Backup

[frlindla]

I am going to start with Macrium Reflect to backup all my files, database and more.

I have to choose a destination. Do you recommend internal disk or external? Does it matter?

Do you have recommodations for settings? : Incremental backup? How many backups do you keep before deleting? Do I have to do anything in Imatch to make this work?

[JohnZeman]

I use Macrium Reflect to backup my computer to an external Drobo.  That's a RAID like multi drive external drive system that automatically backs itself up to its additional drives.

As far as IMatch goes, I have that and my database installed on my C: internal drive (500GB SSD).  All of my 125,000+ images are on my D: internal drive.

My C: drive I create a full image at the first of each month with twice a week incremental images throughout the month.

My 6TB D: drive I do a full backup at the first of the year then do incremental backups twice a week throughout the year.

This system has worked well for me, and has saved my butt a few times when unexpected things have happened.

[Mario]

I have to choose a destination. Do you recommend internal disk or external? Does it matter?

Of, yes.
You don't want to keep your backups on the disks you are backing up. And you are backing up all your disks, right?
Get two external disks to do weekly backups and incrementals/differentials. Then swap. Keep the disk not connected to your PC outside your house in case of fire or theft.

But there are much better forums for topics like this than the IMatch user community.
Macrium has good documentation and their own user forum.

[frlindla]

Thank you John and Mario!
Yes I see that Macrium has its own community but wanted to mention it here because I also wanted to know if you do some settings in Imatch to make Macrium work?

Mario, you wrote: "Get two external disks to do weekly backups and incrementals/differentials. Then swap. Keep the disk not connected to your PC outside your house in case of fire or theft." I Guess you mean that just one disk is Connected to the pc. The other is outside the house?

[Mario]

Yes. Only one connected at a time. Also prevents the not-connected disk to become infected or wiped by malware.
Make a backup plan. Like

1. On Monday, make a full backup on disk A.
2. Tue to Sun do daily differential or incremental backups. Once or twice a day. Differential if your disks are large enough, else incremental (incremental is faster but less robust).
3. Next Monday, swap the disks. Start by 1.
This way you have up to two weeks of backups you can go back to.

I also do monthly backups on a separate set of disks and keep them for six months. 4 TB external 3.5" disks are cheap. Losing data is VERY expensive.

I also do backups into my cloud space. Very convenient with Reflect.
Just run an encrypted (!) backup and let it store into the folder of your cloud space (DropBox, OneDrive, GoogleDrive).
The cloud client will upload the backup files produced by Reflect into the cloud. This way you have a second location for your backups.

Once you have created your weekly and daily backup tasks in Reflect and scheduled them you don't need to think about them anymore. Just remember to swap the disks on Money.
AND, VERY IMPORTANT: Do test restores of data. Frequently mount a backup and copy the files back into a temporary folder. This is the only way to be sure that the backup worked and that you can restore the data. This is what most people don't do (never trust software!) and then they learn that their backups are worthless when they need them. I cannot stress this enough.

[frlindla]

Sorry to bother you more on this Mario, but the Macrium staff said this about using cloud Storage (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox):

"The destination can only be a locally attached drive or an SMB share on a NAS or another system for example, the online options you have included are not supported since they do not use the SMB/Windows share."

But you have made it work?

[Mario]

OneDrive and Dropbox use a folder on your local hard disk. When you copy files there, their client software transfers that data into the cloud.
When you backup into this folder, the backup files are copied into the cloud like any other file.

See the documentation of Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive or whatever you use to learn more about hot it works.

[ColinIM]

( .... )
But you have made it work?

Hi frindla,

I regularly upload my backups via a locally 'mapped' Windows drive to my Amazon S3 storage using the Swiss made software called Mountain Duck, coupled with its 'partner' encryption software (also Swiss made) called Cryptomator.

With this combination, everything is encrypted and secure, including the file names and the folder names stored on my Amazon S3 bucket. (They remain completely visible and accessible to me when I browse them through my mapped drive, of course.)

There's an allied and optional program in this suite called Cyberduck which can be used to work with your secured files independently of Windows Explorer. This explains why Cyberduck is also mentioned below.

Mountain Duck is here:
https://mountainduck.io/

Mountain Duck costs €35 per computer (in April 2020), with discounts for multiple computers.

To quote the Mountain Duck Home page:

Mountain Duck lets you mount server and cloud storage as a disk (drive) in Finder on macOS and the File Explorer on Windows. Open remote files with any application and work like on a local volume.

Cryptomator is here:
https://cyberduck.io/cryptomator/

Cryptomator is 'donation ware'.

(I was happy to make a donation to Cryptomator, and as a benefit I avoid the occasional nudges to 'please donate ...'.  Those nudges only appear after installing or updating the program, and it functions 100% OK even if you can't or don't donate.)

To paraphrase the Cryptomator Home page:

Transparent, client-side encryption support [when used with] Mountain Duck to secure your data on any server or cloud storage. Based on the excellent concepts and work of Cryptomator. Encryption for data at rest prevents unauthorized access regardless of the server or cloud storage infrastructure.

Admittedly this Mountain Duck + Cryptomator combination can be a bit fiddly to install and to set up, but it has worked reliably and trouble-free for me since around January 2018.

I make daily SyncBackPro backups to my Amazon S3 bucket through my Mountain Duck mapped 'O:' drive, and I occasionally use Macrium Reflect to make File & Folder backups also to that same Mountain Duck mapped 'O:' drive.  My most recent Macrium File & Folder backup via Mountain Duck took 16 minutes 16 seconds to upload and then verify a 736 MB mrbak file.

(Note that I've never used Mountain Duck's Smart Synchronisation feature, so I can't comment on that.)

Also, as we'd expect from a Swiss company :-) their software is well documented, with an accompanying WIKI and FAQ, and there's email-based support too if necessary.

(I have no connections with them except as a satisfied user.)

HTH

[sinus]

Hi Colin

Thanks, really interesting.
Hm, I wonder, you say, these softwares are  "Swiss made".
Why do you think, it is from Switzerland? I do not know, but I think, it is not "Swiss made".
The company at least is from Germany (Sankt Augustin).

It is really not important, I am only curious to know.

[ColinIM]

( ....)
Why do you think, it is from Switzerland? I do not know, but I think, it is not "Swiss made".
The company at least is from Germany (Sankt Augustin).

Hi Marcus,

Oh! That's an interesting twist - about the company being from Germany 

Before I used any piece of software, and certainly before I would pay for it, I would always look carefully at the 'background' details of the company. In this case, if I had ever discovered that there was a 'German' connection with this software then I admit that I had forgotten it by now!

And still today, with a quick re-check on those product web pages that I've linked-to above, I can't see any (obvious) reference to the company name, Sankt Augustin, that you've mentioned!  Hmmm! Curious!

But the 'clue' that makes me think (or that made me think) that these are "Swiss Made" products appears at the very bottom of each of those product 'home' pages, and I had certainly noted these (very reassuring  ) 'company' details in 2018 when I first discovered these 'Duck' products.

The Mountain Duck page says (and I've mimicked the red colour that they use) -
swiss made software Copyright 2015-2020 iterate GmbH. Mountain Duck® is a registered trademark of iterate GmbH.

And the Cryptomator home page shows a similar message -
swiss made software GitHub | License | Acknowledgements |  Copyright 2020 iterate GmbH | Privacy Policy

Do you know if there is a connection between "iterate GmbH' and that company you mentioned, Sankt Augustin?

I agree with you that these specific details are not necessarily important, but I wonder now if perhaps the original software developers were Swiss (or they may still be Swiss  ) and if perhaps now they work for - or work with - that German company Sankt Augustin?!

Thank you Marcus for raising this interesting question on one of my favourite software products!

[thrinn]

Well, St. Augustin is a town in Germany, near Bonn. Not a company. I do not find any information suggesting that the company developing the Ducks resides there. Iterate GmbH is located in Bern, according to their home page. So, Colin, I would agree with you.

[Mario]

Well, St. Augustin is a town in Germany, near Bonn. Not a company. I do not find any information suggesting that the company developing the Ducks resides there. Iterate GmbH is located in Bern, according to their home page. So, Colin, I would agree with you.

Damn. That sucks. We all know that the best software on the planet is Made in Germany...

Besides...may I mention a product from a genuine German company: Boxcryptor which appears to do the same as Mountain Duck.
I use BoxCryptor it on my computers to encrypt data locally for the Microsoft OneDrive cloud. I never copy anything into a cloud that has not encrypted locally. I'm not a trusty person and I always assume the worst.

I get 5 TB of storage for free from Microsoft with my 70€/year Office 365 family subscription (one TB per user, 5 users included) and I use this for very cheap cloud space.

[sinus]

Well, St. Augustin is a town in Germany, near Bonn. Not a company. I do not find any information suggesting that the company developing the Ducks resides there. Iterate GmbH is located in Bern, according to their home page. So, Colin, I would agree with you.

Thorsten is completely right with all what he writes, Colin and of course you also.
You have agood brain, Colin, when you rememberd such things.

The company is in Bern, at the Junkerngasse (what I know well).

And the founders are:
Yves Langisch (Dipl. Informatik-Ing. ETH & MSc IT-Security)
David Kocher (MSc UZH Informatik)

Well, Mario, we know all, Swiss made is the Label, what is the best, or do you not know for example, ahem, Swiss knives?
Or Swiss Muesli? Or Swiss cheese? Or .... 

Ah, there are some exceptions, I know a DAM, what is quite nice ... well, to be honest the best, and its made in Germany.


Ohhh, Colin, sorry, well, ahem, ah... Tee from the UK ist of course the best! 

[ColinIM]

 
Nicely summarised Marcus 

[sinus]

Nicely summarised Marcus 

Thanks, Colin

BTW:
I like UK, I have travelled there several time (although my English was even more poor than now), and I have even "worked" for 2 weeks in London for a furniture-company (Hille).
And I was in Brighton and the Southcost and a bit in the North.
Beautyful country and very nice people.

[frlindla]

Mario, can I Ask you: Isn`t OneDrive safe enough to uploud directly? If you USE Macrium Reflect to uploud to OneDrive, which folder do you USE? The top folder (One Drive) or one of the Child-Folders?

[Mario]

One of my daily Macrium backups goes into a sub-folder of the OneDrive root folder.
You can instruct Macrium to encrypt the backup or you use external software, like I do with BoxCryptor. I use BoxCrytptor because I not only upload Macrium data to OneDrive but also files which are non-encrypted otherwise (source codes, version control files).
And I don't upload anything into a cloud that has not been locally encrypted.

[frlindla]

Mario, can I ask how you get access to all the 6 Tb in OneDrive? You have 1 tb for each family-member. If I create several accounts, I can invite from one to the others. But how do you backup if you have several accounts?

[Mario]

I use different accounts for different backups. And, 1 TB is a lot and I can backup several weeks of what I need backup in 1TB. Then older data is deleted automatically.
For mass backups I use a rotating set of 4TB hard disks.

[frlindla]

Ok. Thank you

[plastikman]

Why does it matter where software is made? Simple: privacy and laws.

Check this site:
https://thatoneprivacysite.net/

It is for comparing VPN services but you van see the rankings for countries and what jurisdiction they have in place.

Generally speaking German software is good, Swiss as well but less transparent.

[sinus]

One of my daily Macrium backups goes into a sub-folder of the OneDrive root folder.
You can instruct Macrium to encrypt the backup or you use external software, like I do with BoxCryptor. I use BoxCrytptor because I not only upload Macrium data to OneDrive but also files which are non-encrypted otherwise (source codes, version control files).
And I don't upload anything into a cloud that has not been locally encrypted.

Sorry to ask, but I am just before use (the first time) a cloud, I think, your post here is still valid?
I have clouds (but not used until now):

OneDrive
Google Drive

I have also
Macrium Reflect

I want now upload some files from IMatch (DB, files ...) and also some backups from Macrium.

Mario recommends, I have read, using a Software for crypting before upload, for this I will use
Boxcryptor

Questions:
1) Does this makes still sense, to use Boxcryptor and the two mentioned clouds?
2) Mario, you mean, I let Macrium backup something inside the upload folder, where Boxcryptor does encrypt these files automatically before upload, is this correct?

Sorry for these basic questions, I have read somthing on the net, but a answer from Mario or IMatch-user I trust  most.  ... before I will go and do this.

[Mario]

If you do backups with Reflect you can just tell Reflect to encrypt the backup files. It has high-end encryption on board. See the Reflect help for details.
The resulting backup archives are then uploaded to the cloud.

[sinus]

If you do backups with Reflect you can just tell Reflect to encrypt the backup files. It has high-end encryption on board. See the Reflect help for details.
The resulting backup archives are then uploaded to the cloud.

Thanks, Mario
I will do so and download Boxcryptor, you have mentioned it several times, hence it must be good. 

[Mario]

Boxcryptor can be useful if you want to keep a folder encrypted and you don't have a Pro or Enterprise Windows version.
Windows has encryption integrated (Pro and higher versions) and you can even encrypt all your disks - which is now standard for portable computers (Notebooks).

Another popular solution for creating encrypted virtual disks on your system VeraCrypt.
It allows you to create files which are fully encrypted. These files are then mounted as disks and you can move/copy files to these simulated disks as you would to a normal disk. But the data is automatically encrypted and when you un-mount the disk, only the encrypted file remains. To mount the file and access the data you need the password.
Very good for critical data, customer data and suchlike.

[Jingo]

Another option if you just want to encrypt a local folder or two... Drag n Crypt.  :-)

[Mario]

Another option if you just want to encrypt a local folder or two... Drag n Crypt.  :-)

Discontinued?

Security software is highly critical and VeryCrypt has undergone many reviews and is generally considered safe. And maintained.

[Jingo]

Another option if you just want to encrypt a local folder or two... Drag n Crypt.  :-)

Discontinued?

Security software is highly critical and VeryCrypt has undergone many reviews and is generally considered safe. And maintained.

Hmm.. apparently so!  I've been using the same freeware portable version for a good amount of time... never bothered to check!  I am not encrypting anything "gov't secret" so I'm not in the need for anything that super high end... mainly for securing client projects for those that wish to ensure privacy via NDA's... just an extra layer of protection!