Top 2 Ways to Backup Windows Server to QNAP NAS

User Case: Can’t Use WSB to Backup Server to QNAP NAS

"Hi, we have three Hyper-V VMs, two running Server 2016 and one running 2012 R2. The two 2016 VMs were created from the same original template. All three have Windows Server Backup configured to run a full backup to a QNAP NAS device. The backups complete successfully on the 2012 R2 VM and one of the 2016 VMs but the other Windows Server 2016 backup to QNAP NAS fails with the following error: 'The specified backup disk cannot be found'. If anyone is able to help with this, it would be appreciated."

Due to an SMB issue, many users have received this error "The specified backup disk cannot be found" during the Windows Server 2012/2016 backup process. In this situation, you have two useful methods:

• Create Windows Server backup to QNAP NAS with VHD or VHD file.
• Backup to QNAP NAS in Windows Server with a third-party tool. 

Honestly, the second way will be much easier. I prefer to use it. Anyway, I'll show you both ways to back up Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022 to QNAP NAS below.

Method 1: Backup Server to QNAP NAS with VHD or VHDX File

Here you will learn the first way to backup server to QNAP NAS with VHD or VHDX file. The process is divided into two parts, you need to create a VHD or VHDX file first with Computer Management, then backup server to this file using Windows Server Backup. For detailed steps, please continue to see below.

Step 1. Open Server Manager and click Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management, then you will be navigated to a new window.

Step 2. In the Disk Management window, go to the Actions tab, click More Actions and then Create VHD.

Step 3. Then, you will see the Create and Attach Virtual Hard Disk window, click Browse and select the shared folder on the QNAP NAS. Specify a file name for it and click Save. 

Step 4. Specify the virtual hard disk format (VHD or VHDX) and disk size, click OK to confirm.

Step 5. Right-click the VHD or VHDX and then select Initialize Disk > MBR or GPT partition style and click OK.

Step 6. Right-click the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume. Then, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the reset of steps.

Step 7. Open Windows Server Backup and create a backup task with the newly created VHD or VHDX disk. 

Tip✍: If you are not familiar with Windows Server Backup, please refers to this guide and remember to select VHD or VHDX disk as backup destination: create system image backup in Windows Server 2016.

Method 2: Backup Windows Server to QNAP NAS with Third-party Tool (Easier)

If you want to backup to QNAP NAS in Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022 etc. without creating a VHD or VHDX file, you can turn to a professional NAS backup software. AOMEI Backupper Server is a great option because of the following advantages:

✡ It supports backing up system, disk, partition and files to all kinds of NAS or network share, such as, QNAP NAS, Synology NAS, network share, etc.
✡ It allows you to schedule backup what you want to NAS or network share. You can use Daily/Weekly/Monthly schedule backup or Event trigger and USB plug in feature.
✡ It can manage full backup and incremental backup or differential backup flexibly to ensure you always have the changes made on your server.
✡ More so, it is still able to delete old backup images to free up disk space for new backups.

If your computer is not bootable, it still allows you to create a bootable media on another computer and use it to boot the current computer. You can also choose AOMEI Backupper Technician to protect multiple computers.

Then, please download AOMEI Backupper Server to perform Window Server 2012/2016/2019/2022 backup to QNAP NAS. 

1. Launch this program. Select “System Backup” under “Backup” tab.

2. In the next screen, you can see all the required partitions to start your server computer have already been selected. You need to just select the destination path by clicking the triangle down. Click Add Share or NAS Devices to continue.

3. In the Add Share or NAS Devices window, type the IP address of the QNAP NAS and click the blue button at the right. Type username and password if it prompts.

4. Then, you will go back to the main page of System Backup. Set backup settings with "Options", “Schedule Backup”, "Backup Scheme", and click “Start Backup” to backup Windows Server 2012/2016/2019/2022 to QNAP NAS.

Notes✍:

1. You can set email notification to get the backup task info timely, set normal or high compression level to save disk space, enable password  to prevent any unwanted access or malicious damage, etc.

2. You can set schedule backup with the following 5 options. 

• Daily/Weekly/Monthly: To backup your Windows Server automatically, set the backup task running daily, weekly, monthly instead of backing up manually.

• Event Triggers: Four events are included: User logon, User logoff, System startup, System shutdown. You can trigger the backup task at these events and then back up the files and folders.

• USB plug in: It's especially convenient to backup system to the USB device or backup system files on USB to another location while detecting the USB device of the task is plugged in.

2. You can click Backup Scheme to select the backup methods - Full Backup, Incremental Backup or Differential Backup. After that, click Enable Automatic Backup Cleanup and select cleanup method: By quality, By time and By daily/weekly/monthly.

Conclusion

In this article, you can learn two ways to backup Server to a QNAP NAS. One is to use WSB to backup server to QNAP NAS with VHD or VHDX File, the other is backup Server with AOMEI Backupper. After the backup is done, you can create a bootable rescue media in Utilities in order to restore system when it crashes.

The second method is also the best way to backup QNAP NAS. As long as you create a system backup in advance with AOMEI Backupper, you can restore your computer to a normal state with its help when you encounter any system problems later.