With all these Synology episodes, I finally broke down and purchased a DS218 with two 4gb hard dr...

[G+_Jon Houser]

With all these Synology episodes, I finally broke down and purchased a DS218 with two 4gb hard drives. Only problem is now what? I currently have an old desktop PC stuffed with drives that I use to back up my family photos, music and videos. That PC is running Carbonite to back up to the cloud. How would you suggest getting all of my files from the desktop to the NAS and try to maintain the file structure and continue using Carbonite as my off site backup solution if possible? I would eventually like to get rid of the desktop and back up my PCs directly to the NAS. Thanks!

[G+_Tailsthefox Pelissier]

I think you have do that on your own the NAS and Carbonite will just hold copies.

[G+_Paul Hutchinson]

Carbonite does not allow servers to be backed up with their low cost home user and small office plans. I think the cheapest plan that allows backup from a NAS/server is $50/month.

 

You could keep using the PC for Carbonite and then also setup to sync the files between the NAS and the backup PC.

[G+_George Fromtulsa]

At work we created the file structure we wanted on our Synology on an external USB 3 drive, then copied the files from several computers into the appropriate folder on the Synology.

 

e.g.,

 

0001 Master Index

0010 Banks

0020 Brokers

0030 Deeds

 

Of course, sub-folders under those.

 

Helps to have a handy tool to bulk rename files. Macs now have some ability built in. On Linux we use KRename.

 

Once the structure was complete and filled, we copied it into a Synology Share.

 

Going further, we have other Synology shares, e.g, a share of just Bank transaction and statement archives, added to at the end of each fiscal year.

 

Finished, we left the USB drive attached to Synology, and rotate two others to have everything in multiple locations. One set is rotated offsite.

[G+_Jon Houser]

In order to get my current files transferred from my desktop storage to the NAS, should I use the Synology Drive app? Most of the online tutorials mention cloud sync but that seems to have been replaced by drive.

[G+_George Fromtulsa]

Jon Houser As I wrote above, we organised gigabytes of files from multiple computers onto one USB 3 Drive, then plugged that drive into the Synology, and copied structure and drive onto Synology (using the Synology File Manager)

 

If you connect your computer, access the Synology setup, set up the Synology, you could copy files from your computer directly to the Synology. It is slower than the way we did it.

 

Download the Synology Assistant that works in a browser, and get started.

synology.com - DiskStation Manager - Knowledge Base | Synology Inc.

[G+_Ben Tyger]

I'd also see what backup options you have the with the Synology. I know they have their own online backup system. I know there is crashplan business which is 10/month. I know there is also some Synology devices that support duplicati if you want to go open-source.

[G+_Matej Raj?an]

Jon Houser Use a gigabit ethernet connection, and transfer directly in windows using file explorer. It can achieve speeds of 110MB/s. I transfered lot of files (~3 terabytes) onto and from NASes (as a backup) and it is bearable. Do not use synology drive, it is a silly way and silly function in my opinion. Looks like a mac file structure, and you cannot see it outside of drive application. Heck, it even cannot see files on NAS itself :)

[G+_Ben Tyger]

If you need a dropbox/Google drive like experience, take alook at nextclould/owncloud. I'm pretty sure Synology has plugins for those applications.