuck yourself
- stores versioned backups, keeping previous versions of your data around, too
- a properly designed encryption mechanism, not some bullshit where the datacenter operator or application publisher can read your data if they get subpoenaed or just happen to be assholes
Of course, S3, and therefore Arq, isn't suitable for ALL backups; terabytes of data take time to transfer and for most applications would cost too much to store. But for gigabytes-of-data situations where a small amount of money (roughly $2 per GB per year) isn't an issue, this setup really rocks.
If you're lazy and rich, or if your home directory is small, Arq can be a complete backup solution, too. But I find it useful in situations where the entire machine isn't my problem, or just doesn't matter, but this one application is important and I have to make sure its data isn't lost.
[1]: Nothing good, though. Although I toy with apps like CCC, Super Duper, and CrashPlan, I always end up going back to compiling Mike Bombich's pain-in-the-ass-but-it-totally-works rsync myself and having a script run that nightly over ssh to another machine. But it's definitely an unwanted hassle to set this all up again every time I get a new Mac.