Opinions on best NAS devices and track-records in the area of restoring from backup?

[jlsoaz]

Hi -

Few (if any) of the reviews I read on Amazon and elsewhere seem to evaluate for the one thing I really need to know, which is when the stuff hits the fan and one of my laptop hard drive goes out, how good and bulletproof is the NAS in helping me get back up and running from a recent backup and with minimal data loss and without me having to do a lot of thinking and learning.

Is it difficult or easy?

Does it get bogged down by ancillary issues (such as if the NAS has had recent issues of failed backups with nobody noticing and so cannot restore a recent copy?).

At the end of the day are certain NAS's known for being fairly bulletproof on this point, with track-records of little or no data loss for even those of us who are less-skilled users?

I have had a couple of good experiences with restoring from backups from my old HP Windows Home Server. I don't know that it was perfection, but I have to give my device credit for having helped me with I think one day of data loss in a couple of instances.

 

[thiggins]

Most NASes take a simplistic review toward client backup. Their primary function is storage. Backup and recovery execution is up to the client software used, which in most cases is very simplistic.

WHS took an integrated approach to backup, including the ability to do "bare metal" recovery.

Buy your own client backup software that supports the features you want and you can use any NAS.

 

[jlsoaz]

Most NASes take a simplistic review toward client backup. Their primary function is storage. Backup and recovery execution is up to the client software used, which in most cases is very simplistic.

WHS took an integrated approach to backup, including the ability to do "bare metal" recovery.

Buy your own client backup software that supports the features you want and you can use any NAS.

Hi Tim:

Thanks for the response. Outside of WHS, are there any NAS's that are known for making strong client backup a higher priority? Or are there any devices I should be looking at outside of NAS which do a better job?

 

[stevech]

My three-way backup is simple: No RAID. Two Volumes. On-going automatic copy volume 1 to volume 2. And once a week copy to external USB3 drive that's stored elsewhere. And on-going automatic copy of really important folders to a 32GB SD card in the NAS. No hardware fault, file system garbling or burglar is likely to get my data (er, I hope).

(Synology DS212)

 

[tipstir]

My three-way backup is simple: No RAID. Two Volumes. On-going automatic copy volume 1 to volume 2. And once a week copy to external USB3 drive that's stored elsewhere. And on-going automatic copy of really important folders to a 32GB SD card in the NAS. No hardware fault, file system garbling or burglar is likely to get my data (er, I hope).

(Synology DS212)

Will be trying that on 2x TB WD SATAIII plus 2x 500MB WD USB3 drives

(ZyXEL NSA325)

 

[jlsoaz]

My three-way backup is simple: No RAID. Two Volumes. On-going automatic copy volume 1 to volume 2. And once a week copy to external USB3 drive that's stored elsewhere. And on-going automatic copy of really important folders to a 32GB SD card in the NAS. No hardware fault, file system garbling or burglar is likely to get my data (er, I hope).

(Synology DS212)

Hi Steve and others, thanks for the responses. I like this one because it confirms my own amateur question that maybe I don't need to worry about too many drives and RAID and so-on, but just make sure I have backup and a backup of the backup.

Any positive or negative experiences out there with restoring from backup? Are certain devices or backup softwares known to be easier or better?

 

[tipstir]

My NSA325 working smooth showing the attached results moving some music files from NOS 7 to the NSA325. (update this just peaked at 62.5MB/s)