Gday.
I'm wondering if there's a device that can stick in between a NAS and a USB HDD that will enable the connection every other month? That way, I could have two USB disks plugged in, each coming 'online' every other month so the NAS can back up onto it?
Saves me manually removing one and putting in the other.
NB: I don't have a NAS as yet,just investigating.
NB2: If I were to get a NAS, it would be a QNAP 253d or 251d.
Thank you.
nope.
but if they were, then .. that's easy. i plug em in to my smartplugs or some dumb schedules i have.
but good idea as a plan B.
Thank you
I already have 5TB external disks which i use for my backups, which would become the nas' backup disks
Surely you can just schedule with whatever backup software you're using?
yeah but .. having it hardware-off means that if the nas gets compromised by a malicious actor, then that disk wont be affected.
If it's just done via scheduling on the nas, then .. well .. poopoo.
Schedule the NAS to mount, run the back up and then unmount the USB drive.
If you truly need it powered down (probably good for longevity), the only thing I can think of off the shelf would be a smart switch hooked up to IFTTT or similar that could automatically cycle on power on the drive ahead of and following the backup script. (Obviously would want to allow at least an hour's margin either side to ensure the job is complete before powering down especially)
i'd expect the nas to sleep the external disk when not in use.
but yeah .. externally powered seems to be the way to go.
i'm surprised random things like a usb scheduler doesnt exist in aliexpress
i'm surprised random things like a usb scheduler doesnt exist in aliexpress
And you are concerned being compromised by a malicious actor.. 😆
malicious actor
Alec Baldwin?
pew!
Backing up locally? Hope it's not too valuable info… if you back up locally and your home burns down/gets flooded/etc… you've still lost everything.
I am aware of that.
originally i was planning on swapping out the drives manually (and one would go to an offsite location for a month) - which would avoid this toggler.
but then maybe i get a cheap single-drive nas and leave at a trusted person's house replicating mine automatically
If you have a licensed copy of Offfice, you could use Onedrive?
I have a perpetual-licensed copy of Office and 200GB on onedrive from the Telstra-OneDrive fun days.
It has been sufficient to store MRU files and most-recent photos. However, it's getting a bit thin and i'm getting sick of juggling 4 backup disks manually when i do a new monthly snapshot of my data
if i were to want to store all my data .. i'd need 3TB on onedrive :/
How much data we talking? It's 2022. Back up to the cloud dude.
Cloud .. yes . maybe
right now i have 3TB of data.
Actual data. Not pirated movies.
That's a tiny amount. Stop researching NAS to buy and look at appropriate cloud plans. OneDrive and Google Drive are cheap. Google Drive even more so if you look up some VPN "tricks".
https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/microsoft-365/onedrive/addit…
looks like i can only get 2TB in onedrive :(
$100 per year for the 1st TB and idk how much for the extra
or 6tb for a family for $129..
is the 6tb split across 6 different log in accounts with 1tb each; or is it one big pool of 6tb?
Just buy an externally powered regular USB hub and put that between them and your NAS and use smartplugs.
There are a number of programmable/managed USB hubs around for test equipment purposes, but too expensive for USB 3.x speeds
Programmable hub if you want to go that way: https://www.coolgear.com/product/4-port-managed-usb-3-hub-w-…
ok so in the end.. i ended up using a usb3 hdd dock thats externally powered and plugged into a smart switch that runs on a schedule
and the qnap nas backs up when it powers on and unmounts when done
i make a guess of how much time it needs to backup and schedule a power off then
Link to the hub please?
Are the usb hdd externally powered?