Manual NAS Backup Tool

September 6, 2025 · View on GitHub

Author: Daury DiCaprio
License: MIT
Motto: #VERyGoodforlife

A powerful interactive Python script for creating two types of backups: secure, encrypted, versioned backups using Restic, and simple, incremental, direct-access file copies using Rclone.

Creator's Journey & Purpose

This tool was born out of a real-world need: managing project files on a laptop (a Dell XPS) with limited storage. The goal was to create a reliable system to:

Archive completed projects to an external drive and cloud storage to free up local space.
Secure critical, in-progress work with versioned, encrypted backups.

Currently, I use it weekly to keep my main machine clean and my data safe across a local HDD and Google Drive. The future plan is to deploy this tool on a dedicated home server (a Beelink NAS with Proxmox) and a Raspberry Pi to create a fully automated, robust, on-site and off-site backup system.

✅ Key Features

Dual Backup Modes: Choose between ultra-secure, encrypted backups or simple, accessible file copies.
Dual Destination: Back up to a local drive and the cloud in a single, reliable operation (local first, then cloud).
Interactive & Safe: Guides you through every step with clear prompts and warnings to prevent accidental data loss.
Flexible: Works with any external drive and any cloud storage service configured with Rclone (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.).
Customizable: Allows you to specify custom destination paths for better organization.

🛠️ Requirements

Before you start, make sure you have these three tools installed:

Restic: The engine for secure, encrypted backups.
Rclone: The "swiss army knife" for cloud storage, used as a backend for both backup types.
FUSE: Required to mount and explore your encrypted backups as a virtual drive (fuse3 on Arch, fuse on Debian/Ubuntu).

🚀 Step-by-Step Usage

Clone the Repository:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/manual-nas-backup-tool.git
cd manual-nas-backup-tool

Install Dependencies:
- On Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S restic rclone fuse3
- On Debian/Ubuntu/Raspberry Pi OS: sudo apt update && sudo apt install restic rclone fuse -y
Configure Rclone: If you want to back up to the cloud, you must configure Rclone first. It's a one-time setup.
```
rclone config
```
Follow the prompts to add your cloud storage provider (e.g., Google Drive).
Make the Script Executable:
```
chmod +x manual-nas-tool.py
```
Run the Tool:
```
./manual-nas-tool.py
```
The script will guide you through the rest! At the end of the first successful run, it will offer to install itself as a system command (manual-nas-tool) for easy access.

🔑 Accessing Your Encrypted Backups

Your secure backups are encrypted databases. You cannot see the files directly. To access them, you use restic to mount the backup as a virtual, read-only drive.

Create a mount point (an empty folder):
```
mkdir ~/my_decrypted_backup
```

Mount the repository (example for Google Drive):

# For a cloud backup:
restic --repo rclone:<your_remote_name>:manual_nas_encrypted/<project_name>_encrypted/ mount ~/my_decrypted_backup

# For a local disk backup:
restic --repo /path/to/your/disk/manual_nas_encrypted/<project_name>_encrypted/ mount ~/my_decrypted_backup

Enter your password when prompted.
Explore your files! You can now browse the ~/my_decrypted_backup folder with your file manager. Look inside the snapshots/latest/ directory.
Unmount when finished: Go back to the terminal and press Ctrl + C.

⚠️ THE GOLDEN RULE: SAVE YOUR PASSWORD! The password you use for a secure backup is your only key to your data. If you lose it, your data is gone forever. There is no recovery. Save it in a trusted password manager immediately.

🤖 Automation (Optional)

Simple Automation with Cron

You can run a backup automatically at a set time. Run crontab -e and add a line like this to run a backup every day at 3:00 AM. Note: This works best if your script is modified to be non-interactive.

0 3 * * * /path/to/your/manual-nas-tool.py --non-interactive --source /home/user/projects --dest gdrive --secure

Advanced Automation with Systemd

For better reliability and logging on a dedicated server (like a Raspberry Pi or NAS), using a systemd timer is the modern, professional standard. It's more complex to set up (requiring a .service and a .timer file) but offers huge benefits:

Superior Logging: Every run is logged in the system journal (journalctl).
Increased Reliability: It can run a missed backup as soon as the system boots up.