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Dirt Cheap Cloud Storage Drive with Backblaze B2

Backblaze B2 Storage is incredibly cheap, at the time of writing it is only $0.005 per gigabyte per month to store data, and $0.01 per gigabyte to download it. To put that into perspective - you can store a terabyte of data for a little over $5 per month, and if you ever need to download that terabyte of data it would only cost a little over $10!

So, why not set up a mapped drive for instant access to cold storage data archives (or whatever you want to throw on it)?

Set up Backblaze Storage

Head over to Backblaze and create an account. Once you’re logged in, click the “Buckets” tab on the left-hand menu, then the “Create a bucket” button (a bucket is just a chunk of storage space). Give it a name, and leave the “Private” box checked. Click the “App Keys” tab, and then “Add a new Application Key” Give it a name, select the bucket you just made, and then click “Generate Key”

Make note of the bucket name, app key ID, and app key, we’ll need them later on.

Tip: If you wish, you may add daily usage limits and alerts based on cost by clicking the “Caps and Alerts” tab to.

Map the Drive

Windows

Install WinFsp Download Rclone Download NSSM Make a new directory at C:\backblaze Move all of the Rclone files, and the nssm.exe file into C:\backblaze Open Powershell as NON-admin user Configure rclone

Run rclone config --config "C:\backblaze\rclone.conf" , this starts the configuration tool with a custom file location.

, this starts the configuration tool with a custom file location. Type n to create a new remote

to create a new remote Name it backblaze

Type b2 for the storage type

for the storage type Paste in your Key ID as the account value

value Paste in your Key

Type true to enable hard delete

to enable hard delete Type n to skip advanced setup

to skip advanced setup Type y to commit the changes

to commit the changes Type q to quit the configuration tool

Run rclone --config "C:\backblaze\rclone.conf" lsd backblaze: to test the configuration, you should see your bucket name in the results Set up NSSM

Run C:\backblaze

ssm.exe install "Backblaze Mount" , a configuration window should open up (You can undo this with C:\backblaze

ssm.exe delete "Backblaze Mount" )

, a configuration window should open up (You can undo this with ) Application Tab Path: C:\backblaze\rclone.exe Startup Directory: C:\backblaze Arguments: mount backblaze:BUCKET_NAME B: --vfs-cache-mode full --config "C:\backblaze\rclone.conf" (Remeber to change the BUCKET_NAME here, and change B: to a different letter if you already have a B drive mapped.) Service Name: Backblaze Mount

Details Tab Display Name: Blackblaze Mount Description: Mounts Backblaze sync drive bucket via rclone

Exit Actions Tab Delay Restart By: 10000 (10,000 millisecons, or 10 seconds)



Reboot, or press the Windows key and the r key on your keyboard to open up the Run dialog, and type services.msc , find “Backblaze Mount”, right click on it, and choose “Start”

Install Rclone - run curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash Configure rclone

Run sudo rclone config --config "/etc/rclone.conf" , this starts the configuration tool with a custom file location.

, this starts the configuration tool with a custom file location. Type n to create a new remote

to create a new remote Name it backblaze

Type b2 for the storage type

for the storage type Paste in your Key ID as the account value

value Paste in your Key

Type true to enable hard delete

to enable hard delete Type n to skip advanced setup

to skip advanced setup Type y to commit the changes

to commit the changes Type q to quit the configuration tool

Run sudo rclone --config "/etc/rclone.conf" lsd backblaze: to test the configuration, you should see your bucket name in the results Run sudo mkdir /mnt/backblaze to create the mount directory Run sudo nano /etc/crontab to edit the system cron file ( @reboot only works as root on some Linux distros) Add the line @reboot root /usr/bin/rclone mount backblaze:BUCKET_NAME /mnt/backblaze --vfs-cache-mode full --config "/etc/rclone.conf" & (Remeber to change the BUCKET_NAME , you can unmount the drive with fusermount -uz /mnt/backblaze ) Reboot, or run sudo rclone mount backblaze:BUCKET_NAME /mnt/backblaze --vfs-cache-mode full --config "/etc/rclone.conf" &