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Forum Discussion
rsisson
Dec 29, 2015Aspirant
Backup to USB Drive??
OK, I have a ReadyNas Pro2, older, but it has run flawlessly. (RAIDiator 4.2.21 ) . In the Past, we have backed it up through a workstation, which is SLOW! I would like to use the built in "Backup...
rsisson
Jan 06, 2016Aspirant
I can re-format the USB-drive to whatever it needs to be... I will try again, but I have my file-by-file remote backup for now...
To the person who asked about using one of the Raid volumes as a backup...
An option, not a good one, is to remove a drive and replace it with a Blank drive and have the raid re-built. You now have a mirror of the mirror...but it may not be readable by anything but the NAS as it is likely a track-by-track backup/mirror not a file by file true backup.
StephenB
Jan 06, 2016Guru - Experienced User
An option, not a good one, is to remove a drive and replace it with a Blank drive and have the raid re-built. You now have a mirror of the mirror...but it may not be readable by anything but the NAS as it is likely a track-by-track backup/mirror not a file by file true backup.
Just to amplify the "not a good one":
(a) SATA connectors on hard drives aren't designed to handle a lot of insertions/removals. There is a risk that you will eventually damage the connectors. If that happens, your "backup" is useless.
(b) Every insertion requires a full resync of the array. This takes a lot of time, and puts stress drive 1. It also reduces the NAS performance.
(c) If there is an disk error on drive 1 during the resync, you will lose the RAID volume. Though you can potentially recover (removing both disks, and putting the last removed drive in slot 2), it is an unnecessary risk.
The fastest way to back up a Pro-2 is to back it up over a gigabit network - either to another NAS or a PC (perhaps an attached USB 3 drive on that PC). Though direct USB backup is convenient, and often fast enough.
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