How to Back up Data to NAS Devices or Cloud Clients
NAS is the acronym for Network Attached Storage. NAS devices are mainly used as file servers by business users, and there are more and more users using Network Attached Storage for backup. Backing up to a NAS device can save users' local storage as well as provide more robust reliability and security for the backed up data. To back up your important data to a NAS, professional backup to NAS software is needed.
Best Free NAS/Cloud Backup software - AOMEI Backupper
AOMEI Backupper, the best free backup software for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, can help you with NAS backup. It offers you four backup types: System/Disk/Partition/File Backup. You are allowed to back up to local disks, external hard drives, USB flash drives, and network location. If you want to back up to cloud, the File Backup and Sync features are applicable. Follow the guidance below to backup files to NAS or cloud clients. You can also learn how to backup files from NAS here.
Storage Management in AOMEI Backupper
Through the tool "Storage Management", you can add NAS to the storage list in advance. You can view, edit, or manage the NAS, and you can also directly select the NAS as the destination path when creating a task.
Then, before you start any operation, download AOMEI Backupper Standard and install it on your computer. Then, learn the "Storage management" tool and backup files later.
Click the "Tools" button in the left tab, then select the "Storage Management" tool under "Common Tools".
Add Share or NAS Devices
Click the "Add Share or NAS Devices" button in the lower-left corner of the pop-up window. In the Add Share or NAS Devices window, enter the IP address of the network location and click the blue button at the right. You can use "Anonymous" login. Or, you can disable "Anonymous" and enter the NAS username and password. After the NAS is configured, please click "OK" to save it.
Manage Share/NAS Devices
Move the mouse to the NAS, and the menu button and refresh button will appear on the right. Click the “Menu” button to pop up the drop-down list.
1. Edit NAS
Click the "Edit" button in the drop-down list to display the "Edit Storage Path" page, where you can edit the display name, username, and password.
2. Delete NAS
Click the "Delete" button in the drop-down list to directly delete the NAS path from the list.
3. Space Management
Click the "Space Management" button in the drop-down list to display the "Space Management" page. You can set an alert when space is below a certain value, that is, the NAS management page and the NAS selection page prompt that there is insufficient space.
4. Locate Path
Click the "Locate Path" button in the drop-down list to directly open the shared path.
Back up to NAS
1. Launch AOMEI Backupper Standard, then click Backup and select File Backup. You can also back up the system, partitions and even whole disks to a NAS device by choosing other backup types.
2. Name the task so that you can distinguish it from other backup tasks. Click Add File or Add Folder to select the files/folders you want to backup.
3. Expand the drop-down menu of the second column and click Add Share or NAS Devices. If you have added the NAS from the Storage Management tool, you can select it from the drop-down menu directly.
You can also map the NAS/Share (network drive) as a local drive in Windows and choose the mapped drive as the destination location.
4. Enter the IP address of your NAS and click the blue button at the right. Input username and password if it is required.
5. After the NAS device has been added, all the folders under this NAS device will be listed. Choose one folder as the destination path, and then click OK.
6. Confirm the operation and click Start Backup to backup files to NAS.
Tips:
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AOMEI Backupper supports NAS devices using the SMB protocol only.
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If you want to run automatic backup to NAS, you may use the “Schedule Backup” feature.
Backup from NAS
1. Click Backup on the left pane and select File Backup.
2. Click Add File or Add Folder. In the pop-up window, click Share/NAS.
3. Click Add Share or NAS Devices button in the lower-left corner and enter the IP address of your NAS. Meanwhile, you can name your NAS device.
4. Select the folder you want to backup from the NAS device.
5. Click the second column to specify a destination path.
6. Confirm the operation and click Start Backup to backup files from NAS.
Tips:
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Only the File Backup and Sync options will allow you to select the NAS as the source.
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For the real-time sync task, specifying the NAS as the source is not supported.
Back up to Cloud Clients
Cloud drives (Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, etc) are becoming more and more popular choices for online personal storage. Luckily, AOMEI Backupper can back up and sync files or folders to cloud clients as long as your PC has installed the desktop applications of the cloud drives. Follow the steps below to backup files to cloud:
1. Click Backup and select File Backup.
2. Click Add File or Add Folder to select the files/folders you want to backup.
3. Expand the drop-down menu of the second column and click Select a cloud drive.
4. AOMEI Backupper will detect the cloud drives of which you have installed the desktop applications automatically. Choose one cloud drive as the backup destination and click OK.
5. Confirm the operation and click Start Backup to backup files to the cloud desktop folder.
Tips:
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Before backing up to the cloud, you need to install the desktop app for the required cloud drive on your PC.
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AOMEI Backupper currently only supports the following cloud clients: Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, SugarSync, hubiC and Cloudme.
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Only a File Backup or Sync task supports selecting a cloud drive as the destination location.
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If you want to save backups to online cloud space of the third-party cloud service, you can sync backup files to online cloud space via the cloud client app.
Conclusion
Backing up to a NAS can save local storage space to improve the utilization of local storage space. In addition, storing backup files on NAS can also prevent the loss of backup data due to local disk corruption.
As for cloud backup, AOMEI Backupper currently can back up files/folders to the local cloud space of third-party cloud services. But, AOMEI Backupper now released AOMEI Cloud, you can back up files/folders to the online cloud space of AOMEI Cloud. For more details, please refer to Cloud Backup feature.
FAQs:
Q: When you add the network path or run a NAS backup/task sync, it shows the error:
The program is unable to connect to the network. Please enter the correct credentials and check that your network is functioning correctly.
or
“Failed to access the network path, please check if your username, password, and network path are correct.”
or
“A specified logon session does not exist. Please detect if there is a directory name behind the network path, such as "\\192.168.0.100\directory_name", not "\\192.168.0.100". If the error still exists, you can reboot and try again.......”
or
303: invalid network path.
A: Please press Win+R, then type into the NAS path (such as \\192.168.1.230\xxx ), and then check if Windows can access the NAS path with the same username and password. If yes, please try to delete NAS.xml file under C:\ProgramData\AomeiBR and then re-connect it to AOMEI Backupper.
Please check if the devices or programs connected to NAS have reached the ceiling of the NAS. If yes, you need to disconnect some devices or programs so that the AOMEI Backupper can connect the NAS to do the backup. Or, please increase the allowed connection device amount in your NAS settings. For shared drive, please also check if the number of users shared simultaneously in the shared folder has reached the limit. We suggest that you set the number of users shared simultaneously to 20(default).
If Windows also can't access the network path via the above method, please check if you enable SMBprotocol on the NAS device, or tick the option "SMB1.0 /CIFS File Sharing Support" on the shared device (Control Panel-->Programs and Features-->Enable or disable windows features).
Q: Why the username and password cannot be retained and you have to configure username and password every time you run a backup to NAS?
A: If you select the mapped network drive as the destination, please try to add the network path to AOMEI Backupper, and then recreate the backup/sync task and select the added network path as the destination.
If you have added the network path to AOMEI Backupper and use it as the destination, when the password has been changed, please delete the "NAS.xml" file under the path C:\ProgramData\AomeiBR and then re-add the NAS again.
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