Installing a hard drive for a backup on the network

[corvairbob]

i would like to know if i can take a hard drive that i now use as a usb backup drive and if they make an adapter that will let me plug that drive on my network switch and then do network backups?

getting a regular nas backup device just seems way overboard for a home use and for me way out of my budget. i see that some modems will let you plug a thumb drive and maybe even some hard drives into them for using as backup drives, but the netgear people just can't answer that question for me, so maybe someone here knows how to do this or has done this.

so if anyone has a c7000 netgear modem router device and has plugged a usb hard drive into the back of that device to use as a backup drive then please let me know if it works.

or if anyone has found a usb to cat5 adapter that i can plug my usb backup hard drive into and then plug that adapter into the network switch, and have that work for a backup for my files. please pass that along. thanks

 

[Ian]

Netgear routers sometimes come with ReadyShare (https://www.netgear.com/home/discover/apps/readyshare.aspx) which lets you plug in a USB drive (like yours) and access it over the network.

I can't find anything about Readyshare mentioned with regards to your model, but you could try plugging in a thumb drive as a test and see if you have any options appear in the router web-admin interface.

There are products like the RAVPower Filehub that will let you plug in USB HDDs and they'll appear on the network, but it'll be so much slower (and likely less reliable) than a NAS.

Do you have any PCs that are always on? You could always set up a network share on the USB drive from that?

 

[corvairbob]

thanks ian but i do not have always on pc's so that will not work for me.
i tried installing 2 thumb drives into a c3700 modem router before i got his one and that device encrypted the thumb drives so that they were not useable for me again. i did not know that would happen as the netgear people did not say that may happen. i asked them if and what would work they said the same thing

i have all my files on a 64gb drive and i lost it all 2 times. i did not know the drive got ruined and it tried it another way and it ruined that drive also. so i'm not going down that road again until i find that someone has done it. i'm not experimenting again.

i will check out those ravpower devices and see. i don't care if they are slow as they will be online all the time so they have plenty of time to do a backup. but then windows needs to do a backup that will only do what has changed, if this is possible. now i use corbin and that one does differential but it will not delete old files , or i haven't found that yet if it does. but i plug the usb backup hard drive into my pc and when it is time it starts and does it's thing.
thanks

 

[Clintlgm]

thanks ian but i do not have always on pc's so that will not work for me.
i tried installing 2 thumb drives into a c3700 modem router before i got his one and that device encrypted the thumb drives so that they were not useable for me again. i did not know that would happen as the netgear people did not say that may happen. i asked them if and what would work they said the same thing

i have all my files on a 64gb drive and i lost it all 2 times. i did not know the drive got ruined and it tried it another way and it ruined that drive also. so i'm not going down that road again until i find that someone has done it. i'm not experimenting again.

i will check out those ravpower devices and see. i don't care if they are slow as they will be online all the time so they have plenty of time to do a backup. but then windows needs to do a backup that will only do what has changed, if this is possible. now i use corbin and that one does differential but it will not delete old files , or i haven't found that yet if it does. but i plug the usb backup hard drive into my pc and when it is time it starts and does it's thing.
thanks

You'll have to have back up software that allows scheduling Most that I know of that do auto-scheduling are paid for versions Macruum Reflect is an excellent program for many reasons but the free version can not do scheduled backups.

 

[corvairbob]

ok thanks. i have a free corban backup that is doing that now. i told it to do a full backup and then differential backups and it has been doing that. next week i will see if it erases the earlier differential backups then. thanks

 

[Wolfie]

Hi corvairbob,

another option is to resize your main partition (shrink it) and create a second partition on the same drive and copy your data to that as a backup, you would need to do that with all your machines and it is cost free!. Just a suggestion of course and not really a solution to NAS setups!.

 

[corvairbob]

that is true but i have 300gb of data on a 500gb drive so that is really not a good solution. another thing i may do is get a 1tb or larger 2.5 drive for both machines and do that, but then i have money for 2 drives and then all the setup, so a nas drive is about as cheap and not as much work. thanks

 

[Clintlgm]

Hmm, seems WD has 8TB drives now. Most current Routers have USB 3.0 access and built-in software to set up your External USB drive on your network. You may want to consider a modern Router much more affordable than a NAS. Just another thought

 

[corvairbob]

thanks i may try the c7000 modem routers lan ports, the usb port will not work with my usb drives. and i ruined 2 64gb thumb drives before i figured out they were not going to work. i did that on the c3700 modem. i have heard they make some type of device that i can plug the usb hard drive into and then plug that into either the c7000 modem ports or the netgear network switch i have. may do better on the modem being they have 3.0 ports. i just have to find them yet.

 

[Clintlgm]

Well, for one thing, you can't just plug it in. you'll need to study your user manual for your router they should have a section on how this is set up. My guess is that Encryption is an option if you don't want it, turn it off. It should show you how to set up your hard drive so that your network can see it and access it. I can't help with Netgear, I use Cisco currently and have used Asus and Linksys and D-Link they all have instruction on how to set up the USB hard drive.

 

[corvairbob]

thanks for the info but on the netgear there is not option. the netgear people told me i could plug one into the usb port and the modem would see it but that was wrong. so i have given up on that. now i just use a usb hard drive plugged into each pc, and copy the 3 folders i want to save about once a month onto them. this way if i leave the usb hard drive plugged into the usb port overnight to do the backy ups and the pc shuts down for any reason i will not lose the hard drive, like i did with the thumb drives.

 

[Clintlgm]

Well, your modem has nothing to do with it. all your modem does is supply WAN (Wide Area Network)ie internet, your router supplies and configures your LAN(Local Area Network). Unless you're saying you don't have a separate Router connected to your Modem and Network. Also, a lot of the older Routers only had a USB port for Service Access. with no intention of using it for a USB External Hard drive, I think I had a D-Link router that has a USB Port for service access

 

[corvairbob]

i have a combo unit. i have been down this road a few times with this site and the netgear site so i have it about as far as it will go. my c3700 modem router will not take thumb drives/ sticks flash memory. the win10 guys said it wold and then i tried one and it failed and ruined that stick. then i asked the netgear guys and they said it might take it and we went thru all the setting to make it work and it failed. and the 2nd one then was ruined. as it turned out the modem encrypts the thumb drive and what i'm learning now it they do not like being encrypted.

and before anyone tells me i should have used a kingston they were kingston drives. a 32gb and a 64gb. so i tried a usb hard drive and that failed , but i did not lose the hard drive, they seem to be more robust. so then i looked into nas drives and for what i need to backup 300$ or more is just not worth it. so i got 2 usb hard drive cases and hard drives and we just them with karan's back program now and it does what i need thanks for the help