Carbon Copy 4 looks like a very worthy upgrade, especially if you need it on Yosemite.
I like the new scheduler interface and the simple setup seems approachable. I’m sticking with SuperDuper because it works and there’s no reason for me to break something that works. But if you want bootable backups and have $40 CCC should be a good option. I like the icon too.
I’m a happy Backblaze subscriber. I love them all the more for their regular report on hard drive reliability.
The assumption that “enterprise” drives would work better than “consumer” drives has not been true in our tests. I analyzed both of these types of drives in our system and found that their failure rates in our environment were very similar — with the “consumer” drives actually being slightly more reliable.
Every Synology DSM update is huge. It looks like the upcoming DSM 5.1 is no slouch either. Not only are they adding new online backup and sync sources but they’ve built a new self-hosted rich note service that includes new mobile apps.
There’s a bunch of new stuff coming I’m excited about. Remote SFTP connections from the Synology, security auditing, and improvements to the DS Photostation are at the top of my favorite new things.
Arq is a backup utility for the Mac. Until now you could use it to backup your files to Amazon S3 (including Glacier). The latest version adds support for Google Drive which is nice since you can get 15GB for free with Google.
Synology is emailing registered users regarding the Synolocker ransomware I mentioned.
The short version:
It impacts older versions of DSM and the hole was patched in 2013.
The long version:
Dear Synology users,
We would like to inform you that a ransomware called “SynoLocker” is currently affecting some Synology NAS users. This ransomware locks down affected servers, encrypts users’ files, and demands a fee to regain access to the encrypted files.
The past year’s turmoil and churn with photo storage services was a major motivation for me to get control of my own photo management. My primary goal was to develop a system that was service-agnostic. I wanted a file structure on a computer that I controlled and could easily be moved to a new sharing service if I needed to find another home.
I found a terrific solution in the most unlikely place: my NAS.
Synology just released their latest update for their network attached storage drives.1 DSM 5 provides a significant improvement to the UI of the management console but it also brings some new tricks the my all-around favorite piece of hardware, such as Cloud Sync for automatic syncing with Goolge Drive and Dropbox.
After installing the Clound Sync application from the Synology drive’s Package Center, create a new sync end-point. The options are Google Drive, Dropbox and Baidu Cloud.
I perform nightly backups to my NAS. SuperDuper is my tool of choice. Each night around two in the morning, SuperDuper launches, looks at my boot drive, and performs an incremental backup of everything. I store my backups on my Synology drive as disk images, which means there’s a little extra detail to pay attention to when setting up SuperDuper.
When creating the backup profile in SuperDuper be sure to backup to a disk image.
This is the best and most heartless time to say this bluntly:
A backup service is not a backup solution.
Services like Everpix are convenient and wonderful for short term satisfaction. They provide valuable features like sharing, browsing and reminiscing. To think of them as a complete backup is a mistake.
Buy some disks. Verify the backups. Save them outside your house.
Mel Ashar gives a quick rundown one way to backup Aperture photos. Basically, I agree. Nothing is better than an external drive, but I’d forgo TimeMachine in favor a SuperDuper backup.
