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Comment by cloogshicer | Hacker News Reader

To actually resolve this issue, here's what I think I'll do (alternative suggestions much appreciated!):

- Buy a new hard drive that's big enough to fit all my data

- Download all the data from Backblaze to the new drive (will probably take a few days/weeks)

- Write some tool that does the hashing/matching for me to see if anything's missing/corrupted (does something like this exist already?)

- Switch to a better service or just local backups

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I echo what some others said, rather than buy a hdd just to verify, why not run in an ec2 vm or similar then just nuke it when you're done. Remember, ingress bandwidth to aws is free

Hmm, thanks for the suggestion, but I have a lot of data (> 5TB), I think this would get expensive very quickly.

If you end up doing that, you may find:

  diff -rq

useful. It lets you do a recursive "diff" comparing two folders, it also reports if a file is present in both folders but with different contents. I always use that command when moving big folders around.

I've used Beyond Compare, worked really well.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Another vote here for Beyond Compare. Awesome software on both PC and Mac.

Could Beyond Compare be used as a backup solution to transfer files from a file server to a backup drive (like a Synology)?

At the very least, you don't need to do the first two steps. Backblaze can ship you your backup on a hard drive, which you can then return for a full refund.

https://www.backblaze.com/restore.html

Thank you for the suggestion!

The problem is that this is very expensive if you're not in the US. I'd have to pay for customs + return shipping, which would add up to much more than the cost of a new drive.

Temporary import of goods is a thing in many jurisdictions. Have the sender fill out the paperwork correctly, and return the drive when you're done. Then you might be exempt from VAT, customs duty, and those infuriating processing fees the couriers charge you.

It's not /quite/ the same, but thankfully even after Brexit I can export broken electronics from the UK to the EU for warranty repair—without being charged a fee when the repaired item is returned to me. (The manufacturer in the EU isn't charged a fee either, when they receive the broken item.)

As for returns shipping, maybe you can shop around, but yeah, it can be expensive.

Thanks, I'll look into that!

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