Is it possible to take incremental backup of the data in WD My Cloud to USB-drive connected to NAS?

[faidros]

Hi,

I am considering to purchase WD My Cloud, but before that I need to know if it is possible to take incremental backup of the data stored in WD My Cloud to an external USB drive, which is connected directly to the NAS. Does My Could have a built in software to do this?

[Hamlet]

Hello,

Take a look at page #92 of the User manual:

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

It explains about safepoints:

“You can create a complete backup or snapshot of your WD My Cloud device, called a safepoint, and save it to an external location on your home network or an attached USB drive attached to the USB expansion port. Safepoints can be created or run on a schedule you define. They include a record of users, data, and shares on your device; any backups created using WD SmartWare, Apple Time Machine, Windows 7 Backup, or Windows 8 File History, and any associated device configuration details. Creating a safepoint ensures that you can easily recover your data from a specific point in time to a new WD My Cloud device in the unlikely event that your WD My Cloud device fails.”

[merckxist]

I believe that the recovery point is limited to a single point in time, that being the point in time of the most recent update of the safepoint. My understanding of the process is that it is a syncronization of the MyCloud share(s) onto the locally connected USB device. It is “incremental” in the sense that it only copies the differences between the share(s) on the MyCloud and the copy on the USB device once it has created the initial copy of the share(s). Thus, it is not like the traditional sense of an incremental backup where you have the original “full” backup of a file and any number of incremental backups of that file and you can use any of them to recover the content (point in time) you desire.

More experienced safepoint users may be able to refute my perception and I would welcome their input as I am an old-time fan of the full w/multi-incremental approach.

[Etupes]

merckxist is correct. Safepoints are creating a mirror of the content on the NAS. The Safepoint ends up being about the same size as the original data, plus some configuration data. All files are stored “flat” in the destination (no encryption, or proprietary container, no change in file names). All shares are changed into separate folders in the Safepoint.

[faidros]

Thank you! This was exactly the info I was looking for.