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Backing up iMac to Synology NAS
- Thread starter JonL12345
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I've been using time machine with very intermittent failures but am also interested in the complete, image type backups provided by CCC etc, looking forward to the feedback.
My experience has been good with Time Machine backups to a Synology NAS but everything was hardwired via ethernet. wifi connections seem to have less reliability. CCC is also a good option.
Been running Time Machine on my Synology DS1513+ for 7 years flawlessly.
What I do, is backup my Desktop, documents, downloads, pictures and movies folder to my Synology NAS via the Synology drive client. That is where I keep my imported files. On all other computer I did the same, what results all files in this folders are the same on each device or computer. Most importand I want, is that I can acces the content of the computer all over the world. Not only a time machine back-up, for only during crashes.
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I have done both Time Machine and CCC to a Synology over wifi and it was pretty terrible. Time Machine took over an hour to back up every time so it was always going 24/7. Restoring a file would often take 10 minutes just to bring up the interface. CCC was the same experience. This was on a 2017 imac, ssd, airport extreme ac, 867mbps.
I never attempted wired since I moved to usb storage shortly after. Like others posting here, your experience over gigabit wired should be fine.
I never attempted wired since I moved to usb storage shortly after. Like others posting here, your experience over gigabit wired should be fine.
Wired makes a heck of the difference for me on my backup. It is not just packet speed it is latency. Backups have a lot of little packets for parts of files, and a lot of chatter back and forth. Quite different from the big packets and files that speed test programs stream.
I see ppl mentioning CCC here. Any advantages over time machine? TM has just worked for me over the years and I never saw a need to change it.
Primary advantage is the ability to make a bootable clone. My MBP died and I plugged my clone drive into my wife’s old iMac and was running immediately. In addition, recovering from a clone is much faster than a time machine drive. Time machine does make it easier to browse old file versions. That’s why I use both. CCC gives more scheduling control but time machine is more transparent to the user.
I just picked up an older refurbed DS1515+ and hope it performs as well as yours!
Sorry to revive this older thread..... didn't know where else to post!
I gave up with Time Machine because I had real difficulty porting the ™ backup to a new disc..... so like some of you, I use Drive on Synology - as someone else said, the iOS apps from Synology means you have access to your server from anywhere - it's your own personal Cloud!
I would like to ask a question - those that use Drive - do you prefer continuous back-up or scheduled? I switched from Continuous to Scheduled to reduce load on the server, but I don't think it does. Any opinions / advice welcome!
I gave up with Time Machine because I had real difficulty porting the ™ backup to a new disc..... so like some of you, I use Drive on Synology - as someone else said, the iOS apps from Synology means you have access to your server from anywhere - it's your own personal Cloud!
I would like to ask a question - those that use Drive - do you prefer continuous back-up or scheduled? I switched from Continuous to Scheduled to reduce load on the server, but I don't think it does. Any opinions / advice welcome!
Hi hoodafoo, I don't think I was trying to transfer to the NAS but a different external hard drive. I wanted to keep the NAS from filling up with countless revisions..... It was some time ago and all I really remember is it was taking forever copying across so I gave up!
Anyway, if anyone's interested I stopped the 6-hourly back-up schedule and went back to continuous and the discs are churning much, much less now. I also stopped it backing up my libraries - all I'm interested in is my documents, videos and photos. I know email is in the library but it's also on the Outlook server. Not sure what else might be in the library that I might regret losing (I recall stickies are there too but I managed to recover from an older back-up when needed).
It was as if in scheduled mode it needed to check and compare every single file on the computer, every back-up session, to confirm on the NAS and move those that weren't. Might be totally wrong but that's sure how things looked!
That's exactly why I opted for TM - not having to worry if I forgot to back something up that I might need later like some obscure file in ~Library.
Anyway, I have a share on my NAS called Time Machine with a quota of 2TB, turned on Bonjour TM Broadcast for SMB, pointed TM to the share and never messed with it again
I back up my Mac using Backblaze. I then use Carbon Copy Cloner task to back up my Synology to an 8TB USB drive attached to my Mac (which I only power on every three weeks) which in turn backs up to Backblaze. So I'm able to backup both my Mac and my NAS to Backblaze, for offsite backups. Oh, and I clone my Mac's internal NVMe drive to an external SSD every six months or so, just to be safe.
Please bear with me as I try to learn if I can use my Synology two drives for Time Machine via hardwired.
I am unable to network it at home. Thank you.
I am unable to network it at home. Thank you.
Hi, I just picked up a Synology 920+ and am trying to setup the system to backup my iMac. I do not want to use Time Machine due to having many prior failures where I had to restart the backup process all over again. Can anyone recommend a simple tutorial to setup the system on a Mac? I have 3 drives, 2 which will be RAID backups, and a 3rd drive which will be used to store photos.
Synology have a lot of tutorials which might help, good start here:
www.synology.com
and here:
kb.synology.com
Synology Drive | Your private cloud for file management and sharing anywhere | Synology Inc.
Synology Drive makes it easy to manage and share files across various platforms. Download Synology Drive client for auto backups and file syncing on your desktop or notebook.
www.synology.com
and here:
Synology Knowledge Center
Synology Knowledge Center offers comprehensive support, providing answers to frequently asked questions, troubleshooting steps, software tutorials, and all the technical documentation you may need.
kb.synology.com
I do my backups with Carbon Copy Cloner. TM is even more unreliable on NAS units in my experience.
Second the vote for CCC. It’s been rock solid for me whether local or network drives. On the plus side you can access the backups via Finder making it easier to browse.