Help With NAS

Longford Leader

Looking for some help on NAS

I have 1 desktop (xp) and 2 laptops (vista) that I want to backup. All are connected to a wireless router.

If I get something like this http://www.dabs.ie/products/netgear-readynas-duo--1x-1tb--network-attached-storage--nas--50LH.html?refs=443460000-4294963789 ,can I do the following:

1. Backup the entire 3 computers. How do I do that?
Do I have to manually move ever thing to the NAS or does it happen
automatically?

2. Is the data from each computer kept separated on the NAS? If I need to recover data only for my desktop,can it be done easily

3. The 1tb storage that comes with the NAS, is half of it reserved for the
backup ? If i save stuff on the remaining half is that automatically backed
up as well.

4. In the future if I need more storage can I add a 2 or 3 tb in the second slot or has it to match the 1tb in the first slot.

Sorry if these questions are basic.

Aidan

snappieT

Longford Leader wrote: »

Looking for some help on NAS

I have 1 desktop (xp) and 2 laptops (vista) that I want to backup. All are connected to a wireless router.

If I get something like this http://www.dabs.ie/products/netgear-readynas-duo--1x-1tb--network-attached-storage--nas--50LH.html?refs=443460000-4294963789 ,can I do the following:

1. Backup the entire 3 computers. How do I do that?
Do I have to manually move ever thing to the NAS or does it happen
automatically?

2. Is the data from each computer kept separated on the NAS? If I need to recover data only for my desktop,can it be done easily

3. The 1tb storage that comes with the NAS, is half of it reserved for the
backup ? If i save stuff on the remaining half is that automatically backed
up as well.

4. In the future if I need more storage can I add a 2 or 3 tb in the second slot or has it to match the 1tb in the first slot.

Sorry if these questions are basic.

Aidan

1. You can move manually or use a tool. Windows Backup is built-in for Windows 7, there will be similar utilities for XP and Vista that automatically backup specified folders on a regular basis.

2. You'll be able to define different folders for each computer, so they'll be kept separately on the NAS in that way. Recovering specific parts for a given computer depends on the backup solution you use. Any decent one should probably compress before backing up to save you some space, in which case you'd probably be looking at a full recovery.

3. That's just a box with a 1TB drive. If the drive fails, you'll lose your backups, plus any additional data that you put on it (you can put whatever you like alongside your backups, they're really just files like everything else). If you want added safety, you can buy a second 1TB hard drive and install it into the NAS (it has space for 1 more drive). If you configure the NAS to use RAID1, your data is replicated on both hard drives within the NAS - if one fails, you'll still have your data on the other.

4. It depends. If you want the redundancy I mentioned (RAID1), then it has to be the same size, though they'll be nothing stopping you replacing the existing disk with a 2TB so you could have 2x2TB (which is still only 2TB of space, rather than 4TB, since the second drive is mirroring the first for redundancy). If you're willing to go without mirroring - and let's face it, the data will also be on the computer, so you can afford for the backup to fail - then you can configure the NAS in 'JBOD' mode, which will make it 1TB+whatever you add. I doubt you'll be able to add 3TB for technical reasons, you'll probably only be able to add a 2TB drive.

Longford Leader

snappieT thank you for the detailed reply.

Aidan

Longford Leader

More questions for you folks

1.I see one of the NetGear ReadyNAS Duo features is "Full backup capability - Included Shadow for ReadyNAS software allows constant data backup of PC's and Macs"

When they talk about backup- is everything being backed up (for example: is my internet favorites,my desktop settings, programs I have installed,etc).
Basically can I recover everything back after a problem or use the NAS to install the data on a new pc?

2. How dependable are the drives in the NAS, you are basically copying data from one spinning drive on to another spinning drive and waiting to see which one fails first. Is there any solid state drives for a NAS?

3. In the set-up,the NAS is connected to your router, which is connected to the internet.
How does this work if you are using a mobile broadband dongle which goes into the pc and not the router. Are you better off getting a portable drive for each pc.

Aidan

bonzodog2

I can't comment on the NetGear device you mention, but some general points.

How valuable is your data?
A backup is only useful if you can restore your data from it (I know it sounds obvious, but having made a backup, test it !)
Don't keep your only backup in the same place as the original
Don't have just 1 backup
Yes you can get solid state 'disks' but they are expensive and small compared to spinning disks
Don't drop external disks
Use safely remove hardware options and do an occasional scandisk

obrien.cathal

The backup abilities of your computers may also be dictated by the version of Vista you have. As far as I know Home Basic does not allow you to backup to network drives with the builtin software so you would have to get third party software to do so.

Macrium reflect is a fairly good option to create an image of a drive. That way if a drive fails all you have to do is replace it and boot from a precreated CD and you can restore the image exactly as it was when you performed the backup. It also has a free option. There are plenty of other options but as a free tool it has a pretty good performance to cost ratio.

Cathal