Questions How to Backup NAS to Local Drive Using Robocopy
Hello,
I have a NAS that I want to backup to external HDDs using Robocopy. I am looking for advice on some specific questions how to do this. Here is some background info and then I will ask my questions.
NAS
Synology DS412+ with four Western Digital 2TB Red drives. The drives are configured in RAID 6 so I effectively have a single 4TB volume. This Volume has four shared folders, the largest having 16,000 video files totaling 1.4 TB. (Note: One of these drives recently failed and I needed to rebuild the RAID array. For this reason I really want to have the files backed up the way described below).
This Synology is currently backed up to a 4TB Western Digital green drive that is connected to the NAS via eSATA. I am using Synology's backup software. I do not like this solution very much because the files are backed up in a way that I cannot see them from my Windows PC. Also, if the NAS were to completely fail I want to be able to attach the HDD to my Windows 7 PC and read the files. This is not possible now because the NAS backs up the file in some form of Linux format/OS.
Backup Plan
I purchased two WD 4TB green drives for my backup. My plan is to first backup all the NAS files to one drive using Robocopy. This will take many, many hours over the network since I am talking about a total of 2.5TB of data.
Once the NAS is all backed up to Disk #1, I will use a Sabrent Dual Bay HD Docking Station to clone Disk #1 onto Disk #2.
I will then store one of the disks offsite in a safe deposit box and the other one local on my PC. Robocopy will once a day backup new files from the NAS and every few weeks I will swap the two disks. Down the road I will purchase a third 4TB HDD to work in the rotation.
Questions
1. What is the best/fastest way to get my files from my NAS to disk #1? My PC runs Windows 7. It has multiple internal hard drives as well as two X-Dock slots for hot swappable removable HDDs. My PC also has USB 3.0 ports so I could plug Disk #1 into the Sabrent and connect that to my PC using USB 3.0. Am I better off using the X-dock or the USB 3.0 port?
2. Should I use MBR or GPT for the 4 TB drives? I first tried to do this several weeks ago and I plugged a brand new 4TB drive into one of the X-docks. I configured it using GPT as a single 4TB volume. The problem? I shutdown my PC every night. The next morning after making this change the PC would not boot - it said it could not find the OS! Somehow the GPT drive inserted itself in my boot sequence ahead of my real boot drive. I had to remove the GPT drive from my PC and eventually modify the BIOS so only my true boot drive was used. Then my PC worked again.
If I limit my PCs boot sequence to my C drive and the optical drive, is it safe to use GPT on my W7 PC? Will I be able to read the GPT drive from any W7 or W8 PC? I do not care about backwards compatibility with XP.
Note: Maybe this problem would not have happened if I connect the HDD to my PC using USB 3.0?
If I go with MBR, would I effectively have to create two volumes on one disk due to the 2 TB limitation of MBR? That is less than optimal since my NAS folders cannot be evenly split between two 2TB volumes.
3. Any suggestions how to speed up the initial backup process?
Thanks in advance for your help. Please let me know if you have any questions.
I have a NAS that I want to backup to external HDDs using Robocopy. I am looking for advice on some specific questions how to do this. Here is some background info and then I will ask my questions.
NAS
Synology DS412+ with four Western Digital 2TB Red drives. The drives are configured in RAID 6 so I effectively have a single 4TB volume. This Volume has four shared folders, the largest having 16,000 video files totaling 1.4 TB. (Note: One of these drives recently failed and I needed to rebuild the RAID array. For this reason I really want to have the files backed up the way described below).
This Synology is currently backed up to a 4TB Western Digital green drive that is connected to the NAS via eSATA. I am using Synology's backup software. I do not like this solution very much because the files are backed up in a way that I cannot see them from my Windows PC. Also, if the NAS were to completely fail I want to be able to attach the HDD to my Windows 7 PC and read the files. This is not possible now because the NAS backs up the file in some form of Linux format/OS.
Backup Plan
I purchased two WD 4TB green drives for my backup. My plan is to first backup all the NAS files to one drive using Robocopy. This will take many, many hours over the network since I am talking about a total of 2.5TB of data.
Once the NAS is all backed up to Disk #1, I will use a Sabrent Dual Bay HD Docking Station to clone Disk #1 onto Disk #2.
I will then store one of the disks offsite in a safe deposit box and the other one local on my PC. Robocopy will once a day backup new files from the NAS and every few weeks I will swap the two disks. Down the road I will purchase a third 4TB HDD to work in the rotation.
Questions
1. What is the best/fastest way to get my files from my NAS to disk #1? My PC runs Windows 7. It has multiple internal hard drives as well as two X-Dock slots for hot swappable removable HDDs. My PC also has USB 3.0 ports so I could plug Disk #1 into the Sabrent and connect that to my PC using USB 3.0. Am I better off using the X-dock or the USB 3.0 port?
2. Should I use MBR or GPT for the 4 TB drives? I first tried to do this several weeks ago and I plugged a brand new 4TB drive into one of the X-docks. I configured it using GPT as a single 4TB volume. The problem? I shutdown my PC every night. The next morning after making this change the PC would not boot - it said it could not find the OS! Somehow the GPT drive inserted itself in my boot sequence ahead of my real boot drive. I had to remove the GPT drive from my PC and eventually modify the BIOS so only my true boot drive was used. Then my PC worked again.
If I limit my PCs boot sequence to my C drive and the optical drive, is it safe to use GPT on my W7 PC? Will I be able to read the GPT drive from any W7 or W8 PC? I do not care about backwards compatibility with XP.
Note: Maybe this problem would not have happened if I connect the HDD to my PC using USB 3.0?
If I go with MBR, would I effectively have to create two volumes on one disk due to the 2 TB limitation of MBR? That is less than optimal since my NAS folders cannot be evenly split between two 2TB volumes.
3. Any suggestions how to speed up the initial backup process?
Thanks in advance for your help. Please let me know if you have any questions.
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