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Forum Discussion
PeteCress
Jan 19, 2017Apprentice
Backup: Keeping superceeded versions?
I currently have an Ultra-6 as my main storage device and it is being backed up to a DriveBender box using something called SecondCopy - which keeps up to 20 versions of any given file. I think I...
- Jan 20, 2017
This has helped some users: https://community.netgear.com/t5/ReadyNAS-in-Business/ReadyNAS-312-Need-Help-Understanding-Snapshots/m-p/936586/highlight/true#M3041
Each snapshot holds the entire share at the time the snapshot was taken - all the files are visible. The reason it is space-efficient is because the data blocks that haven't changed are referenced by both the main share and the snapshots. So unchanged files are only stored once, files that changed once are only stored twice, etc. But they appear in the share and all the snapshots.
There are some shares where snapshots can create problems. Two common examples are shares holding SQL databases that are frequently updated and shares for downloading torrents. The frequent changes result in a lot of snapshot space being used, and also a lot of file fragmentation. Just something to keep in mind.
Note that if you are using Windows 7, 8, or 10, there is a right-click function that shows previous versions of a file. If you are using snapshots, you can right-click on any file in the share (or any folder) and see the previous versions for that file. That simplifies your use-case considerably. (There is a way to turn that feature off if you use custom snapshots).
PeteCress
Jan 20, 2017Apprentice
>OS6 can do that all by itself with snapshots.
But that is going to be on a daily incremental (changed files) basis, right?
So if I want a backed up version of file XYZ from say, five versions ago, and XYZ were edited only infrequently, I would have to go hunting though the daily snapshots one-at-a-time starting with last night's and counting the occurrances of XYZ - maybe a month's or more worth depending on frequence of editing/saving - until I found the fifth version of XYZ..... and hope that I did not mis-count.
That is as opposed to going to a "Superceeded Files" directory and finding the file named XZY-5.
??
mdgm-ntgr
Jan 20, 2017NETGEAR Employee Retired
Well you could use this: ReadyNAS OS 6: Snapshots and Windows Previous Versions integration
No need to guess which snapshot had the old version in it.
- PeteCressJan 20, 2017Apprentice
>No need to guess which snapshot had the old version in it.
I'm starting to feel like I'm turning into a tarbaby on you over this.
Can somebody point me to some docs that explain snapshots so I can dope this out on my own?
- StephenBJan 20, 2017Guru - Experienced User
This has helped some users: https://community.netgear.com/t5/ReadyNAS-in-Business/ReadyNAS-312-Need-Help-Understanding-Snapshots/m-p/936586/highlight/true#M3041
Each snapshot holds the entire share at the time the snapshot was taken - all the files are visible. The reason it is space-efficient is because the data blocks that haven't changed are referenced by both the main share and the snapshots. So unchanged files are only stored once, files that changed once are only stored twice, etc. But they appear in the share and all the snapshots.
There are some shares where snapshots can create problems. Two common examples are shares holding SQL databases that are frequently updated and shares for downloading torrents. The frequent changes result in a lot of snapshot space being used, and also a lot of file fragmentation. Just something to keep in mind.
Note that if you are using Windows 7, 8, or 10, there is a right-click function that shows previous versions of a file. If you are using snapshots, you can right-click on any file in the share (or any folder) and see the previous versions for that file. That simplifies your use-case considerably. (There is a way to turn that feature off if you use custom snapshots).
- PeteCressJan 20, 2017Apprentice
> Note that if you are using Windows 7, 8, or 10, there is a right-click function that shows previous versions of a file.
> If you are using snapshots, you can right-click on any file in the share (or any folder) and see the previous
> versions for that file. That simplifies your use-case considerably. (There is a way to turn that feature off if
> you use custom snapshots).
Bingo!!!!.... That is what I was looking for: one-stop shopping.
Thanks !!
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