Formatting a HD for backup via USB

[DeltaGolf]

I'm going to repurpose a USB hard drive for backups. My current cunning plan is to use 'USB Copy' so as to make a backup which would be readable by users should the jobbies hit the fan. If the Synology goes down they should be able to unplug it, attach it to their Mac and access files. As far as I understand things Hyper Backup won't do that cos it shoves everything in a database of sorts.

So, the question is how should I reformat that USB drive? I kinda think it should be Mac readable, "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" is the default or there's "MS-DOS (FAT)" or "ExFAT". I don't think APFS is wanted here.

What flavour do you prefer?

 

[fredbert]

Hyper Backup -> Local folder & USB (single version)

Use this to create a direct folder/file backup of the source. There's no database just a folder at the destination that contains all the selected source stuff. Like you, I do this as an emergency measure.

Think my USB drive is formatted exFAT (needs the $3.99 Synology ExFAT package). But your DS918+ can read/write HFS+ (free) so you can use that if the client devices are only Mac. Wouldn't bother with FAT.

 

[DeltaGolf]

Hyper Backup -> Local folder & USB (single version)

So many ways to skin a proverbial.

So what if I want versioning, is plain "Local folder & USB" going to do it for me? Or is this where it creates a database and why I assumed I wanted to use USB Copy?

So I'm kinda thinking of this as 'the backup' but with the added factor of being Mac readable. I can do the Synology settings and other stuff using a seperate Hyper Backup task.

Meanwhile, who or what added the NetBackup shared folder? And if it was Hyper Backup how come its only one one of my boxes, both of which are running backups between them.

Also, while I'm on, do I need / want Hyper Backup Vault? There's nothing in it. Is that because I'm running rsync rather than Synology tasks.

 

[fredbert]

So many ways to skin a proverbial.

You're welcome, happy to help.

So what if I want versioning, is plain "Local folder & USB" going to do it for me?

Yes. The non-'(single version)' tasks use a database and support historical versions. You'll see there are only a couple of options that don't use the database approach.

HB Vault is installed on a target DSM NAS when you select the destination of Synology NAS. If you selected 'rsync' then any rsync server (DSM NAS, other NAS, server, etc) can be the destination and HB Vault is irrelevant.

To access items in an HB vault (not the package) the you use HB Explorer. This is built into HB (on source NAS) and HB Vault; for all none DSM NAS then you can use the Mac/PC HB Explorer application. This also works for accessing Synology C2 Backup vaults.

With such a lot of questions it will probably help you to create a small folder of stuff and try using some of the HB tasks to backup and access ... just see what happens. This is exactly how I learnt what the different task options did.