First question for BACKUP functionality

Hi there,

i just bought a 2T mycloud NAs and i have a few questions. First of all accept my apologies for any errors as I am not English mothertongue.

Context: i bought the NAS to do backups of my PC (Win7 + WIN XP) and to access documents  and multimedia without turning PC’s on.

So i created a couple of accounts with private shares (me and wife’s) and setup tha advanced smartware backup (selecting relevant folders). I didn’t use / native bakup simply because I didn’t know how it work. When the NAS finally ended doingthe backup of the 100k+ files and 400G+ of spage i noticed that all the docs were not directly available under my share, but nested in a series of directories like that: 

Myshare NAME\ WD Smartware.swstor\My PC name\volume.sfsdfsdf.23423423.ffwe3f\Users\My WIN Username\finally relevant folder.

is it possible to shorten the path to my folders? i don’t want to open 4 layers of subfolders before accessing my data. 

In addition to that, should i stick to Smartware or swith to win7 native bakup analysis or other software?

il it possible to have a “dropbox like” sync of documents via smartware? i.e. i edit a document on my pc and i get the same edits on the NAS 8wherei hopefully can retrive also an older version of the document itself) .

I would like also like to attach an external drive to the NAS: can i use the same softeare (smartware?) to use it as a backup of the nas itself?

Thanks,
Carlo

Hi there,

You have a different set of options.

Smartware is backup software, so it is not designed to mirror the file hierachy on the original PC for access. The advantage of smartware, however, is that it copies the files “flat” so they are easy to retrieve individually, and there is no proprietary container that could fail and destroy the entire backup. Just like any backup software, smartware keeps copies of older files and versions.

If you want to use your NAS to store a copy of your files for remote access, in addition to whatever backup you have on the NAS, you should sync the files to the NAS shares. I use sync sofware to keep my NAS up to date with files that I want to make available remotely, but are accessed only on one computer at home because of sofware applications.

If you want to clear space on your computer and use the NAS to store “original” files, then you can map the shares to your computer and use the builtin Windows 7/8 sync center to keep local copies on your PC for the few that you need to edit or for faster access. For example, and I keep media files on the NAS, available through mapped shares on my computer. In this area, I keep a couple of offline files like the iTunes library.

If you have original files on the NAS, you should use the built in Safepoint technology to make automatic mirrored copies of the NAS content to a local USB disk, for example. That would be a good way to use the NAS USB connection as you suggest.

For irreplaceable content (like family pictures or documents, work of art or trade) I would always use some redundant backup technology. I’d recommend online backup software that can access your local NAS shares, for example.

I hope this is useful.

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A lot of what you do is up to you. Here are links to more information, User Manual etc.

 

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/UM/ENG/4779-705103.pdf

 

http://setup.wd2go.com/?mod=product&device=mc&language=EN-US

 

If you click on the Help tab in the SmartWare you will find a lot of information along with a link to the User Manual at the bottom.

 

Ok,

so my idea to use the NAS backup files (using smartware) to be accessed remotely (that would be mainly in view only mode) seems unpratical. > So you are suggesting: > move all your files to the NAS shares.> Using a sync software (which one?) keeps local copies on your pc for faster access.> Use back USB AND online services (Which one ?) to make additional backups of your most important files. > is that correct?

You are scaring me! I need to be reassured!

After you have copied all your files to your shares on the NAS, create a safepoint to a USB disk attached to the NAS. This will be your backup copy, in the rare case where your NAS would fail. The nice thing about safepoints is that the technology copies the files “flat” (a bit like smartware), so it is easy to recover, even if your NAS is completely out the picture: you would just need to plug the USB disk in a computer. Unlike smartware, safepoints don’t keep copies of deleted files, though…

Then, on your computer, in the network explorer, right click on a share and choose “map network drive”.

Then enable offline files through Windows 7/8. Then decide which files you want Windows to keep a local copy of. Windows will sync automatically back to the NAS.

If you want to be in control of the synching, you can consider software like GoodSync, or SyncBack (free or SE). I use Syncback SE because I like the rich feature set and detailed level of control.

For online services, you have plenty of choice, but I don’t know all of them that support backing up files that are on network shares. More advanced users can set up the network shares as symbolic links in Windows and use any file based backup software to achieve the same results. I use iDrive, and online service.

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FAIL!

I connected a 2TB WD Mybook to MyCloud  via back USB, BUT I cannot control it via smartware (i had smartware installation file on it, even if i never touched them). How can i use it to backup SELECTED content from my MyCloud?

If I use safepoints apparently i am not allowed to select the folders i want to backup without enabling SHH, something I don’t want to do, at least for the moment. 

If you want to selectively sync some files from the NAs to the attached USB disk, and you don’t want to use SSH, you will have to use PC-based sync software to move data from the NAS to the USB.