Software or script that incrementally backs up data from a USB drive to Internal NAS

[Roberto79]

We have a user who works out of a USB Drive and we are seeking to offer some redundancy. We'd like to systematically back up her data from her USB drive to our Internal NAS, and continuously backup the date to the NAS as it changes from the USB drive.

I've installed a trial version of Syncovery which works well, however it comes at a $199 USD price tag. Does anybody have any experience in an application or script that can do the following:

* Perform an initial full backup of a USB hard drive to an internal NAS volume
* Continuously monitor any changes made on the USB Drive compared with the full backup on the NAS, and upload the changes on the fly (or every so often).
* Support AFP (as there are files/folders that contain illegal Windows characters like "?" and "*").
* If the NAS cannot be reached for any reason, error messages are supressed.

Thank you.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Is the data worth more than $199?

If so, sounds like you've found your solution...

 

[Roberto79]

Is the data worth more than $199?

If so, sounds like you've found your solution...

Indeed, it is. I like to explore some backup options first before committing....pun intended.

 

[ChrisA]

We have a user who works out of a USB Drive and we are seeking to offer some redundancy. We'd like to systematically back up her data from her USB drive to our Internal NAS, and continuously backup the date to the NAS as it changes from the USB drive.

I've installed a trial version of Syncovery which works well, however it comes at a $199 USD price tag. Does anybody have any experience in an application or script that can do the following:

* Perform an initial full backup of a USB hard drive to an internal NAS volume
* Continuously monitor any changes made on the USB Drive compared with the full backup on the NAS, and upload the changes on the fly (or every so often).
* Support AFP (as there are files/folders that contain illegal Windows characters like "?" and "*").
* If the NAS cannot be reached for any reason, error messages are supressed.

Thank you.

Time Machine will do this. My Mac and the external SSD are continously backed up to my Synology NAS by Apple's Time machine. The NAS is then continously backed up to a cloud service (and to another NAS)

Assuming you have the NAS, all you need to do is export a "chunck of storage" to the Mac and thern on the Mac side, select that as the "time machice drive" and then every hour, change made durring that hour as copied the NAS.

Time machine is very efficent if you use APFS.

Finally let's say the Mac was lost because of theft or a building fire or carelessness. Then you buy a new Mac and when you power it on, Apple's Migration Assistant will ask you if you want to restore from a Time Machine drive. Just say yes and the process is automated and you loose at most one hour of work. Best of all this is already uinstalled on the Mac.

 

[Roberto79]

Time Machine will do this. My Mac and the external SSD are continously backed up to my Synology NAS by Apple's Time machine. The NAS is then continously backed up to a cloud service (and to another NAS)

Assuming you have the NAS, all you need to do is export a "chunck of storage" to the Mac and thern on the Mac side, select that as the "time machice drive" and then every hour, change made durring that hour as copied the NAS.

Time machine is very efficent if you use APFS.

Finally let's say the Mac was lost because of theft or a building fire or carelessness. Then you buy a new Mac and when you power it on, Apple's Migration Assistant will ask you if you want to restore from a Time Machine drive. Just say yes and the process is automated and you loose at most one hour of work. Best of all this is already uinstalled on the Mac.

Thanks ChrisA. I'll look at TimeMachine also!