Hello all,
I bought one of these 2TB Linkstation drives to back up a handful of smaller drives I've accumulated over the years. Overall I've been disappointed with the advertised DirectLink, as it's really marketed as a plug-n-play type thing, which it certainly isn't. Moreover, I find the manuals poorly written and the software bundle confusing as to which programs I actually need. But I have found what I feel is the best way to transfer large amounts of data of all types so I'll share it in case it helps someone else.
First I plugged my HDD in the USB on the back of the linkstation (any format HDD should work as mine are all NTFS). It should now visible as a folder in the root directory of the LS called "usbdisk1".
Sorethumbs recommended opening this folder and doing a copy to the main share folder. The problem I have with that is that those files are unnecessarily being transferred through your computer. So your computer needs to stay on the network to make that transfer, and it slows your computer down if you want to do other things with it. Also if the transfer stops mid-folder, then you need to try to figure out where to restart the process, etc.
So I plugged my HDD in the back of the Linkstation and set a backup through the web interface. One thing the manuals aren't very clear on is the fact that there are 2 control 'programs'. The first being NAS Navigator, which I find to be useless, except for finding the IP address of the Linkstation. Once you've found that IP (192.168.1.X) then typing that in to any web browser (eg: http://192.168.1.6) will get you in to the control panel (default username: admin, password: password). Under the tab "Shared Folders" you'll see "Folder set up". You should see both 'share' and 'usbdisk1'. Make sure under the 'Support' column both disks should say at least "Disk Backup". Mine say "Windows, Apple, Disk Backup".
Then click on the "System" tab, and go to the "Backup" tab. Here you'll see a little button that says "create new job". Click on it. Now assign a job name (whatever you like), mark the schedule 'immediate', and the operation 'normal'. I left all the options in their default settings, but I marked 'exclude trash' as a personal preference. Then click the green "Add" button under backup folders. From backup sources, select "usbdisk1" and for backup targets, select 'share@LS-CHLF22'. Your model number may be different. Then click "Apply".
The screen should now show your transfer name, with the status 'running'. It took me about 1 day to transfer 350gb to the Linkstation drive. Slow, but workable. I think with those speeds it's using some protocol other than USB2.0. But I was free to take my laptop away with me for the day while this was all running at home, which worked well. It will put all of the items in a new folder with a cryptic numerical name, but rearranging them using Windows explorer takes just a minute.
Hope this helps someone else.
