I just wanted some ideas on good services/companies/websites that will automatically keep my Unity project folder backed up (off-site).
I’m asking this because I just tried “Carbonite” and I wanted to download a “backed up” project and Carbonite limited me to downloading 5000 files per download, and my project has 100,000+ files in it. So I had to manually go through and download 5000 files at a time, and try to keep them all in the same hierarchy etc… It was a pain.
Long story short, I don’t want to use Carbonite anymore and want to do something else. I’m looking at Dropbox right now (is that a good option?).
Something that allows me to have (or download) my entire project all at once would be nice. Any recommendations? Pro tips? Thanks
Thats the one I was trying to remember - thanks Tony.
How could I manipulate this to free up some space on my local drive filled with art/animation content. Hmmm?
If it were source, that would be easy, put it in a sibling of the assets folder, commit and delete locally. For game content about the only thing you can do is shift to asset bundles, using a second project, so the don’t live in the project. But that isn’t a trivial effort. Best option would be to just get a bigger drive.
Some DVD-Rs or an external HDD might be more convenient.
There’s a bit of a learning curve to version control, but the first time it saves your project you won’t begrudge the learning curve in the least. With plain cloud storage like Dropbox, if you’ve been saving a corrupt scene file for days, there’s no easy way to get it back to a good version. But if you’re using version control, you can just bring back an older version.
I use VSTS with both Git and TFS (depending on project). It’s not always ideal for large or binary files but works well and it’s free. I would highly recommend a source control system, but backup systems are also important and a separate consideration.
I use CrashPlan (www.crashplan.com) and have for years. It works really well for me… unlimited storage, pretty cheap and had faster upload times than Carbonite and one of the others I had tried. It also lets you build backup sets (different sets of folders for organization) and set some very advanced rules on retention, like how long to keep deleted files (up to forever), and versions of files so if something gets effed you can roll back to a previous version.
The website limits the number of downloads, but the desktop app lets you restore as much as you want to wherever you want. If I had one complaint though, the download times are a bit slow so if it’s a massive project it could take some time to recover if you need to. But if you’re using a source control system in conjunction, hopefully you want ever need to restore from the backup… it’s a failsafe.
Just an update… CrashPlan announced they are ending personal backup services and concentrating on business offerings so my above recommendation only applies for business accounts.
I use this one. Seriously it is just awesome and reliable: https://www.arqbackup.com
Works with almost any Cloud, SFTP, NAS or local HDs. It works like Apples TimeMachine, just with more options. Which means you can revert to old versions too because it keeps a backup history with multiple versions.
Arq® automatically backs up all your Macs and Windows PCs.
Your files are stored securely, readable only by you.
Arq backs up your files securely and lets you keep control of your data. Arq is super simple to set up. It backs up your files to your own cloud account (Amazon Cloud Drive, AWS, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage, OneDrive, and SFTP). Arq protects your data through strong encryption with a key only you know. Arq uses multiple threads and LZ4 compression for very fast throughput. Arq offers sophisticated file-exclusion filters, storage budgeting, extensive logging, email reports, many scheduling options, and full control over which networks and how much bandwidth Arq uses. Arq is availabe for Mac OS X and Windows.
True privacy and control
Arq encrypts your file data before it leaves your computer, so your files are never sent on the network in the clear. You choose the encryption password. We have no access to your files. All transmission over the network is through SSL/TLS.
Totally transparent
Your backups are stored in an open, documented format. We’ve published an open-source command-line utility so you can see for yourself your backups and directly restore your files from cloud storage. Other users have also contributed Arq-compatible utilities like arqinator.
Native apps
Both Arq for Mac and Arq for Windows are native apps built for maximum device fidelity and maximum performance. No Java means no Java-related upgrade headaches or performance problems.
Efficient
Arq does all it can to minimize uploads: Compression reduces upload sizes. Client-side de-duplication ensures Arq never uploads the same content twice. Rsync-style “rolling checksum” ensures only the changed parts of files are uploaded.
Unlimited in every way
Arq backs up everything or just the files you choose.
Arq doesn’t skip videos or ignore certain file types
Arq backs up files of any size – 4GB, 40GB, it doesn’t matter
Arq backs up your external drives
Arq backs up your network drives
Arq doesn’t delete backups of your external drives just because you haven’t plugged them in lately
Arq doesn’t forcibly delete old backup records (unless you tell it to).
$49.99… is that really a one time fee? That seems cheap.
Edit: Ahh I see… it requires you to purchase a separate storage account for your data. That would get really expensive for me, really fast, even if I used Glacier or Coldline.
yuck. I haven’t looked at many alternatives yet, but BackBlaze was recommended as a replacement. Still much more expensive than the family plan of crashplan if you have multiple PC’s.
Those are 5 1/4" Floppy Disks.
Anyway an additional backup on optical discs is useful because it is EMP proof.
Something like this can happen any time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859
Seems like there would be a lot more serious problems than losing data at that point but wouldn’t a flash drive work just as well as a dvd-r in an EMP situation?
No, in such an event a Flash drive (like any other electronics) would be destroyed.
Unless you put your computer and electronics perfectly isolated (no cables to the outside of the cage) into a faraday cage it would be destroyed.
Hmmm?
