Backup my NAS to the cloud

Mockingbird

Mockingbird

Mockingbird

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21 Jun 2011
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Hello folks,

Wasn't sure if this would be better here, in networking, or in storage, so I figure let's try here and mods can move it if not appropriate.

I currently have a WD MyBook Live 3 TB connected to my home network. It holds all my movies/TV shows, backup copies of photos, music for streaming etc.

It's a lovely device but it's single disk (so has potential for a catastrophic data loss if the disk fails) and obviously it's in my house (so in event of a fire/burglary it's not a true backup).

I am looking for a robust way to back it up in an automatic way.

Requirements:
- Automatic or v. low interaction
- Cheap (free would be best natuarally, but I can cope with a reasonable fee)
- Web-based (manual backup to a hard drive would not be fireproof, for example)

I've googled around and found a lot of really helpful threads that say things like "Why not ditch that device, build your own NAS for only £300, spend 4 weeks setting it up then run the following software that doesn't support the WD MyBook Live" and similar things.

Has anyone got any ideas for services I could try out? It seems like the kind of thing I should be able to just search up, but either it's not, or my Google-fu is hella weak.

Thanks in adance for any advice you can give.
 
Crashplan might be a good place to start.

It has unlimited storage and is limited only by your upload speed. It supports backups to their cloud and to other devices running Crashplan. So you could backup your NAS to another computer (either at home or at a friend's/relative's).

It doesn't support a NAS backup directly, but there are ways to do it. (I believe it is getting the SYSTEM "user" to mount a network drive on log on, which is super easy).

The price is only a few $ a month.

Another option is Backblaze. Again this is more geared towards PC backups rather than NAS (it will refuse to backup network drives). I get around this by having a script run regularly to copy the most important data (photos for example) from my NAS to a dive on my server, where it then gets backed up. If all 3TB is important to you, then this "trick" is probably not going to work.
 
Dropbox allows you to sync a folder on your computer automatically, so when your home backup program plonks something on the drive, the dropbox agent would then upload it to dropbox.

Obviously the free storage on dropbox is way below what you need, but you can pay Dropbox Pro and go into the terabytes. Not sure about prices though.

EDIT: You can do the same thing with Google Drive, not sure how the pricing compares.
 
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Dropbox Pro is £7.99 per month, or £80 for a year
Google Drive is $9.99 (£6.50 ish) per month.

Both for 1TB.

Crashplan is about $5 per month. Same with Backblaze. Both are unlimited data.
 
Thanks for the ideas folks.
Looks like I'll have to try doing it via my main PC rather than automatically - that should be OK, as It's turned on for a while most days.

I'll look into CRASHPLAN first. When you mention the SYTEM 'user' mounting a drive - would that be the equivalent in windows of just mapping the network share as a HDD, or somethin more technical that I ought to research?
 
I agree. I'd find a way to back you pc up to the cloud as well as to your nas. Options are much better than, and likely faster.

I use Onedrive as I have 100gb allowance. Though my nas can also backup direct to Onedrive but not the way I prefer.

I just periodically run THIS
 
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I don't myself. I don't put anything on there of much worth. Family photo's etc are private but it wouldn't be the end of the world if they leaked out. Thankfully I'm not a celebrity and don't keep all my naked risqué photo's in the cloud!
 
Mockingbird said:
Thanks for the ideas folks.
Looks like I'll have to try doing it via my main PC rather than automatically - that should be OK, as It's turned on for a while most days.

I'll look into CRASHPLAN first. When you mention the SYTEM 'user' mounting a drive - would that be the equivalent in windows of just mapping the network share as a HDD, or somethin more technical that I ought to research?
Click to expand...

When you map a network drive, it is mounted for just your account. CrashPlan runs as a service (under the SYSTEM account) and won't see your network drives. The workaround is to run a script that allows you to create a network drive that the SYSTEM account can see. It is simpler to do than it sounds!

Alex53 said:
Out of curiosity, do you guys encrypt your backup before you upload it to the cloud?
Click to expand...

I can't speak for CrashPlan but I use Backblaze and that does encryption.
 
I may be wrong about this, but if you're going to do encryption, out of principle I'd do my own. There are two dangers when trusting a cloud service with your data, outside hackers and the people operating the cloud itself. Trusting them with their own encryption solution is pretty much the same as trusting them with your unencrypted data.
 
Update: Installed CrashPlan, and using the link from Craig321 (thanks, by the way) have it set up so the NAS is loaded by SYSTEM as a drive visible to crashplan, with automatic backup. All photos now in 2 local systems and one cloud.

Excellent solution, many thanks for the help.
 
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