Setting up new NAS - little help please

[bambam]

Hi

I have a new NAS that I want to set up - it's a QNAP Turbo NAS and 4 drive bays. I also have some new hard drives for the QNAP and could fill all 4 bays. I currently have a Netgear Readynas Duo which is about 10 tens years old. That has 2 drives in it that are mirrored (usable 1TB storage). The Netgear power supply failed the other day so I've ordered another one but it has spurred me on to get the QNAP up and running.

In the past, I've backed up the Netgear NAS drive onto a USB drive and it takes ages and sometimes fails. So I've normally gone for the drag and drop approach as that seems to work.

On the current NAS drives I have some old documents; loads of photos and a load of music and that's about it. It has all the iTunes files on it - while the actual library sits on a MacBook (not sure I have that the right way round!), but the actual mp3 files sit on the drive.

So when I set up the QNAP, I presume that I can't just put the old NAS drives from the Netgear into it and expect it to read the files etc?

I'm presuming that I'll have to format the new drives that I have in the QNAP and then transfer the data over?

To do that, I was planning on getting a drive dock (like one of these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Dock...G4F5MVPFBZ2FZW) and then copying the contents onto the new drives in the QNAP. If I do that, will I lose any of the data in the files (thinking of dates etc. as opposed to the file itself) or will it keep it all intact? Main concern here is the music library as that is also what the Sonos reads.

Was thinking this may be quicker and more reliable than trying to copy it via the network.

Once I've done that, then I will also want to set up some space or a drive to act as a Time Machine back-up for the 2 MacBooks and then obviously back it all up onto a portable hard-drive. Not sure if I'm going to keep the ReadyNAS as an additional back-up device. Just not sure if I should dedicate a drive for Time Machine; another for Music; another for Photos etc. or just split the lot between 2 drives and then mirror them?

Be grateful for some guidance as I don't want to inadvertently lose any files!

Thanks a lot!

[Captain Morgan]

If it were me I would copy via the network once the new psu arrives.

Have a look at rsync command via the terminal on one of the Mac’s.
Set the mac not to sleep while plugged in.
Hardwire the Mac and the nas’s for maximum throughput.
You can then look at copying folders rather than the whole file system, this makes trouble shooting and confirming data integrity easier to complete as your working on smaller chunks.

You might find the qnap has a rsync client built in if it does it would be quicker as it removes the network hop of the Mac.

Once you’ve finished, give some thought to how you’ll back up the qnap as with 4hdd instead of 2 you’ll have the potential for much more data to manage.

[Captain Morgan]

I haven’t used a qnap but I do not believe you can import drives already populated with data in the method you have suggested as they need to be initialised in the new enclosure.

Re single drives vs mirror;

if you use single drives what’s the plan to re-create the data should a hdd fail?

Even if you mirror as per my earlier post what’s the backup plan should both drives fail (it happens more often than you’d think) or you’re burgled or flooded etc.

Re data population;
rsync is good in that if you use it with the right switches if the copy fails you won’t need to start again from the beginning and looking at the logs will help identify the cause of failure

[rfrazier]

I agree. rsync is your friend for backup (and, in general, putting things in sync).

Best wishes,
Bob

[MB2]

QNAPs utilities are pretty good but keep getting renamed.

Hybrid Backup Sync should I expect let you import your data if set up correctly.

I have 2 x QNAPS synchronising with each other - I also have sent files from QNAP to One Drive and it has plenty of other options.

Also have a look at QSync - handy to give you access to frequent files on a laptop etc. - they are held locally and replicated.

I would also suggest you consider 2FA and sign up to MyQNAP cloud and QNAP DNS service which also works well.