Backup external HDD trough Mac to Synology NAS?

[richard49]

I have an external HDD connected to my Mac mini & a Synology DS223 NAS connected via an ethernet cable.

Do you know if there is a way to have the external HDD do automatic backups to the Synology NAS whilst it's still connected to the Mac mini as I haven't found a way of doing so?

Being a complete newbie to the world of Mac (Windows user for over 30 years) and NAS drives (never used one before) I'm left feeling at a loss and frustrated.

Any advice you might be able to offer would be very welcome.

 

[chabig]

I would expect Carbon Copy Cloner to do this easily since both volumes are mounted on the Mac Mini.

Carbon Copy Cloner | macOS Backup Software | Bombich Software

bombich.com

 

[Bigwaff]

I have an external HDD connected to my Mac mini & a Synology DS223 NAS connected via an ethernet cable.

How much data on the external HDD? How much capacity avail on the Synology DS223 NAS? Copying files from one mounted volume to the other is trivial and @chabig suggestion of CCC is good one for automating the copying. However, you gots to have the space for it on the NAS. Nothing sucks more than running out of space on your NAS.

 

[richard49]

How much data on the external HDD? How much capacity avail on the Synology DS223 NAS? Copying files from one mounted volume to the other is trivial and @chabig suggestion of CCC is good one for automating the copying. However, you gots to have the space for it on the NAS. Nothing sucks more than running out of space on your NAS.

The external HDD has about 1.6TB of data & both the drives in the DS223 NAS Drive are 4TB

 

[richard49]

I would expect Carbon Copy Cloner to do this easily since both volumes are mounted on the Mac Mini.

Carbon Copy Cloner | macOS Backup Software | Bombich Software

bombich.com

If I go with CCC and select to backup/sync data from my external HDD to my Synology NAS will it ask me to format the drives in the NAS as I believe they're formatted to work with the Synology drive or can I just elect to sync the data without formatting?

 

[niteflyr]

I believe Synology NAS can be set up for Time Machine backups. Just include the external HDD in the TM backups. That's automatic. I'm not a Synology expert, but worth looking into.

 

[richard49]

I believe Synology NAS can be set up for Time Machine backups. Just include the external HDD in the TM backups. That's automatic. I'm not a Synology expert, but worth looking into.

Thanks, I will

 

[antonypg]

Time Machine is always a good option if it can be enabled easily on the NAS. Once setup it is completely automatic.

I use Chronosync to manually backup certain folders to my NAS and also another drive which I normally leave in my car.

 

[next_cube]

You can use Active Backup for Business as well.

Computer backup solution for PC and Mac | Synology Inc.

Back up your Windows and Mac computers with Synology's backup solutions. Schedule backup tasks, perform bare-metal restoration, and quickly recover files.

www.synology.com

Or you move the data to your NAS and use Synology Drive to replicate all data to local storage (this is what I do).

Synology Drive | Your private cloud for file management and sharing anywhere | Synology Inc.

Synology Drive makes it easy to manage and share files across various platforms. Download Synology Drive client for auto backups and file syncing on your desktop or notebook.

www.synology.com

 

[richard49]

You can use Active Backup for Business as well.

Computer backup solution for PC and Mac | Synology Inc.

Back up your Windows and Mac computers with Synology's backup solutions. Schedule backup tasks, perform bare-metal restoration, and quickly recover files.

www.synology.com

Or you move the data to your NAS and use Synology Drive to replicate all data to local storage (this is what I do).

Synology Drive | Your private cloud for file management and sharing anywhere | Synology Inc.

Synology Drive makes it easy to manage and share files across various platforms. Download Synology Drive client for auto backups and file syncing on your desktop or notebook.

www.synology.com

Thank you for that information; I'll check it out to see if it does what I want.

 

[Brian33]

If I go with CCC and select to backup/sync data from my external HDD to my Synology NAS will it ask me to format the drives in the NAS as I believe they're formatted to work with the Synology drive or can I just elect to sync the data without formatting?

CCC will not try to format the NAS drive because it is network attached.

I am not at my computer right now, but I think you will use the CCC destination option to back up to a remote folder (? I can’t exactly remember what the choices are called). CCC will just copy the files from your external HDD into the folder on the NAS. The next time you run CCC, it will copy only the changed files. You can set the CCC task to run periodically, and your data on the external drive will be synced to your NAS. (But not the other way around. Changes to your NAS folder will not get reflected to your external HDD. So I don’t really call that “synchronized.”)

 

[richard49]

Much appreciated 😁