USB Backup

[kevinplays]

Thanks for any help you can offer.

I am attempting to connect a large drive in a drive enclosure via a usb port (3tb) - the drive is not "seen" in the admin panel to create a backup to. I have connected a small (8gb) thumb drive and this shows up in a matter of seconds.

(the current device I am working on is an older Duo, but I need the information for a Pro2, and RN314)

Is the size a problem? Is there a file format that I should be working with? (I have a mixed mac/windows environment, so the drive is currently exfat format). (other options are Mac Extended, NTFS)

Am I missing something?

Thanks for your help

Kevin

[StephenB]

I think the problem is that you are doing this on the older duo - which doesn't support drives > 2 TB.

[kevinplays]

Thank you for your reply

I started wondering that - I need to grab another drive (smaller) to test. Do you know if the Pro2, and the 314 support larger drives

[StephenB]

Yes, the Pro2 and the 314 support larger drives.

[kevinplays]

Additional question

Is there a preferable disk format for a newly installed HD?

Thanks

Kevin

[StephenB]

You mean an external drive?

Generally I recommend NTFS. EXT will usually back up faster, but having a backup you can't read on a non-linux PC is (in my opinion) a bad approach.

[maxblack]

I used EXT2, purportedly faster at least with my NV+. There's no problem using it with Windows using Linux Reader.

[StephenB]

If you go that route, I suggest downloading the software now, and making sure you can read the first backup.

[maxblack]

I probably should have kept quiet since I don't know the Pro2 or 314. If they support NTFS that's clearly the best way to go.

[StephenB]

maxblack wrote:
I probably should have kept quiet since I don't know the Pro2 or 314. If they support NTFS that's clearly the best way to go.

EXT is also a reasonable choice.

Whatever format you pick, you need to make sure you can access the backups before something fails...

[parkerc]

Keep in mind the that such a large back up via USB takes a very very (x100) long time.

I have a ReadyNAS Duo v1 with 2TB worth of storage, (only 1.4TB used) this took over 2 weeks to back up (1GB every 15-20 mins) - NTFS share, with Fast USB write enabled - an embarrassing statistic..

[StephenB]

parkerc wrote:
Keep in mind the that such a large back up via USB takes a very very (x100) long time. I have a ReadyNAS Duo v1 with 2TB worth of storage, (only 1.4TB used) this took over 2 weeks to back up (1GB every 15-20 mins) - NTFS share, with Fast USB write enabled - an embarrassing statistic..

Your duo v1 copies to USB at ~2.5 MB/s for NTFS

These NAS are quicker, but copying over gigabit ethernet would still be a lot faster than USB.

The RN300 series will copy about 16 MB/s over the USB 3 ports, (again NTFS), the pro-2 will do about 13 MB/s. In the case of the pro-2, smallnetbuilder found no speed difference between ntfs and ext performance (with usb).

Over gigabit ethernet you should get 80-100 MB/s speeds. 100 mbit ethernet is slightly slower than the USB speeds above.