Why is my Linkstation Pro backing up gigabytes of unchanged files each day?

[jezzer]

I have a Linkstation Pro LS-320GL which I've used for some time as a home NAS. I am backing this up daily to a 1Tb Buffalo USB drive, formatted FAT (don't ask why). The NAS drive is about 75-80% full, around 270Gb of data on there.

 

I recently changed the NAS' onboard backup type to Append, in the hope that it would only backup changed files, however it still seems to back up about 70Gb of files each night, including some very old archive files which can't have been changed for years. This takes about 10 hours!

 

I've recently flashed the device to the latest version of the firmware (1.15 I think), which helped resolve a backup issue which had recently started causing the backup to fail (not sure why), but it still seems to be backing up long-standing unchanged files.

 

Any ideas why?

 

Best/Jezzer

[ruggieroav]

Hello,

 

Sometimes it helps to delete the backup job, and create a new folder for the backup.  (Rename the original backup folder and create a new blank one).  If the new backup is set at APPEND, the backup will always start full, then it should append in subsequent backups.  Once you have a working incremental backup, you can delete the older backup folder.

 

Hope that helps!

- Joe

[jezzer]

Hi

 

Thanks for that. Co-incidentally I did try that, although I'm not sure I started the new folder in Append mode - it is now.

 

I've also managed to get the v1.15 firmware loaded onto the NAS.

 

It's still backing up 60-70Gb out of 270Gb per night, for some reason. I have another problem now, I can't backup email archive files larger than 4Gb due to FAT file size restrictions. I'm going to look at alternative/more advanced file formats, if there is one that can still be read on my PC.

 

Ah yes, I've just found an EXT3 driver for Windows 7 so I'm going to load that onto my PC and reformat the (1Tb) USB backup drive using EXT3. Then hopefully I will still be able to read the backup drive, connected directly to my PC, if the NAS drive dies. I will also be able to back up my large archive files onto the USB drive, which is failing at present.

 

Not sure this will mean an Append will only backup changed files though, but this time around I will start my new backup folder in Append mode.

 

Thanks again.

 

Jezzer

[ruggieroav]

Hello Jezzer,

 

Forgot that the Linkstation pro allowed you to format disks in FAT32 format at all - but yes, EXT3 does work better, and you should be able to read the disk fine on your PC if you need to recover anything.

 

As I mentioned, Append mode will only back up changed files.  However, if starting with a new folder/backup, a full backup will always be performed first.

 

- Joe

[davo]

For what you want, you need to set the backup to complete/differential.