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Thread ID: 139774	2015-06-26 06:59:00	Windows 8.1 how to sync or backup a NAS to a local drive	dugimodo (138)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1403678	2015-06-29 23:49:00	Good point 1101. Just thought I'd see using robomirror. It appears to only mirror one way. Meaning if the PC has 5 files then the backup also has 5 files. I removed 2 files from the PC manually run the backup, the backup didn't follow suit, it left the 5 files as they were. I then added in another 5 files, so now the PC had 8, ran the backup, the Backup now has the original 5 + the new 5 as well. You can set it to do certain functions if you wanted, but by default it didn't remove anything.	wainuitech (129)
1403679	2015-06-30 00:29:00	Thanks guys, robomirror seems much easier but using a batch file for robocopy directly seems to work better, couldn't say why. As to the speed comments I understand it will be quicker after the first sync but I don't understand why robomirrors first attempt at mirroring is so much slower than simply doing a windows drag and drop file copy. I cancelled the mirror after 2 days and about 30% progress and manually copied everything over in about 3-4 hours. I realise a mirror is not a backup Wainui, important files will be duplicated on both mirrors (NAS & PC). For the rest a mirror is more protection than I've had in the past and I will only be storing replaceable files anyway. I prefer not to lose them but not enough to keep backups. I have converted the NAS to a 4TB mirror, and created a scheduled robocopy nightly operation to duplicate the music directory to my local hard drive collection. I've tried adding and removing files to the source and running the batch file and it duplicates the changes at the target end in both cases. I see the DOS window flash up for a few seconds when the batch runs then it's gone. I've also set windows download & music locations to be on the NAS on all my PC's) I have 2 redundant PC's I can't decide whether to keep or not, one of them will likely end up with all the old 2TB drives in it as a possible location for backups. I'm trying to reduce my devices but at present my rather excessive collection is like this; Gaming PC with SSD + 4 & 2 TB storage drives NAS for multimedia storage and downloads (new) NUC for lounge media playback duties (new) Windows tablet for portable use AMD 5800K PC with GT760 and 4 x 2TB storage drives (recently replaced by the NUC but previous lounge machine) AMD Phenom II x3 recently repaired but in good order (older MB, no USB 3, only 4 SATA ports, crappy case) I had intended to sell the 5800K as a mid range gaming PC and the Phenom was an unintended acquisition I have no plans for but tidying up enough to sell is probably not worthwhile. Considering whether keeping one of them so I can use all the excess drives is worthwhile or whether I should get rid of both and all the old drives and worry about more storage when I run out. Having trouble deciding as you can probably tell.	dugimodo (138)
1403680	2015-06-30 01:31:00	I have 2 redundant PC's I can't decide whether to keep or not, one of them will likely end up with all the old 2TB drives in it as a possible location for backups. Only Two :p	wainuitech (129)
1403681	2015-06-30 08:32:00	I have 2 redundant PC's I can't decide whether to keep or not, one of them will likely end up with all the old 2TB drives in it as a possible location for backups. To be honest I would have gone with this solution as the "primary" NAS. Running something like Freenas. a Few things in your favour here... 1) Extremely customisable 2) Supports streaming of media 3) Supports backing up the NAS content to another location such as your external USB enclosure. If the PC's you have come with an onboard RAID controller you're set, with the right RAID config for your disks you can get decent performance with the data redundancy required. Also in terms of syncing your data to a central location have a look at SyncToy. I currently use this to sync my media etc. from my PC to my NAS which is running the PlexMedia server. SyncToy is set to run at a scheduled time each day so my media is always up to date. I don't have a "second" backup running from the NAS to another destination but if I did there are several plugins available on Freenas that will allow this to be done. Just my :2cents:	chiefnz (545)
1403682	2015-06-30 11:16:00	I considered building a NAS from one of them but decided against it because 1) Physical size - the Qnap is tiny compared to a PC 2) Power usage when left on 24/7 - one of the AMD's idles at close to 100W compared to single figures for the new NAS 3) the hassle of installing and configuring it 4) the old green hard drives are not good for NAS or RAID use as already mentioned (if I use them for backups it'll just be as single volumes) 5) concern about the long term reliabilty of cheap old PC hardware when repurposed as a NAS 6) well actually this is the Main one, I didn't have one of the PC's at the time I bought the NAS, it's a machine I gave away about a year ago and it recently died and was given back - with a blown PSU. 7) I'd have to have spent money anyway as neither of the cases really fits that many drives very well If I was going to build a NAS from scratch I'd look at a NAS itx case and a low power CPU but I'd never match the efficiency of the ARM CPU in the ready made one. It's still entirely possible I'll do it, but it's not a priority now.	dugimodo (138)
1403683	2015-07-01 02:31:00	Ok so using robomirror to backup the entire NAS to an 8TB stripe of the 4 WD green drives is proving to be incredibly slow, for some reason it's taking days and there's only 1TB of data to backup. In contrast a straight windows copy got all that data onto the NAS in a few hours and it's slower in that direction. Also 4 drives configured that way makes even me nervous and I'm not a paranoid person at all. I'm rethinking my strategy a bit, might abandon all my WD green drives for the moment. The time to sort this out is now before the data gets too unwieldy. What do you guys think of this as a plan; 1. Buy a second 4TB SG barracuda to match the one in my gaming PC and create a 4TB mirror in the PC. 2. Empty out the NAS and reconfigure as a 4TB mirror (By basically archiving it's contents now to the new mirror and leaving them there :)) 3. Use the NAS for music and any new multimedia content. 4. Use the PC for a second copy of the music, an archive of older multimedia I'm less likely to access over the network and also general storage on the PC 5. create a folder mirrored across both PC & NAS with a scheduled robocopy for anything I want to really protect 6. figure out what to do with 5 x 2TB drives I'll no longer have a need for (4 already mentioned plus 1 currently in gaming PC) Hey bud....Running backups from NAS enclosures through Windows PCs is always slow, you have to use the NAS device O/S to instigate the copy\backup directly attached to the NAS to HDD. You will get MUCH better throughput. Some NAS devices let you daisy chain drives off the back for backups with NAS software or extra storage, perhaps mirror the 4TB and add an extra out the back (single disk for NAS backup), and forget robocopy. Sell the Green POS drives for a new 4TB!	SolMiester (139)
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