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Forum Discussion
RN204 - can other backup software be used?
I didn't realize when I spent $1k on drives and this NAS that it seems to be locked into its own backup software which does not fit my way of saving data. Did I just waste my money? It wants to use a...
ReadyCloud is an option, and you certainly don't need to use it.
JPra wrote:
it seems to be locked into its own backup software which does not fit my way of saving data.
Can you tell us what your preferrred way is? Also tell us what devices you want to access the NAS with, and whether you want to access it over the internet (or only over the local LAN).
Can you tell us what your preferrred way is?
Preferred method is to set up a folder for each hard drive I want to copy, then copy all contents of that drive.
Also tell us what devices you want to access the NAS with, and whether you want to access it over the internet (or only over the local LAN).
Only over local LAN, preferrably over ethernet. For security reasons I want zero access to or from internet. This is especially true after my antivirus identifed my readycloud program as being infected with a virus.
JPra wrote:
my antivirus identifed my readycloud program as being infected with a virus.
Your antivirus program had a false positive (which you should report to them), but that is a digression.
JPra wrote:
Preferred method is to set up a folder for each hard drive I want to copy, then copy all contents of that drive. Only over local LAN, preferrably over ethernet. For security reasons I want zero access to or from internet.
You can back up to the NAS using that method if you like. Though there are some folders that Windows really doesn't want to be copied. The approach is to share each hard drive from Windows, so the NAS can access it, and create a destination share on the NAS for that drive. This windows share should be password protected. Then you can set up a backup job in the NAS for each disk, and run that on schedule.
It's somewhat easier if you create a root folder on each drive, and move your folders into it. Then share the root folder instead of the drive. The reason it's easier is that there are hidden system files on each drive (recycle bin being one) which will get in the way - either on backup or restore. It also allows you to separate out the OS files on the C drive that can be similarly problematic. Note these issues are really about the way Windows works, not the NAS.
For PC backup I do something a bit different. I use a backup program that runs on the PC and uses a network share on the NAS as its destination. It runs on its own schedule, and can wake the PC up to do the backups. I use Acronis TrueImage (not the cloud version), of course there are other choices. That eliminates the need to share the PC disk(s). I can also use TrueImage to do a complete recovery of the PC in one restore operation - which you can't do if you simply copy files.
Neither method requires ReadyCloud.
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