Backing Up to Nas

[Tenpinsmick]

Hi all.....

I am trying to back up my system to my NAS server and can only get as far as 97% each time where it just sits there for hours.....tried deleting the files it did backup and starting again but still the same. Using Windows 7, using the usual Windows Back Up & Restore and backing up to a Synology DS214Play....any ideas???

 

[Solandri]

The Windows backup and restore software is terrible if you have anything beyond a simple installation with a few programs installed. I've heard of it taking several days to backup larger installations.

Try some of these free backup programs (in no particular order):
Macrium Reflect
Easeus Todo Backup
Paragon Backup and Recovery

They're a bit more complicated to set up, but will give you a lot more control and let you see what's actually going on. More importantly, they don't take 3 days to backup a 1 TB installation.

Just be sure your first backup is a full backup. Then subsequent backups should be incremental or differential, to save space. Make another full backup once every 1-6 months.

One caveat: I've used older free versions of these programs which allowed you to backup over the network. It's possible that feature has been removed from the newer free versions, to try to entice you into buying the software. If this is a problem, you can try mapping the Synology to a local drive letter. Or mapping, then using mklink /d to make a folder on the Synology appear to be a folder on your C: drive. I dunno if it'll work, but it's worth a shot.