Alright folks, so I gotta tell ya about this massive headache I was having with backups. Seriously, it felt like playing whack-a-mole every single day. Stuff kept breaking, drives were filling up overnight, and finding anything older than a week? Forget about it. Total chaos.
The Tipping Point
Then last Tuesday happened. Spilled my whole dang coffee mug right onto my main workstation. Panic mode ON. Grabbed the “latest” backup drive plugged into it… only to find it hadn’t even copied over the critical project folder I was working on that morning. Gut punch. Spent hours sweating, trying salvage bits of files using recovery software. Lost half a day’s work. That was it. Enough messing around.
Stumbled Onto Something Different
Honestly, I was just angrily googling “better backup crap that actually works” – pardon my language – when Borg popped up. Never heard of it before. Figured, screw it, can’t be worse than this mess.
Downloaded it first thing Wednesday morning. Didn’t even read the fancy docs, just opened a terminal window and went for it.
Here’s what actually went down step-by-step:
- Typed some basic install command. It actually worked without throwing weird errors at me. Already a win.
- Made a new empty folder called “Borg_FirstShot” on my biggest external drive. My target.
- Rammed this line into the terminal: “borg init –encryption repokey-blake2 Borg_FirstShot”. Wanted it locked tight.
- It asked for a passphrase. Made up a real stupidly long one. Wrote it down ON PAPER like some caveperson. Borg confirmed the repo was made.
- Took a deep breath. Pointed Borg at the folder containing my project files from hell: “borg create Borg_FirstShot::TuesdayFix /Path/To/My/Stuff”. Hit Enter. Held my breath.
- Watched the terminal scroll like crazy. It was doing… things. Compressing? Deducating? Whatever. Let it run.
The Moment I Stopped Grinding My Teeth
It finished. Faster than my old method. Okay… interesting. But the real test? I deleted one random file from the original folder on my computer. On purpose! Felt reckless.
Jumped back to terminal: “borg list Borg_FirstShot”. Bam. Saw the archive named “TuesdayFix” listed. Now, “borg extract Borg_FirstShot::TuesdayFix path/to/my/*”. Held my breath again. Hit Enter.
A second later… bam. The file was back. Sitting right where I asked it to put it. Perfect copy. No muss, no fuss. I just sat there staring at the screen for a minute. It actually worked.
Why I’m Sticking With This Thing
So, messing around with it all week, here’s why this Borg gizmo isn’t getting uninstalled anytime soon:
- Space Saver Magic: That first backup? Smaller than I expected. Way smaller. Added some more junk files yesterday and backed up again – it barely got any bigger! Like it knew it already had most of the stuff.
- Finding Needles in Haystacks: Used “borg list Borg_FirstShot::TuesdayFix” to actually SEE inside the backup. Found every single file and folder, clear as day. No more guessing.
- Time Machine Vibes: Made three backups this week. Can list them all with “borg list Borg_FirstShot” and pull files from any single point in time. Feels safe.
- Stupid-Simple Copying: Finally moved my backup repo to my NAS this morning. Just copied the whole “Borg_FirstShot” folder over. No special software needed on the NAS side. Done.
- Locked Down: That passphrase I scribbled on paper? Tested it. Tried accessing without it. Borg laughed at me. Good. Means my stuff’s safe if that drive walks off.
Look, I’m not saying it’s perfect fairy dust. Typing commands takes getting used to. But compared to the near-heart-attack coffee spill day? Night and day difference. It just quietly, efficiently works. Finally stopped yelling at my computer about backups. That alone is worth the price of admission. Gonna set up a proper automatic schedule tomorrow.
