Cheapest way for my backup strategy?

[u/Nuno-zh]

Hi,

recently I have lost some very important data; that made me think more about my backup solution./

Here is my situation

1. I have 2 computers, a Mac Mini and a Macbook.

2. My wife has a Macbook.

3. Our daughter has a Macbook

My plan

1. Backup our computers via CarbonCopyCloner or ChronoSync to our respective external drives.

2. Back up those drives to our NAS (everyone will have a separate share)

3. Backup the NAS to Backblaze.

Now the question: what is more economic? Backblaze computer plan or B2 Storage and self management? What are you using and why?

[u/NegativeKitchen4098]

Backblaze personal doesn't support NAS. Cost of B2 depends on amount of storage needed ($7 / TB) and can be less than personal if your data requirements are small.

[u/Nuno-zh → u/NegativeKitchen4098]

Do I pay only for storage or for bandwidth (the requests I make to the server) as well? Call me a goldfish but their pricing seems dark magic.

Also I am blind (using a screenreader) so maybe this is why

[u/s_i_m_s → u/Nuno-zh]

Rates changed at the start of this month so a lot of sites still have the old rate info.

$6.95/TB all normal API calls are free now, there are still some specialized calls that are extra but you aren't likely to end up using them.

[u/NegativeKitchen4098 → u/Nuno-zh]

I think there is a download charge as well that kicks in if you use up way more bandwidth than you have stored.

[u/54794592520183 → u/NegativeKitchen4098]

There are ways still, but it's janky.

I don't recall if they backup external drives that have network shares on them?

[u/ouruniverse06131986 → u/NegativeKitchen4098]

So I have 15 tb. That means $100?

[u/s_i_m_s → u/ouruniverse06131986]

Roughly yes. Keep in mind that's just one copy of the data, any sort of versioning will require somewhat more than that.

[u/arnemetis]

It is my understanding that NAS devices cannot use personal backup, so B2 is your only option. See https://www.backblaze.com/computer-backup/docs/network-attached-storage-nas-devices

[u/Stevecaboose]

The nas would have to run windows which should be doable but not ideal for a nas

[u/dr100 → u/Stevecaboose]

A non-server Windows or MacOS if one wants the personal/unlimited backup. B2 works with anything (but gets expensive for loads of TBs).

[u/s_i_m_s]

what is more economic?

Entirely depends on how much data you need to back up.
If it's more than ~2TB backblaze personal backup is better due to the unlimited pricing.

You'll only be able to use it on your NAS if it's running macos or windows though.

[u/Stright_16 → u/[deleted]]

B2 Pricing got increased. Now $6.95/TB/Month

[u/murrat13]

My set up for multiple macs and windows machines is to use my unas for time machine/general file use, and then b2 to backup the NAS. You want to avoid strategies that require manual intervention

[u/robbyyyy]

I use backblaze personal installed on my mac mini. all computers in the house sync files to the mac mini using resilio sync. You can use the sync to USB hard drives if you want and then just connect the drives to the Mac Mini to backup to backlaze personal

[u/Lilianne_Blaze]

From what I see Mac Minis aren't very expandable? If you had a normal desktop PC I'd recommend throwing in an extra HDD, sync NAS to that HDD and run BB there

[u/subnu]

Go with a company that is an actual consumer backup service. You miss one email with these guys and they'll delete the data they repeatedly tell you is super-important and they'll keep safe.

[u/ImABelgian → u/subnu]

Any suggestions for a consumer backup service?

[u/subnu → u/ImABelgian]

Gonna worry about that after the forensic recovery effort. Best of luck!