Incremental backups of WDMyCloud

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
1

Are there any developments since the following post? … DIY poor man backup

I am not that technical but I think it can do what I want … traditional incremental backups of MyCloud to another drive, including MyBook connected via USB to MyCloud. Is that right? Although I would prefer that the incremental back up was to a remote network-attached drive.

If I am right, is there a way of packaging this script please so that it is easier for somebody like me to implement?

2

Please bear in mind such proceedings are not warranted or supported by Western Digital. Extreme caution is recommended.

3

The script is just running Robocopy on a PC to perform backup of a NAS to USB HDDs attached to the PC. How does this have any impact on the MyCloud warranty? It doesn’t touch the MyCloud, other than via the file server running on the mycloud, exactly how it is meant to be used.

Given the number of problems people have with Safepoint, I’d imagine Robocopy to just as reliable…

I prefer to use a similar system to that suggested in the linked thread, running FreeFileSync to backup from MyCloud to USB HDDs on the PC. This is because a) I have no trust in Safepoint, and b) the USB on the MyCloud is very, very slow.

4

Same here. Use the mirroring option of Free File Sync to backup certain media data from the My Cloud to either a USB flash drive or to a spare computer’s internal hard drive. First backup is the longest, then ever subsequent backup only backups the new/changed files or removes the files deleted from the My Cloud.

5

thanks very much for the reply Bennor but your recommendation won’t provide me with backups over time will it; so that for example I can go back and retrieve a deleted file?

I agree with cpt-paranoia that USB on the MyCloud is very, very slow. My USB (a WD MyBook) is connected directly to MyCloud and Safepoint ran at 40GB/hour … over 15 hours to create a copy of my data.

6

Free File Sync has a variety of options from syncing to mirroring files from one location to another. You may want to read through the Free File Sync manual (http://www.freefilesync.org/manual.php) to see if the various options within the program will suite your needs.

One can configure Free File Sync to do one of the following when it syncs:
Two way
Mirror
Update
Custom

Two way is a true sync where it insures both sync locations have the same files.
Mirror will ensure the destination location is an exact copy of the source location.
Update is probably what you are looking for if you want the destination location to preserve files that have been deleted from the My Cloud as it should copy updated files from the My Cloud to the destination location.
Custom is just that, lets the user setup custom sync.

One could easily run a test by running an “update” with Free File Sync then move files to another location and run the update again to see if files were deleted from the original destination location.