Backup with no compression in order of file creation

[gaffa]

I'm wanting to backup my DS-420+ to a bunch of hard disks.

When I started, I populated it with four 8 terabyte drives, later replacing two of them with 16 terabyte drives, and finally, last week, replacing the final two 8 terabyte drives with 16 terabyte ones.

So now I have four 8 terabyte drives, and one additional 16 terabyte drive that I wish to use to back up the entire system.

My ideal backup will have no additional compression, and will be a completely accessible copy of the original folder structure, filling each eight terabyte drive in order of file creation - so the first drive will be the oldest files, then moving on to another drive, etc. Then I will be able to have one hard drive plugged into the USB port of the DS-420+ continually updating as I add new files.

I would prefer a scheduled update when I'm not actively using the system. A constant live update is not necessary.

Backing up to another NAS is not an option, as I just don't have that amount of money - acquiring the original DS-420+ was a huge investment. As is backing up to the cloud, I can't afford that ongoing expense.

So what's the best option for doing this type of backup - every file, in creation order, without any additional compression (all the material is maximally compressed already) as a bunch of folders so I can easily access any individual file and folder and restore if the NAS crashes.

I'd prefer to do it entirely with the Discstation Manager tools that are available via the web interface in the DS-420+, and be able to monitor via the Active Insight tool on my phone.

Thank you very much.

 

[fredbert]

Welcome to the forum.

I'm not aware of a solution the works the way you describe. Given that I don't know of a way to do this via a package/utility then I would adopt a filing approach that facilitates the backup method, such as: on the NAS make a series of volumes that will then map to the backup drives, and assign quotas to the volumes to be same size as the associated backup drive. Then fill up the volumes (could use an organised date-based folder structure) and backup the volume to its backup drive. You could then use Hyper Backup and select the appropriate data task type.

If you just have a monolithic volume and scatter gun approach to adding new files then I don't see how you can backup new files and also preserve any meaningful folder structure.

You didn't say how you plan to attach the spare drives to the NAS.

 

[gaffa]

I'd rather not have to rearrange the whole folder structure to fit the needs of the backup system.

I have one huge folder with nearly 5000 folders in it, and I'd like the software to make a list of those folders, and start copying them and fill up one hard drive. Once that is filled, prompt me for a second drive.

These drives would be in an external SATA USB3 drive case, plugged into the front port of the DS-420+.

Once I'm done with say, the oldest year's worth of files, I'm not going to touch them. The backup system doesn't need to update that drives folders. It becomes cold storage.

I'm pretty sure I could write a DOS batch file that could do what I'm describing:

Check if there is enough space on destination drive
Copy oldest folder
Check if there is enough space on destination drive
Copy next oldest folder
Repeat until not enough room
Prompt user for new drive

 

[Deleted member 5784]

Your proposed backup system sounds unconventional.

Say you wanted to retrieve the latest version of a file from your system. How would you know which 'cold' storage' backup disk it's on? If it's a file that is updated every few months, say, you could have various copies of it spread across backup disks. Some disks may have several versions of the same file. How do you find the latest version?

Or is all your data fixed and effectively never updated once it's saved, eg a movie?

How much data in TB are we talking? I'd divide your data into appropriately sized sections - eg folders A-H, I-P etc - label each backup HDD accordingly and create separate backup tasks in HyperBackup. Connect disk A-H, run backup task A-H; this will backup any changed files in folders A-H, rinse / repeat for the other folders.

That way, you'll know which folders are on which drive if you ever need to retrieve them, and there's a clear and unambiguous mapping between folders, backup tasks and drives.

 

[gaffa]

This is the movie area of my Plex, and once loaded onto the server, I rarely ever need to update the files.

So what I really need is to just fill up drive one, then fill up drive two, drive three, etc. The first four eight terabyte drives will be the 32 oldest terabytes of storage and I want to take those and put them in another location.

Then the date of the newest file of that collection will be my cutoff point for a new backup on the 16 terabyte drive.