Backing up the MyCloud

[frasefrase]

So just wondering how people are backing up their MyCloud drive? I have the 3TB version, and picked up a 5TB USB drive yesterday in order to back it up.

Read a bit about using safepoints, but they don’t sound that good…I currently use Microsoft SyncToy to mirror files from my laptop to the MyCloud, and was thinking about using this to backup the MyCloud to USB.

So how is everyone else doing it?

Cheers

[merckxist]

Just curious, by “they don’t sound that good” do you mean Safepoint backups reliability or functionality? Personally, I use the Safepoint feature and have very little problem with it, although I have not yet needed to perform a restore.

If you are considering a mirroring method, and you are looking for something that is more current that once-a-day, then, yes, Safepoint is lacking in the ability to automatically update the mirror more frequently. I’ve not used SyncToy, so I can’t compare its features to Safepoint.

[larryg0]

I use the mycloud to backup the PC and remote access to files

the only real safepoint issues I have heard of is general USB mounting issues which are generally tied to FW upgrades. I suggest disconnecting any USB drive before an upgrade and reconnecting after it stabalizes again

[Etupes]

I was using Safepoints, but I didn’t like the fact that restore were not working, and the lack of granular control of what to backup.

I am now using SyncBack SE. There is a free version, but the paid version includes sophisticated copy, deletion, versioning and retention rules.

Also, since the USB port at the back of the NAS is slow (less than 10MB/s), and if you have a fast network to your NAS, you end up having better performance by synching the NAS to a USB disk attached to a computer, or to another NAS. For example I am getting about 15MB/s on average roundtripping the data from my Synology to the computer (Syncback SE) back to the WD NAS.

[frasefrase]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I thought safepoint wasn’t great because of some of the threads on this forum. Another couple of questions - Are the safepoint backups incremental? Dont want to have to do a full backup each time. Also, is the safepoint in a specific format that can only be restored by the MyCloud? One of the reasons I mirror files from my laptop is so I can connect the drive to any computer and copy the files if I need to.

[Daveyk15]

Don’t overly trust mine for backups so I use Acronis to backup my PC data to an external HDD. 

[Etupes]

frasefrase wrote:

Thanks for the replies. I guess I thought safepoint wasn’t great because of some of the threads on this forum. Another couple of questions - Are the safepoint backups incremental? Dont want to have to do a full backup each time. Also, is the safepoint in a specific format that can only be restored by the MyCloud? One of the reasons I mirror files from my laptop is so I can connect the drive to any computer and copy the files if I need to.

The Safepoint are creating a mirror copy of your files, so it just needs to update the files that have changed. From that perspective it is incremental. Since it is a mirror, it doesn’t keep versions of older files or deleted files. From that perspective it is not incremental.

The nice thing about the Safepoints is that files are copied “flat”. No renaming. No encryption. A separate directory is created for each share. You can access the files either through the share made available for the USB disk through the NAS directly, or by ejecting the USB from the NAS and plugging it into a computer directly (always eject before unplugging, or you will corrupt the file system).

[BC1111]

Don’t trust the drive or any automated backup solution.  I just use plain rsync and will be doing it manually every so often.

GUI for windows:

http://grsync-win.sourceforge.net/

Screenshots and how it works:

http://www.unixmen.com/grsync-gadmin-rsync-graphical-front-end-applications-rsync-tool/

[alirz1]

I have two wd cloud 3TB drives. One is for primary use. The second one uses rsync to keep the same copy of data.