A few weeks ago I was looking for a Network Attached Storage device.
My search criteria was pretty basic:
- 1TB or better storage
- cost less than $150
- works with Windows
- works with Macs
Initially the NAS 110 seemed to fit the bill until I tried to use it in practice. After some trial and error I resolved the issues and now have a usable backup system.
Some gotchas I hadn’t thought about before.
- Compatibility with Mac’s Time Machine software.
- I found this article on how to convince TimeMachine to use the NAS drive – how to enable time machine on unsupported volumes.
- After running the magical incantation I was able to mount the drive using smb://IPaddress/TimeMachine
- That was half the battle, the backup failed because it couldn’t create a sparse bundle file
- I found another article that help me create the sparse bundle file that helped convince the Time Machine software that it could continue time machine on nas
- Compatibility with other backup software
- It had issues with the Windows XP Backup software
- I ended up using the BlackArmor Backup Software for Windows OS. Fortunately, I only needed to use 2 windows machines. By default the NAS 110 gives you 5 licenses.
Some Final Notes:
- Setup separate shared folders for each computer you plan on backing up.
- Setup your NAS device with a Static IP not a Dynamic IP
- Your automatic backup software depends on your drive being at the same address every time.
- If your NAS has DHCP enabled, you never know when its IP address might change.
- When the IP address changes, the backup software cannot find the drive and will not be able to continue the backup operation.
- If you have a mixed computer environment Windows/Mac you might want to Google the drive you’re considering to see if it’s compatible with the backup software you intend to use.
- In future posts, I plan to review various networked backup solutions
