We have a Linkstation Pro set up on the LAN but I'd like some help/opinions on just how to set the system up. There are 10 XP workstations feeding their backups to the NAS. Using IE browser, I stepped through the admin and established User Accounts with names: HA001, HA002. I established shares under the root of the NAS called: HA001, HA002. I think you see the pattern here. On each workstation, I've mapped a network drive in Win XP Pro to the NAS in the form: 10.25.202.195\HA001, 10.25.202.195\HA002. So far so good. We are using GFI Home for our backup software installed on each individual workstation. See: http://www.gfi.com/ I tell GFI where the backup target is: ls-wtgl0b8\ha001. (I cannot get this to map using \\10.25.202.195\ha001 - I have to use ls-wtgl0b8\ha001 otherwise the mapping doesn't "stick". Anyway -
I've noticed a folder inside the shares called trashbox. It's filled with folders labeled in the form: copy of {backup data name}.zip. The trashbox is filled with these folders/files that are several months old - older in fact than the 3 backups I've ordered with GFI. So, the NAS is now filled to over 50% capacity and grows a little bit bigger each day. I'm looking for the connection between the trashbox and what's in the folder just above it thinking that when a file moves to the trashbox, it should be only a copy of what was overwritten by GFI.
1) Managing the trashbox on 10 shares is going to be an administrative nightmare. I don't want to delete the trashbox and lose the redundancy. But having to go in periodically to clean it out doesn't make a lot of sense either.
2) I think I may have done the wrong thing by having 10 users and 10 shares. Could I/should I change this to one big share and one big user? This would require individual backup file naming which of course GFI can do for me.
3) Back to No. 1 above, when I have to go in and clean out the 10 trashboxes, I'm having physically to go to each workstation and log in to the NAS's share using the mapped drive at that workstation. A real pain! I'm surprised that I cannot, for instance, use Windows Explorer from a central workstation and manage tasks like cleaning out folders moving things around using Network Places. I see the NAS (Listed as LS-WTGL0B8) on the left panel and the 10 shares hanging out on the right, but if I try to log in to the share \\ls-wtgl0b8\ha001 I get a windows error that I do not have permission. I'm using what the backup software uses to write to the share: Username: HA001 Password: {Password}. And maybe I totally misunderstand how this is supposed to work.
So, I hope one of you "experts" out here can help straighten me out.
Thanks for a wonderful forum. Lots of good info to ponder here.
H