LS-441 - A Guide On How To Restore Files From Backup - Should Apply To Others

[steamship]

After spending hours searching through this forum, and in addition to reading the manual and searching in Google, I couldn't find a decent description on how to Restore data from an external HDD. I just upgraded my NAS from 2 to 4 HDDs, and since I originally had it set as RAID0, I couldn't just add the new disks. I had to wipe the array and create a new one using the 4 disks.

Now onto the subject of how to restore all my data.

Once the RAID has been created, do the following:

1. Go into 'File Sharing'
2. In 'Folder Setup', click on the 'Create or modify shared folders' icon
3. On the next screen, click on the 'Create Folder' button
4. On the next screen, click in the 'Name' field and enter the text 'share'
5. Set any other Attributes that you like, but most importantly, tick the 'LAN Protocol Support' option for 'Backup' (if not already ticked)
6. Click on the 'OK' button
7. On the previous screen, you will now see the folder details you just created, with a tick in the 'Backup' column
8. Click on the 'Close' button
9. Go into 'Backup', and in 'Backup' click on the 'This backs up data on the LinkStation to a USB hard drive or other NAS' icon
10. On the next screen, click on the 'Create New Job' button
11. On the next screen, enter an appropriate name in the 'Name' field (I just added the word 'Restore' to the names of my existing jobs) e.g. 'Backup PDFs' and the new 'Restore PDFs'
12. Choose whatever other Attributes you want for the job, and then click on the 'Add' button
13. When you click on the 'Browse' button for the 'Backup Source Folder Name', select the USB drive from the list, and click on the 'OK' button
14. When you click on the 'Browse' button for the 'Backup Target Folder Name', select the 'share' folder for the NAS unit from the list, and click on the 'OK' button
15. If required, add additional folders to restore
16. When you're happy with everything, click on the 'OK' button to finalise creation of the job

Depending upon the option you chose for 'Operation Mode', the job may run immediately, or at the predefined time.

The essential point in the list above is point 5. If this box isn't ticked, then when you go to create the Backup job, it will never see the NAS unit as a 'Target' to select. The rest is just the normal procedure for creating a Backup job, except that you'll be 'backing up your external disk to the NAS unit'.

This is something that should be detailed in every manual, but for some reason is ignored.

I hope someone finds a use for this at some stage.