Photo transfer

Question

Hi guys&nbsp;I have to back up,my photos as they are only on a 5 year old laptop drive .&nbsp;theres about 200 gb although I need to run a duplicate scanner.&nbsp;&nbsp;I am am a bit of layman so words of one syllable please . My thinking is to use Ethernet to the router and just click and paste the whole file to the NAS just like a spare drive.&nbsp;is this the way or can I set up a backup to the NAS and let it do its thing.&nbsp;thanks&nbsp;john

StephenB · Answer

Clarko wrote:
&nbsp;
I am am a bit of layman so words of one syllable please . My thinking is to use Ethernet to the router and just click and paste the whole file to the NAS just like a spare drive.
&nbsp;

That works, and is probably the simplest way.
&nbsp;
If the laptop runs Windows, then enter \nas-ip-address&nbsp;into windows file explorer (using the real IP address of the NAS), and it should show you the shares that are available.&nbsp; You can get the IP address from RAIDar (&nbsp;https://kb.netgear.com/20684/ReadyNAS-Downloads#raidar ) or from your router.&nbsp; It usually is a number like 192.168.1.x (where x varies), but it could be a different number.&nbsp; You can also try using the NAS hostname (which you might have set when you set up the NAS).&nbsp; Be careful to use the correct slash direction (\).
&nbsp;
If the laptop runs OSX (e.g is a mac), then you would access the NAS using finder.
&nbsp;
Then click on one of the folder names (called shares), and navigate into it.&nbsp; You likely will get a user/password prompt - you should enter a user account that is created on the NAS.&nbsp; The NAS admin account will work.&nbsp; You should then be able to drag/drop your photo folders - just like copying them on a local machine.
&nbsp;
If you want to regularly update your photos backup (or other files on the PC), you might consider using something like freefilesync on the PC.&nbsp; There are other tools you can use to back up the entire PC hard drive to the NAS.&nbsp; I use Acronis TrueImage for this (which is not free) - but there are several other choices out there.
&nbsp;
It is possible to use the built-in NAS backup jobs to do this task too, but in my opinion those tools are best suited for backing up the NAS itself (for instance to a USB hard drive).&nbsp; I do recommend backing up the NAS that way, personally I keep at least 3 copies of anything I care about (on three different devices).&nbsp; Computer equipment (including the NAS) does fail sometimes, and I learned the hard way (many years ago) that having one backup isn't safe enough.&nbsp; It's very frustrating to discover your backup has failed when you need to restore your data.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Clarko · Answer

hi Stephen thanks for your reply .i am considering my back up options at the minute and acronis looks interesting. a permanant automatic or one button press back up would be ideal. otherwise i will be in this situatuation again in a few months.&nbsp;&nbsp;my back up is in a mess to be honest. i currently have dropbox 1tb, picasso , icloud , etc.&nbsp;Your redundency situation of 3 copies sounds good , do you think laptop plus nas which is raid 2bay so two copies and a&nbsp; cloud upload is sufficient ?&nbsp;one thing i would ask is i have two office pc's in my office which is a few hundred miles away.could acronis back these upto my NAS over the broadband or does it only work on lan.&nbsp;thanks for your help.john&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

StephenB · Answer

Clarko wrote:
&nbsp;
Your redundency situation of 3 copies sounds good , do you think laptop plus nas which is raid 2bay so two copies and a&nbsp; cloud upload is sufficient ?

Yes, I'd count that as three copies.&nbsp; I don't count RAID redundancy, but I do count the original (laptop+NAS+cloud = 3 copies).&nbsp; I count the NAS as one copy because the NAS itself can fail in ways that compromise the RAID array.
&nbsp;
I'm not using the Acronis Cloud, I use Crashplan for disaster recovery.&nbsp; &nbsp;Acronis Cloud Backup pricing does look competitive if all your data is on one PC.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Clarko wrote:
i am considering my back up options at the minute and acronis looks interesting. a permanant automatic or one button press back up would be ideal. otherwise i will be in this situatuation again in a few months.&nbsp;
&nbsp;

I do image backups (which allow me to completely restore the PC), with a NAS share as the target.&nbsp; These can be scheduled (and I do that on our desktops), but I just run them manually every week on the laptops.&nbsp; The image backups are incremental, but configured to do a full backup every couple of months.
&nbsp;
I'm sure there are other good backup solutions out there, but I've used Acronis for several years now, and it has worked out well for me.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

aks · Answer

John, you should consider whether you want ‘an image’ backed up or the files independently backed up so that they are accessible easily (without restore).&nbsp;You didn’t mention which OS you are using?&nbsp;i have used various backup utilities and find FreeFileSync useful too as Stephen mentioned. It’s a manual solution, as you have to control it each time, but that works for me just fine.&nbsp;Windows and macOS both have integrated backup which are worth a look.&nbsp;From you NAS, I recommend using an external drive connected via USB and run a NAS backup job. It works well this way and you have suitable copies of everything, and this covers all users of the NAS if you have any others.&nbsp;

StephenB · Answer

aks wrote:
John, you should consider whether you want ‘an image’ backed up or the files independently backed up so that they are accessible easily (without restore).
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

I use image backup on the PCs because I want the ability to easily restore the entire PC (Window, programs, and ordinary files).
&nbsp;
But in general I use the NAS for primary storage.&nbsp; So we've put the photos on the NAS (along with our documents and media files).&nbsp; Then of course I back up the NAS.&nbsp; Centralizing them makes it easier to find them, manage the storage, etc.

Forum Discussion

Photo transfer

6 Replies

Related Content

slow transfer speed 10GB

Photo Management

XBox network transfer

Transfer Armour Subscription...

Transfer Armour Subscription

NETGEAR Academy

ProSupport for Business