Network Access Server
 

Evening, can I have some advice please?

I have only been using Win7 for a few months since getting my new desktop and am not yet fully up to speed with the slightly different way it presents files. And now I have invested in a seagate 1Tb Network Access Server. The network itself is small: generally just the desktop and a couple of laptops.

The reason I decided to go for it was the vision of being able to do the following...
1. Back up important stuff on a separate drive.
2. When the desktop is not on be able to access files (mainly music and other media) from a laptop or stream music to a Pure radio (using UPnP).
3. Maybe access files remotely when away from home across the web, even if the desktop is not on.

The seagate drive comes with free basic backup software but it seems only able to back up from the desktop to the NAS, whereas I think I need them synched to do the above properly.

So can anyone give some tips on how to tackle this? Can anyone recommend some free simple software to do the synch and remote access? Failing free cheap once only subscription!

Thanks in anticipation.

Just bumping this back to the top to see if anyone can help.
Please.
Thank you.

Hi mate

Usually the NAS devices support other forms of file sharing, e.g. FTP.
You could write a little script that backs up your stuff nightly, it wouldn't take too much effort to do.

Could you post the model of the NAS? I'll have a look and see what it supports.
If you like I'd be happy to help write some scripts to do the backup, but I'm sure there's also plenty free software to do it too.

Cheers

Two points to make:

1) NAS stands for Network Attached Storage, so if you're searching for advice using the title of this thread you'll get more hits by using this phrase instead (or more readily 'NAS') :)

2) The functionality of one NAS server from another dictates how it will appear and work in Windows. For example, my 4-bay Netgear ReadyNAS NVX allows iSCSI volumes to be created, and I have one of those mapped to both mine and the wife's laptops for backups, etc. It also has a DLNA server and an iTunes streaming server. However I know that lesser NASes don't necessarily provide this sort of functionality.

If you've been sold a pup, can I suggest you look at the Synology range. :ok: