Synology backup question

You can attach the drive to the rear USB ports on the unit.
Scheduled backups can be set throughout the day ,
However, when removing the unt it is advisable to go into DSM and eject the drive, just as you would with a computer, to ensure all read/write operations are terminated before the drive is unplugged.

Personally I would also avoid a daytime backup, since this is when the NAS is more likely to be in use. I would recommend a scheduled backup to run every night, when no one is using then NAS.
Have two external backup drives and alternate between the two. That way, when one is connected and being used for a backup, the second is off site. The next day swap them over, and so on.

 

You can never have enough backups.
Ideally you'd have a drive for every day, which would give you a daily backup for the past week. Maybe even an end of month backup as well.
Although that may be a little OTT for you at the moment, maybe it's something to aim towards for the future? For now, a two disc alternation would be pretty good - never know when something may happen to the disk you will always have in transportation every day......

 

Have you considered cloud backup? It is fully automatic, and it is a lot safer than having USB drives running around in the wild. It is probably a lot cheaper in the long run. Most importantly, it removes the single most unreliable element: humans.

/Jim

 

Rackspace

 

I personally have no experience. I thought I heard that Crashplan+ (my preferred online backup) could be made to work on a Synology.

Choice of backup is one reason that I will probably ultimately choose a Mac Mini Server... with TB attached drives. Right now I do have Thunderbolt direct attached storage (Pegasus R4) connected to one of our Macs and it works well. The fact that it runs OSX allows the full suite of backup options.

/Jim