Help Setting Up Windows Server 2012 as a NAS

[AEracer7]

I'm finally getting around to doing this.
I'm making a home server running the full version of Windows Server 2012 r2 (free as a student).
The server has been built for a while with a clean install of windows server on it, I'm just now getting to configuring it.

The first thing I want this server to do is to do real time backups of all my pc's and probably sync those with a crash plan account.
Basically I'm just going for data security and redundancy here.
My PC's all use RAID mirrors (except my laptop).
My home/file server will be another local copy.
And CrashPlan will be my offsite copy.

If I can set this server up as a NAS, crash plan has a feature that it will back up files to a folder or another pc, so I could use that to back up to my server, and then the sever backs up to my crash plan account.
Or I have read about WHS having features where it keeps so many daily weekly and monthly backups and images.

Problem is, is that I have never used Windows Server until now and I'm having a lot of trouble with it.
I added a SMB share on the server.
On my desktop I used the command "net use" and added my nas and I can now view it by typing \\NAS in windows explorer but all shared files are inaccessible I can only see root level files.

Other than what I've mentioned I've made very little progress. There also seems to be little information in the way of doing something like this with windows server on google.

If someone could help me or point me in the direction of a link of something for me to read up on to help me accomplish this, it would be much appreciated.

 

[MysticRyuujin]

When you say: On my desktop I used the command "net use" and added my nas and I can now view it by typing \\NAS in windows explorer but all shared files are inaccessible I can only see root level files.

"net use" is used to map a UNC path "\\NAS" to a drive letter...so if you type: net use n: \\NAS\Share

It should map the share to the n: drive...

Are you using a Domain or are you doing everything through local user accounts? You probably don't have permissions setup correctly...if you're not on a domain you have to create and use accounts on the NAS when connecting and you have to setup the correct file and folder permissions for that account...

 

[AEracer7]

I didn't assign it a drive letter but I will give that a try tomorrow. Everything right now is through local accounts.
When in windows explorer and in the share folder it told me permissions were denied when I attempted to paste files into the share folder.
Can I set up the permissions on the admin account I made on the NAS or do I have to make a new account to apply file permission to?
After making the share folder it asked me about permissions and I set everything pertaining to the share folder to full control.

 

[MysticRyuujin]

In Windows the Share Folder permissions are another LAYER of permissions on top of the NTFS permissions. You have to also edit the NTFS permissions. The Share Permissions do not override the NTFS permissions on the local server.