New one BackBlaze review published May 4: Backblaze Drive Stats for Q1 2022
6 Likes
I have arq premium, but I cannot really save my databases with Arq because they are so large and leave a humongous file on my hard drive which my old laptop can’t handle.
Thank you, all, for your replies!
I checked the BackBlaze review. They only list really large drives (4TB+), so I am not sure I am getting the best, but I will go with WD Passport 1TB. 2TB is expensive.
Amazon prompts me to get a Rescue Data Recovery Services (3 year data recovery plan). Any thoughts on this? Are they worth it?
Yikes! I do backups with TimeMachine on a Seagate and a Toshiba external hard drives.
May be you can answer this question for me: I make TimeMachine backups on two external hard drives (Toshiba and Seagate). Are the TimeMachine backups on the external hard drives saving the DT3 databases which are on the external Samsung hard drive?
Time Machine doesn’t back up external drives by default.
Go into System Preferences > Time Machine and click the Options button. This pane lists excluded drives. Select the backup drive listed there and press the minus (-) button. Time Machine should then back it up going forward.
1 Like
Thank you!
You’re very welcome 
Anna, I found that for me, Carbon Copy Cloner - CCC - is extremely useful, reliable, easy to use. You set up a backup routine, say backup a certain folder/folders every night at 1am, and just verify regularly that it has been working OK (valid for any other method, of course).
What I do, is I save JUST my databases (you can include your videos of course) to an external drive (SSD in my case, probably yours), and I do not include any data in Time Machine backups, just System, Apps, etc. I prefer to keep it separate.
5 Likes
You might want to submit this as a new discussion
I’m sure “humongous file” isn’t by design
1 Like
I concur with @uimike here. I’ve been using Carbon Copy Cloner for 9+ months or more (it’s all a blur now… 
) and I have found it to be very accurate and reliable. I haven’t found file restoration to be as intuitive a process but I’m sure it’s just a lack of experience on my part. Well worth the investment IMHO.
1 Like
My current backup is: a 2TB T5 SSD for DT databases and indexed items (This was my main “all files” hard disk but I got a T7 for that purpose). And a 5TB Backup Plus Seagate (Mechanical) for entire MacBook Pro M1 backup. CCC in both cases, on each MacBook Pro charge session and T5 after some big changes in DT if needed.
Apart of that, my iMac 2017 does, when on (not always it is on), typical TimeMachine backups into my NAS (with quota) including Dropbox (all in disk, nothing on-demand).
This configuration has saved my ass two times in relation to DT and “Layer 8” mistakes like deleting the wrong folder and then emptying the bin.
2 Likes
CCC 6 has significatively improved that. Now it is very easy mount the wanted snapshot (not necessarily in backup disk but in origin one) and access to files.
3 Likes
I have been in touch with Arq, and there does not seem to be a solution. My database is very large, so Arq makes its own files which are also large (app. 30 GB).
Thanks for the suggestion. I do not know anything about CCC, and just from googling it, it seems similar to Arq. Isn’t it? What CCC service do you use? I am looking for recommendations for that too now.
I agree that I should keep the databases separate. I am only concerned if I have something Indexed that is on my laptop hard drive, and because it is not all backed up, it later causes a glitch.
Anna, No, not at all. CCC is a local backup application. You can download a free 30-day (I think) trial here https://bombich.com.
We’re talking about backing up to a local drive
By the way, I don’t know what the issue with Arq is, I always used Backblaze, and never had an issue with databases larger than yours. If your system and connection are slow, then the only thing is it will take DAYS or even WEEKS to create a cloud backup. It does for me, with a fast(er) setup. Just let it do its thing.
For the local backup, if using CCC, what you do is create backup ‘tasks’, and use the CCC scheduler to schedule them to run in the early hours, like every night. It’s what I do.
1 Like
Just out of interest, which file system is your internal drive formatted to (e.g. APFS, HFS…)? Is it an HDD or SSD?
The Backblaze study and other major users of hard drives seem to be the only data driven method of analysis. Check out: Backblaze reveals hard drive models with lowest failure rates in 2020: Digital Photography Review
and
2020 Hard Drive Reliability Report by Make and Model
That’s a lovely collection of dongles in the lower right corner, Jim (@BLUEFROG)
@Anna_123, for external SSDs, I recommend SAMSUNG or VectoTech. Both are fast and reliable.
2 Likes
Thank you for the recommendations. I just received WD (1TB), and realize that it is slow. I will try out the ones you suggest.
Good questions. If you let me know how to find out, I will let you know.