[Mesanjah05]

Seeking advice on best way to back-up my QNAP NAS.

I have purchased a WD 6 gig my book drive to back-up 2 TB of flac music files.  When connected to my NAS, 2 things arise., 1) QNAP wants me buy a license for exfat32 to use the drive and being unfamiliar with this format I reviewed that format and how files are copied raising my second question, 2) are my flac files being altered by the  exfat32 format?  If so should I have to restore the files will this lead to complications down the road.  I did not have this issue with an earlier 3 TD WD drive.  As you may have determined my computer knowledge is limited.  All advice would be appreciated.

[sfraser]

File format should not alter files. However if you want to avoid it ,  connect your backup drive directly to your pc/mac (assuming it is a external drive with USB connection) and download a program such as FreeFileSync. Mount both the external drive and the NAS from your laptop and use FileSync to copy the files over. The 1st time will take many hours. Subsequent backups will only copy new and modified files. I suggest you practice on a couple of dummy folders 1st to ensure the app is doing exactly what you want it to do (it has a few nerd knobs). Also click the verify button to verify each backup . Last thing , keep your backup drive off prem when not in use, such as at work or your neighbors house.

[Mesanjah05]

Thank you for the response. 

You are right about the lengthy time to back-up my files.  When I connected the drive to my pc I saw that this was going to take many days given the slow speed.  I was hoping to speed the process up with connecting the Mybook directly to the NAS esata 3USB and being able to back-up more quickly.  My QNAP manual says I should be able to do the back-up with this set up, but I'm struggling to find the directions to successfully go that route.  That is when I discovered the Mybook did not show on my file directory map on my pc, but did show on the NAS when I went into my NAS program and hence the license purchase request.  On that I was puzzled about the need to purchase a license for something I thought was in the public domain. 

I'm putting in a help request with QNAP, but past experience has taught me responses can take some patience.

[Pundamilia]

  on FreeFileSync! It is a great program for synching two different drives or updating a backup drive with the latest changes. I spent a couple of years looking for a suitable program and went through several until I found it. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it is extremely flexible and well-supported with frequent updates. Best tool for keeping music (or any other) libraries backed up.