WD NetCenter or other NAS backup

Elvis Himselvis

Elvis Himselvis

Elvis Himselvis

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16 Aug 2005
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139
I'm interested in a NAS solution for photo, video and document storage over my home network, and am looking at the WD Netcenter 500GB.

I want to periodically back this up to an internal SATA drive in my PC (over my wired home network). Can anyone confirm that this is both possible and reliable/robust.

I understand that backing up data from a local drive to the NetCenter is supported, but what about from the NetCenter to a local drive?

Cheers
 
Im pretty sure this will be fine, id presume you can map network drives to the external NetCenter so if you can, any Backup software will see it as any other drive and copy from it fine.
 
Or you could look at buying a driveless NAS such as the Synology 101 or 106 and adding your own drive. That's what I've done.
 
Thanks for the feedback. It sounds as though it should be straightforward. However look at this response I got from Buffalo (regarding their linkstation) in response to this question:

This would be a possibility, however, the software that comes with the unit only allows local to network backups. You would need network to local software. Unfortunately, I do not know of any software available that would meet your requirement.

Then again Western Digital have responded by saying:

This is possible, and is exactly the use of the drive. It is reliable. You can back up from the NetCenter to a local drive too.

These are both similar devices (to my knowledge) so I'm now confused that one can and one can't backup from network to local HDD.
 
Sctott.Holmes,

Thanks very much for the link, it looks as though it will do exactly what I need. Have you actually used it yourself to backup network to local? What kind of networked drive do you have?

Cheers
 
Elvis Himselvis said:
Hades,

Does your Synology set-up allow you to backup data from the networked drive onto a local drive?
Click to expand...

Yes it seems to allow it both ways. I've only just got the drive in it tonight so haven't used many features yet. But it does go both ways:

1) Plug a USB external drive into the front USB port of the device and press the backup button. This apparently backs up the USB drive onto the networked drive.

2) Plug a USB drive in (not sure if it has to be the front port or any will do - this thing has 3). Then go into the web based setup and either backup immediately from the network device onto the USB drive, or setup a schedule to do it at a regular time.

3) It comes with software to install onto Windows to backup friles from it onto the network device.

4) Networked backup from one Synology DiskStation to another DiskStation (I think this can be over the net too but again I've not actually tried it - just looking through the menus).

Quite impressed with this thing so far. Not the best build quality but has tons of features:

Normal NAS features
Backup both ways
3 USB ports to attach external storage to it to extend capacity.
USB Print server
FTP server
Web server for static pages and also PHP
MySQL database

I have the fanless IDE based 101J and it seems amazing value for £117 plus the cost of whatever sized drive you want to put in it. The newer fan cooled SATA 106 series are a bit more.

EDIT: This device is Linux based so it has more features than you can throw a donkey at :)



EDIT: It's a lot slower than a local drive though. That's on a 100mbit network connection. It's also a little older than most NAS (the 101J has been discontinued). I understand the 106's are quicker. It's fine for me as silence and features were more important than speed. I'll also be running a net facing FTP server for a lot of my access.
 
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Hades said:
Or you could look at buying a driveless NAS such as the Synology 101 or 106 and adding your own drive. That's what I've done.
Click to expand...

I have been looking at the 106, I have also been looking at Icy Box's new 2000 model which is less then half the price, not sure which 1 to choose
 
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V For Vendetta said:
I have been looking at the 106, I have also been looking at Icy Box's new 2000 model which is less then half the price, not sure which 1 to choose
Click to expand...

I've not found a huge amount of info on the IcyBox 2000 but I also considered it before getting my Synology 101J (also considered the 106 series too). But from what I can work out there are several differences between the Icy and the Synology:

* Synology includes not only an NFS, SAMBA and FTP server but also a web and PHP server and MySQL. The Icy is only NFS, SAMBA and FTP. In other words the Icy shares files but that's all it does. On the Synology you can host a mini website including dynamic database content.

* You can connect external devices to the Synology such as external drives and a USB printer. I don't think you can on the Icy.

* Synology only connects to the network using 10/100 (and 1000 for the 106 series). The Icy connects using 10/100 but you can also plug it into a PC's USB port to use as a regular external device.

So it depends on what you want. The Synology's have a lot more functionality but it depends if you really need a print server, web server and database built in. If all you need is a simple networked drive then the Icy should be fine.

This is only based on the specs I can find on the Icy which are a little hard to track down completely.
 
Hades said:
I've not found a huge amount of info on the IcyBox 2000 but I also considered it before getting my Synology 101J (also considered the 106 series too). But from what I can work out there are several differences between the Icy and the Synology:

* Synology includes not only an NFS, SAMBA and FTP server but also a web and PHP server and MySQL. The Icy is only NFS, SAMBA and FTP. In other words the Icy shares files but that's all it does. On the Synology you can host a mini website including dynamic database content.

* You can connect external devices to the Synology such as external drives and a USB printer. I don't think you can on the Icy.

* Synology only connects to the network using 10/100 (and 1000 for the 106 series). The Icy connects using 10/100 but you can also plug it into a PC's USB port to use as a regular external device.

So it depends on what you want. The Synology's have a lot more functionality but it depends if you really need a print server, web server and database built in. If all you need is a simple networked drive then the Icy should be fine.

This is only based on the specs I can find on the Icy which are a little hard to track down completely.
Click to expand...

yeah I agree with you, however I bet when it comes to things both devices can do the synology will out perform the icybox
 
V For Vendetta said:
yeah I agree with you, however I bet when it comes to things both devices can do the synology will out perform the icybox
Click to expand...

I don't have any evidence to back it up but I do agree. I've noticed some peculiarities with my 101J such as the web interface not working on my Linux Firefox but it does on Windows Firefox. This is probably a revision issue though.

But what strikes me as very good is the fact Synology are still releasing firmware updates for the 101J even though it is now discontinued. For example the 106 has PHP and MySQL. The 101J didn't have this but it's been added now.
 
Hades said:
I don't have any evidence to back it up but I do agree. I've noticed some peculiarities with my 101J such as the web interface not working on my Linux Firefox but it does on Windows Firefox. This is probably a revision issue though.

But what strikes me as very good is the fact Synology are still releasing firmware updates for the 101J even though it is now discontinued. For example the 106 has PHP and MySQL. The 101J didn't have this but it's been added now.
Click to expand...


sounds like a company that looks after its clients, where as I bet the icy box is wysiwyg, and no more
 
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