A NAS is already a lot safer than storing files locally on your PC, but it can be even better. Because making backups is a good habit. Thanks to Synology Hyper Backup, that’s a breeze. Simply make backups to a connected USB drive or – the luxury variant – to another NAS in the house.
In any case, it is wise to use a NAS in mirrored RAID configuration. If a disc breaks – this can always happen, of course – everything can be quickly and easily reconstructed after simply replacing the defective sleeper. However: never see that RAID as an alternative to a backup. In the event of an electronic failure, although the probability is small, several drives could fail at the same time. And then there is no sweet mother anymore who can recover data. For that very reason, snapshots cannot be used as an alternative to a solid traditional backup. Synology Hyper Backup offers a solution!
To other NAS or USB drive
Synology Hyper Backup is an otherwise free app for NAS of that brand. It is primarily intended for backing up to an external USB drive or another NAS of the same brand in your home network. Some external storage services are also supported, but we will leave them for what they are in this article. If you want that, be sure to read this article. In this how to we will get started with backing up to another NAS on the home network. But fear not: the backup to a USB disk works the same. With one difference: for the NAS-to-NAS backup, you need to install a target tool on the target NAS. That’s exactly what we’ll start with. Log in to your target NAS and install the Hyper Backup Vault app from Package Center. Once installed, you don’t have to do anything with it. The tool simply ensures that the NAS it runs on is made available as a target. There is of course more going on under the hood, but you don’t have to worry about that.
Target NAS Tool and Account
On the target NAS, create a shared folder, in this example HYPERBACKUP. Please do not link this folder – for security reasons – to your default admin account. If your NAS is not accessible from the cloud, that is less dramatic, depending on the cloud, you have to pay attention. If your admin account were to be hacked, then your backups would be ‘hostage’ or simply deleted by malicious parties via, for example, ransomware. It is best to create a separate account for the backup, which only has read and write permissions in the HYPERBACKUP folder you just created.
By the way, you create a shared folder via Control Panel, Shared folder and To make. Then go through the wizard; the options speak for themselves (otherwise there is always an explanation for more difficult matters via the question mark). Then create a new user (Control Panel, User, To make) which only gives you access to the newly created shared folder. The wizard will guide you through the procedure again. Your target NAS is now fully prepared.
Choose your goal
On the source NAS (i.e. the NAS from which you want to back up folders), install the Hyper Backup app, again found in Package Center. Launch this app after installation (found in the start menu). In the Backup wizard, choose the option External NAS device (or maybe Local folder & USB if you are using an external USB drive as a backup target). click on Next one. Choose with the option Create backup job selected the target NAS (which will be found automatically after a while via the appropriate selection menu), enter things such as the name you have just set up for the user account and the corresponding password and choose the target folder (which will also be found automatically after a click on the selection menu behind Shared folder). click on Next one and select the folder to back up. That can also be a subfolder of one of the shares on your NAS, if you only want the really important documents, for example backup.
Here you choose the destination folder – HYPERBACKUP, in this example – on the destination NAS.
Back up apps and their settings if necessary
After a click on Next one you can now – if desired – also have apps included in the backup. Can sometimes be useful if you have made very complex settings and such. For example, choose the app Hyper Backup and you know that you also have a backup of the settings of the backup task you are currently creating (and any other tasks you may add in the future). click on Next one.
Set schedule
Now we are going to set the backup ‘timer’. It may be useful to enable the file change log; If your target NAS has enough storage space, the backup compression can be turned off. Saves speed again. rear Enable backup plan select the desired backup frequency. This can be, for example, daily, at a time of your choice. Or every hour, during working hours from e.g. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Naturally, data that you may write outside of those backups will eventually also be included in the backup, only then again with the first scheduled backup at 09:00. Also put the option Enable Integrity Check Scheme On. You can just plan once a week in the nighttime hours and you won’t be bothered by it. Choose a time that does not coincide with any scheduled backup to avoid conflicts. This check provides a bit of extra security! Click again Next one.
Rotate!
To prevent your target NAS from ever being completely filled with backups, it is important to: Backup rotation turn on. You can completely fine-tune the rotation schedule via various options. A ‘set-and-forget’ option is Smart Recycle. Hourly backups are then collapsed into day backups at the end of the day. After a while they turn into weekly backups, then monthly backups and so on. By the way: all backups made by Hyper Backup are of the ‘smart’ kind. Only changed and newly added files are actually written and only those really take up new disk space. That makes the whole thing disk space friendly. So you can safely leave the number of saved versions at the default 256. Click again Next one.
Perform first backup
Your backup job is now ready. When asked if you want to back up right now, click Yes. The next backups start automatically on – usually – the next day on the grid in the ‘timer’ programmed first backup time in the schedule. The first backup can take a long time (but you don’t have to stick with it of course, all subsequent backups go a lot faster because then only the differences have to be written.
Restore backup
Depending on what you want, there are several options to restore a backup. First, you can restore a complete backup without thinking. Handy if, for example, you have accidentally deleted an entire folder, or if something has gone seriously wrong with the disks in your NAS. In such a case, in the Hyper Backup window, click the clock button at the very bottom left of that window (next to the +). Click in the context menu on data, select the (usually) most recently created backup and go through the rest of the wizard. You can also restore individual files. Click on Version list in the panel on the right. Double-click on a backup of which you are sure that an accidentally deleted file or (sub)folder is present. The ‘backup browser’ will now open. Browse to a file or (sub)folder you want to restore, select it and click the button Put back. Follow any instructions and you’re done.
Browse backup on target NAS
You can also browse the backup on the target NAS. The easiest way to do this is by simply opening the File Station app. Browse to the – in this example still – folder HYPER BACKUP. Double click on a backup folder and again the Backup Explorer opens. This time not with the Reset button but with the button Copy to. In other words: you can now save the backup locally or transfer it to a new NAS, for example. Under normal circumstances, you no longer have to worry about the backup!
Same Backup Explorer, but now on the target NAS.