hi I have a local hard drive that I will be using in a remote server to backup via Restic. However, I want to first backup locally as it’s several TB of data. I use autorestic as a wrapper to make things easier for myself when to backup. Can I easily just use the same encryption key just use a local drive then use the restic backend for backup over the network?
Yes you can use different storage backends to access the same repository, because The directory layout is the same for both backend types and is also used for all other remote backends. Backup up locally first and use sftp for later backups is no problem.
Does this work with any backend type?
I specifically use the reatic rest server backend for remote sites that I self manage. I do use s3 with backblaze b2 but that’s not in the discussion for this. I basically want to connect the external hdd into my server here at home then move it to my server in another house and use the Restic rest server backend there
If it helps, I use the restic rest server backend, and also connect to the same repository locally (i.e., without using the rest server). So essentially I already do what you’re proposing to do 
Sure you can. The repository doesn’t care where it lives. You just have to move it to wherever you eventually want to have it and then update your configuration so that you can access it.