Photorer

Honorable
May 21, 2012
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10,510
I have recently bought what I thought was the perfect answer for my purposes: The Nexstar FX – it is a small home NAS solution that is tiny and has two USB ports – one for a USB HDD storage and one for a USB Printer. The idea behind this is that I can run a LAN and Power cable to this little box (half the size of a pack of cigarettes) and have a USB hard drive which can be hidden easily behind a cupboard to avoid midnight shoppers from taking my data from home.

This is exactly what it will do for me (and a couple of additional functions I did not count on), BUT there is a limitation that makes it useless:
• You can only have up to 16 users (no problem)
• There can only be 16 Folders (user folders) to access
• The filename / path length is limited because the NAS formats the drive on initialisation to FAT32.

My documents folder has many layers of folders, especially when it comes to web development for a particular client on a particular job….. (get the picture?)

I have looked for firmware updates – they don’t exist!
I have looked for support from Nexstar – none forthcoming!
I have asked every geek I know – no luck!

Perhaps you can assist? I guess that the little box operates an embedded Linux system, with only the required file management components, etc. Is there any way that I can make use of this for backup? The only other use for it would be a very expensive music repository for the household – it will save and serve MP3s to iTunes!

Thanks for the help!
Alain@jacquet.co.za
 
Instead of backing up by copying your directory tree, get a backup program. The most-mentioned on these forums seems to be Acronis True Image; I use EASEUS To-Do Backup because it's free.

Then you run a backup to a single archive file on the NAS. That one large file will have all of your data and enough descriptive information (catalog) to find any particular file that you need.

 

Photorer

Honorable
May 21, 2012
2
0
10,510
I have Acronis True Image, but never had any luck with the backup side. I will have to try it again.

With 500Gb of data, I don't think a 100Mbs network will do the job - unless ATI can simply update the files within that backed up file....!

I will also try AESEUS....
Thanks!