I’ve had a love-hate relationship with TimeMachine. While I appreciate its functionality, numerous reports of issues from other users have led me to question its reliability. I’ve experienced problems with it on a few occasions, and today it let me down again during a full system restore.
Fortunately, I utilize Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) as a backup, so I was able to recover my system using that instead. My TimeMachine setup was configured to back up to a NAS (AsusStor), and I suspect this may have contributed to some of the reliability issues. Many users have noted that TimeMachine can be inconsistent when working with NAS devices.
As a result, I’ve decided to move on from TimeMachine entirely. CCC works well for full system restores, especially with the Setup/Migration Assistant, and I am now reintroducing Arq for additional locations. Currently, my backup setup includes CCC with a USB hard drive, TimeMachine to a NAS, and CLI Restic for backups to both Storj and iDrive.
However, I’m planning to make some changes. I will replace both TimeMachine and Restic with Arq for backing up to NAS, Storj, and iDrive. While Restic is generally faster than Arq, the latter simplifies the restoration process significantly, which is a major consideration for me.
I’m curious to know about your current backup strategy. What tools and storage solutions do you utilize to safeguard your data?
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