How to back up RN104 to Windows HDD.

[SebastianC]

HI.

After recent crash of the RN104, for which Netgear support kindly recovered the data ( thanks again) I have decided to backup my 4x4TB RN104 to external HDD.

Decided to keep this external HDD connected to my server, not to NAS directly.

My NAS has one volume and number of shared folder in it.

When creating the backup job, what is the recommendation on choosing the source of my backup. Obviously i would like to back up all my shared folders , but without backing up snapshots , as I got a feeling they are redundant to the backup and only help if i deleted something accidently.

1) So shall I create one backup job backing up my whole volume or

2) Shall I create number of jobs, each for one of my shared folders?

If I choose option 2 , shall I run all my backups (I choose everyday) on the same hour? Will there be a clash between these backup jobs starting simultaneously?

3) Or maybe I shopuld back up only snapshots? In manual Netgear is saying:"The backup schedule is offset by five minutes from the hour to allow you to schedule snapshots on the hour (snapshots are almost instantaneous) and perform backups of those snapshots."

Will baking up only snapshots, protect all my data? Shall I back up snapshots if I do not care about files I have manually deleted?

Thanks

Sebastian

[StephenB]

I personally prefer one backup job per share, though you can back up the volume if you prefer.  The backups are queued, so scheduling them all at the same start time is not a problem.

Either way you wouldn't be backing up snapshots (and despite the manual, back up jobs don't give you a way to specify snaphots).

[SebastianC]

Hi again.

Started to play with backups ( some spare time ) and face situation when regardles of destination ( Main C drive of computer on my local network ) or external USB drive connected to computer on the network Backup starts , works for few minutes and stops telling:

Backup Status: Fail: destination is read-only or files/folders could not be created. Check if these files or folders meet the destination file system limitation.

Cannot create file '/job_002/Pictures/Thumbs.db' (error: Permission denied)!
Cannot create file '/job_002/Pictures/Zd/2015-10-30 Halloween/DSC_7520.JPG' (error: Input/output error)!
Cannot create file '/job_002/Pictures/Zd/2015-10-30 Halloween/DSC_7521.JPG' (error: Input/output error)!
and so on

Do you guys have any idea what is going on?

Bear in mind that approx 4GB of backup , out of 500GB is done correctly

Sebastian

[BrianL2]

Hi SebastianC,

Check this ReadyNAS backup article and let me know if it helps you with your backup job problem.

Kind regards,

BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team

[SebastianC]

Thanks,

I have read the article , my case is exactly opposite as I am backing up NAS contents to external drive on Windows. Taking this onto account I have done all stuff according to the article but with no success.

Sebastian

[StephenB]

Can you try dropping/dragging the NAS share to the same destination from the PC?

Is the PC connected with ethernet or wifi?

[JennC]

Hello SebastianC,

Is the external drive plugged in to the computer via USB?

Maybe try copying one of the NAS shares to it first?

For backup job, can you try the following?

Set source by selecting local then browse to the NAS share that you want to back up then for destination, set it as Remote, enter IP address of the computer in the Host field, Windows Timestamp for Protocol and the drive letter of the USB disk for Share.

Regards,

[SebastianC]

Thank you both for the answers

Dragging/Dropping NAS share to that location works fine.

I do have copy of whole NAS on that drive ( it is 8TB one) just trying to use NAS mechanisms to get incremental backup feature .

PC is connected using Ethernet.

External drive is connected to the computer using USB

I have also tried to set the backup destination directly on the C drive of this PC with the same results.

Sebastian

[StephenB]

So at this point we know that

(a) the full share can be copied on the PC from the NAS

(b) The NAS backup job can write to the share (and does for a while), but eventually the backup halts with various file creation errors.

-Are you using the same PC username/password in the the backup job that was used in (a)?

-Can you check the destination share access with another PC (that is, access the PC share from a second PC, and see if you have full write access).

[SebastianC]

Are you using the same PC username/password in the the backup job that was used in (a)?

Yes I am 

-Can you check the destination share access with another PC (that is, access the PC share from a second PC, and see if you have full write access).

Yes no problem at all the location is fully accessible

[StephenB]

This is with 6.4.2 firmware?

It is puzzling - it might be worth looking at the network stats on the RN104 (they are in the log zip) and perhaps looking in the Windows logs.

Also, if you have internet security software enabled on the PC it might be useful to try the backup with the software disabled.

[SebastianC]

Yes the Firmware is 6.4.2 , 

What is the particular log file name you reffering me to : network stats on the RN104 (they are in the log zip) .

Also what windows logs you talking about .

The Firewall and Antivirus are switched off

Sebastian

[StephenB]

network_settings.log in the zip will show you NAS ethernet stats for both rx and tx  (total packets, errored packets, dropped packets,...).

With Windows I was thinking look in the administrative events summary (with win7, right click on computer and select "manage".  then select the event viewer), and look for errors that occured when the backup was running.  That is a bit of a fishing expedition, but could provide a clue.