Advice on backup software for a new NAS

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erehwon6811

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 5, 2004
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I picked up a Zyxel NAS326 2 drive NAS before black friday and I've finally gotten a pair of drives for it. I got a pair of HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5" 4TB 7200 RPM drives on sale from Fry's. This is my first time setting up a NAS like this and the first time I had the money for a raid set up. I set it up as a raid 1.

I'm looking for recommendations on backup software. I saw that windows 10 has a built in option and I've used cobian as well. I like free options if they are available, but will consider paid options.
 
I use Macrium & AOMEI (both) for redundancy and I am very satisfied. Macrium runs on auto every Sunday and it supports differential / incremental backups (Pro version) too.

I also use FreeFileSync that does what it sounds it does - syncing my important folders to a secondary location at the click of a (batch) button. It works with huge (TB) folders too but needs administrative permissions. I can also sync to remote locations as well (e.g. ftp) and it is open source and free.
 
+1 to Jargon.

I use Acronis for images. Macrium's a solid free option.

FFS for folder sync is great, too. Duplicating important data in a plain folder tree is important, IMO, and prevents problems with image formats. Plus, really important data usually isn't that big. FFS handles that - and external HDs - really well.
 
Did Acronis ever fix the issue with older versions? Where you back something up 10 years ago, try to restore it, but you need the 10 year old software to run to restore... We still run into that issue here at work.
 
BTW FreeFileSync also supports live syncing to another HD as if you had RAID1. You need to be careful though because if you are working with some files and make (save) a mistake it will be duplicated on your synced / back up folder.

Perhaps it is useful for some certain scenarios - i.e. syncing live to a cloud drive that other individuals are also working with remotely.
 
ob1 said:
Did Acronis ever fix the issue with older versions? Where you back something up 10 years ago, try to restore it, but you need the 10 year old software to run to restore... We still run into that issue here at work.
Click to expand...
I've gone thru TI7.0, 2011, 2013, 2014 & (just recently) 2018 but had never experienced this. I almost never need anything from old backups, however.

That said, I just validated a backup from 2014 & recovered a file with 2018. Tested fine.
 
XCOPY batch file, save important stuff to listed places in batch file, use your preferred OS's task manager to set times/days to copy stuff to your backup location. You can set /switches so that it only copies over stuff that has changed since the last backup to save time, resources, etc.

No additional software required, no additional RAM or resources required, no dependency on 3rd party software.
 
4330thgink said:
XCOPY batch file, save important stuff to listed places in batch file, use your preferred OS's task manager to set times/days to copy stuff to your backup location. You can set /switches so that it only copies over stuff that has changed since the last backup to save time, resources, etc.

No additional software required, no additional RAM or resources required, no dependency on 3rd party software.
Click to expand...

..you know, I tend to forget that windows(dos) has features that are just copied by manuf 's of software that basically gui's underling command tools (y) Actually, I bet that many backup software packages are just that. Make a nice GUI that call's underling commands that windows comes with. Nice call (y) I may not actually go that route, but its cool remembering that I may do so for certain tasks.

Thx. havent made a batch file in years, but not too difficult.
 
I've used them all. I prefer Terabyte's suite of Image for Windows/Linux. Never failed me
 
Thanks for the recommendations. There are lot of options to search through. I'm thinking about windows 10 built in backup, EaseUS Todo Backup Free, or macrium. I used Cobian backup in the past, but I'm not sure what the support situation is on that right now. That is why I'm looking for something new.
 
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