A quick question.

Normally for cloud backup I use Arq uploading to Google Drive although good doesn?t have the de-duplication abilities of Qrecall.
Local Backups are handled by QRecall to my Freenas server.

I have 2TB or so of old files which I also want to upload to my Google Drive but it will take a long time and also there are many duplicates. I propose to make a new QRecall archive and then upload that straight to my Google Drive. My question is should I just upload it as a straight archive or should I create some sort of disk image?

Darryl,

QRecall will certainly reduce the data to its minimum amount. And don't forget to turn on compression too!

Creating a disk image of the archive won't provide many benefits and will actually make the archive a little larger.

---If, on the other hand, you want to create the absolute smallest possible file to upload consider creating your archive with compression off and then create a compressed disk image (disk image compression is more aggressive than QRecall's) Warning: that is going to take a long time and need double the space of the archive.---

The biggest problem I see is reliably uploading a single, gigantic, file to the server in one shot. 2TB of data, even if you have a 100Mb/sec internet link, it going to take a couple of days to upload. If Google Drive's software will handle partial transfers, failures, and restarts, etc., then use that. Otherwise, I'd look for software that can deal with interruptions or slicing up the archive (or the image of the archive) into smaller pieces and upload those.

Finally, if you go the disk image route, consider turning on a modest amount of data redundancy (say 1:8) when you create the archive. That much data over a WAN is at risk of dropping a few bits here and there. Downside, it will make the whole archive 12% bigger.