How to backup boot/root drive

Support
#1

After working with duplicacy command line for managing vertical backup data, I decided to go for the GUI for basic backups of my local machine. (The 30 day demo had expired, I never got to try it, so I just purchased it).

However, the first thing I want to do is back up my boot drive (’/’).

The GUI won’t let me select it.

Also, even if I could, how would I authenticate as an administrator to have access to all the files?

Thanks
Morgan

#3

It’s Macos.

#4

You can run this command in terminal:

defaults write com.acrosync.mac.duplicacy Repository /

Restart Duplicacy and it should set the repository to /.

Run this command to enable administrator privileges:

sudo /Applications/Duplicacy.app/Contents/MacOS/Duplicacy
#5

Hi Gang,

Thanks for the instructions. I will try this asap.

Also: what are the best settings (chunk size etc) for backing up a large drive with many small files, i.e. over 10 million files on an 8TB raid drive, with many potential duplicates.

Thanks
Morgan

#6

The default settings should be ok, as Duplicacy adopts a pack and split approach, so small files will be combined first and then split into chunks.

#7

Hi Gang,

It seems that if I have 10 duplicates spread around the hard drive of a small file named “X”, if the chunk size is too big, then each time duplicacy encounters X, it will pack it with whatever is “next to it” in the hierarchy.

So then we would get chunks like:

BXZ
XAB
XBC
CDX
…

Then it would not benefit at all from de-duplication.

So maybe in that case, a smaller chunk size is better?

Am I thinking about this incorrectly?

#8

If that is the case then you’re right. A smaller chunk size would make sense for better deduplication ratio.

I wonder what could lead to this scenario though. One possibility is when you keep the same directories of small files in two places, but in one place you remove a lot of files that are maybe less important. This will create ‘holes’ where small files are packed together and as a result alter the chunks to be generated. There is a discussion on this issue: system design & performance issues.

#9

Will running Duplicacy via sudo as documented above enable admin privileges for all subsequent runs? Like when I reboot my Mac and have Duplicacy set to start at login?