Question What is my ultimate family backup solution?

[whynotme]

Four phones, two iOS and two Android. One Macbook Air, two ThinkPads. We all have Google Photos backup via Google and also syncing all photos to OneDrive. Looking for a NAS that will automatically backup all the phones and laptops as well as Google Photos and OneDrive folders/photos. Is there such a solution out there?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Get a QNAP NAS unit, as it comes with Google Drive and OneDrive syncing. And they have an app that you can install on smartphones to backup files to the unit.

If you're not sure which QNAP unit to get, I'd say get a 4-bay unit and populate two of the drive bays. One drive will be a primary store, the other will be a backup of that store (not a RAID1 solution). If you decide you need more space or want another drive to act as, for example, a seperate media center store, you can easily do that.

If budget is a constraint, then a 2-bay unit will still work fine here, but it'll be more tricky to upgrade its capacity. Just don't get a 1-bay unit if those exists.

 

[whynotme]

Get a QNAP NAS unit, as it comes with Google Drive and OneDrive syncing. And they have an app that you can install on smartphones to backup files to the unit.

If you're not sure which QNAP unit to get, I'd say get a 4-bay unit and populate two of the drive bays. One drive will be a primary store, the other will be a backup of that store (not a RAID1 solution). If you decide you need more space or want another drive to act as, for example, a seperate media center store, you can easily do that.

If budget is a constraint, then a 2-bay unit will still work fine here, but it'll be more tricky to upgrade its capacity. Just don't get a 1-bay unit if those exists.

Appreciate the advice. Do you know if the backups for each user will remain private and accessible to just that user? Ideally I'd like each of the 4 family members to be the only ones with access to their own files.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Appreciate the advice. Do you know if the backups for each user will remain private and accessible to just that user? Ideally I'd like each of the 4 family members to be the only ones with access to their own files.

I haven't used that feature myself, but I know you can set up various accounts and have the files accessible only for certain accounts. So I'm sure that'll extend through out the other features of the device.

 

[Satan-IR]

You can create users, user groups and change permissions to home and shared folders and such in the QNAP web-based control panel environment. Also you can create private folders for different users.

If you choose to use home folders only the user with the Admin account can see the 'Homes' folder which is basically the 'Home' folders of all created users.

It's all password protected but to add a bit of more security to the whole thing for extreme scenarios (like the NAS being stolen) you can create an Encrypted Volume and then create the user folders in there.

 

[USAFRet]

Appreciate the advice. Do you know if the backups for each user will remain private and accessible to just that user? Ideally I'd like each of the 4 family members to be the only ones with access to their own files.

They can if you set it up that way.

The QNAP software can be as granular as you want/need.

For instance, you can create a Home folder for each user, and only them (and whoever is admin) can access. All pasword protected, etc, etc.

And QNAP natively supports OneDrive and Google Photo storage.

Question - What NAS can natively backup Google Photos and OneDrive?

Looking to backup the Google Photos from all 4 family members, as well as our Microsoft OneDrive folders. Is there a home NAS that can do this without using Google's Takeout? There is far too much data to download to my pc then upload to NAS. I want it the NAS to integrate directly with...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[whynotme]

Just an update. Bought a QNAP TS-216G, seemed to be on backorder EVERYWHERE, but then somehow found it in stock at Newegg. A little higher price, but available to ship asap. I also bought a Crucial MX500 4TB SATA SSD to put in the NAS. I might just go with 1 drive for now and see how much data my kids and wife actually have to back up. For me, I care about all OneDrive files and folders, but for the kids and wife, I really only care about their photos and videos. They are each using Google Photos and OneDrive for automatic photo backup, so the media exists in 3 places including their phones. Adding a physical backup on a NAS seems like the next logical thing to have as a just-in-case. Really it's because I'm a tech nerd and just want a NAS and this is my excuse to do it. Ultimately, all photos and videos will be in 4 places, including 2 physical (phone and NAS) and two cloud providers.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Just an update. Bought a QNAP TS-216G, seemed to be on backorder EVERYWHERE, but then somehow found it in stock at Newegg. A little higher price, but available to ship asap. I also bought a Crucial MX500 4TB SATA SSD to put in the NAS. I might just go with 1 drive for now and see how much data my kids and wife actually have to back up. For me, I care about all OneDrive files and folders, but for the kids and wife, I really only care about their photos and videos. They are each using Google Photos and OneDrive for automatic photo backup, so the media exists in 3 places including their phones. Adding a physical backup on a NAS seems like the next logical thing to have as a just-in-case. Really it's because I'm a tech nerd and just want a NAS and this is my excuse to do it. Ultimately, all photos and videos will be in 4 places, including 2 physical (phone and NAS) and two cloud providers.

I'd still put in an order for say a 4TB HDD (or maybe something larger if you anticipate larger storage requirements) to at least make a copy of the SSD every so often. Since this is only going to used to keep a copy of the primary store, you won't have to worry as much about performance considerations (like say whether the drive is CMR vs SMR).

Though at the moment I'd avoid WD drives. They have something where the drive reports its health as "warning" after 3 years of power on time, regardless if the drive is actually fine or not.

 

[whynotme]

I'd still put in an order for say a 4TB HDD (or maybe something larger if you anticipate larger storage requirements) to at least make a copy of the SSD every so often. Since this is only going to used to keep a copy of the primary store, you won't have to worry as much about performance considerations (like say whether the drive is CMR vs SMR).

Though at the moment I'd avoid WD drives. They have something where the drive reports its health as "warning" after 3 years of power on time, regardless if the drive is actually fine or not.

Appreciate the heads up on WD. I would proabably get another SSD, since HDD make too much noise and it will be in my quiet office.