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Computer Software => General software => Topic started by: Bowdon on March 06, 2017, 11:16:00 AM

Title: Does a NAS drive create backup images?
Post by: Bowdon on March 06, 2017, 11:16:00 AM
With my recent battles with windows 10 system restore I'm looking at ways to create backups so I can restore them if I get any problems.

I was thinking of getting a NAS drive, then I wondered.. will the nas drive allow me to take backup images of the computer?

Then I wondered is it doing the same process as disk imaging programs like Macrium ?

Does the nas have a built in disk imaging program?

I'm trying to figure if I need both a nas and a disk imaging program or does the nas do it all?
Title: Re: Does a NAS drive create backup images?
Post by: Chunkers on March 06, 2017, 11:43:52 AM
I have Synology NASes, its easy to automatically schedule backups of data from folders or locations on your PC or even sync folders together between PC and NAS but I don't know of a way to regularly image an entire disk to the NAS.

I have used clonezilla (http://clonezilla.org/) to backup images of disks before and it works well and I believe you can mount network drives and use them as storage, haven't tried this though

Chunks
Title: Re: Does a NAS drive create backup images?
Post by: parkdale on March 06, 2017, 08:20:12 PM
I have used and setup various data backup solutions, Synology is by far the easiest to get setup.
Yes you can use network drives with the Pro versions of Windows (Easy) and Home. You can use cloud station for Windows all versions. 
Netgear versions were the worst!
Title: Re: Does a NAS drive create backup images?
Post by: tickmike on March 07, 2017, 01:43:52 AM
When my daughter went to uni I built a automatic back up system that would back her laptop up to a home based back up server (or NAS) each day, it is now used also to back up my wife's and my laptops/desktops.
I used what I had at the time (it is still in use now, years later  ;D ) a old desktop computer, I used a stripped down version of PCLinuxOS on a SD card for it's operating system with 2 x 2Tb hard storage drives (more can be added) with a Raid card.
LuckyBackup software is the hart of the system.
http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/

https://sourceforge.net/projects/luckybackup/
It is so easy to knock one up yourself.
Title: Re: Does a NAS drive create backup images?
Post by: Chunkers on March 07, 2017, 04:45:19 AM
Whilst I am a big fan of Synology NASes, I own two, they are very expensive.  If you don't require the resilience of a professionally built NAS but would still like a Synology-clone running the same OS (DSM on top of Linux) then Xpenology (http://xpenology.me/) is an option, especially is you have an old PC lying around ... it works great but you need to be moderately geeky to get it all working.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axbwf5qNRVs[/youtube]

For something like backups only might be a cheap(er) solution.  I am not sure there is a fully automated disk cloning to lan storage solution, a bit of manual intervention might be required.

Cheers

Chunks
Title: Re: Does a NAS drive create backup images?
Post by: adrianw on March 07, 2017, 05:23:16 AM
FreeNAS supports iSCSI, so you could perhaps use that to make a drive available to Windows.
I have never used iSCSI.
Could you use a USB 3 external hard disk?
Title: Re: Does a NAS drive create backup images?
Post by: Chunkers on March 07, 2017, 11:55:54 AM
Could you use a USB 3 external hard disk?

This is a good idea, and is how I back up my laptop,  I just use clonezilla and a usb hard drive
Title: Re: Does a NAS drive create backup images?
Post by: adrianw on March 08, 2017, 01:40:34 AM
This is a good idea, and is how I back up my laptop,  I just use clonezilla and a usb hard drive
If you use more than one in a rotating pool, you have backups going back further, some insurance against drive failure and the ability to store a backup off site.
Despite having 3 NASs here and a smallish AWS S3 backup, I still also back up to a pair of 6 TB Reds in Startech enclosures.
Knitted my own because all the USB external drives I looked at had a worrying level of complaints.
Title: Re: Does a NAS drive create backup images?
Post by: Chrysalis on March 08, 2017, 03:18:29 AM
I did consider a NAS a few months back but they seem very poor value for money, the good one's are expensive as half a dozen hard drives, and even the bad one's are pricey.  I ended up just shoving a few new drives in my PC case and using them locally to my PC.  I cannot think of much of a disadvantage to what I am doing vs buying a NAS, other than a bit more flexibility with the raid setup.  Now of course if I didnt own a PC which has 9 drive bays in the case, the story might be different, e.g. if I only had portable devices.

If you can get a FREENAS compatible unit then thats a good choice, as ZFS is the best filesystem out there in my opinion if you want data resiliency.