Probably dumb Q, but if I specify that windows backup system image and files on an UnRAID share, would Windows be able to perform restore from the items stored on UnRAID or does a Windows backup have to be on a NTFS formatted share?

Yes, you can use UnRAID as the destination for your backups with no problem IF you're using a version of Windows that supports network locations for the backups.  For example, with Windows 7 you can only use network destinations with Pro, Ultimate, or Enterprise editions -- the Home Premium edition does not support backing up to a network share.

 

Thank you.  I am using W7Pro so network backups are permitted.  I was just worried that since UnRAID uses reiserfs that it might not be suitable windows image backup format.

 

Thanks again.

 

Dan

If your talking about windows backup (as in the one built into windows)

 

Have a look at macrium reflect (free edition)

 

It  backs up to unraid.  You can also create a recovery bootable cd,  that you pop into your machine and it can read from tower to do a restore from unraid.

 

The paid version of reflect does schedule backups plus more.

 

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

+1 for Macrium, works a treat.

Thanks for advice; I'll give Macrium a look.

Also if you have a Seagate drive on your Windows machine there is a free version of Acronis True Image in their DiskWizard. This is what I use to backup all my Windows PCs.

Macrium and Acronis both work very well -- and have the distinct advantage that they don't require a "Pro" version of Windows 7 to do network backups.    Since, in this case, you have the Pro version, you have a variety of options you can use.

 

NONE of these "know" (or "care") what the underlying file system is on the network share -- they're simply using a network share that allows them to create/open/read/write/close files as needed.

 

Yes, you can use UnRAID as the destination for your backups with no problem IF you're using a version of Windows that supports network locations for the backups.  For example, with Windows 7 you can only use network destinations with Pro, Ultimate, or Enterprise editions -- the Home Premium edition does not support backing up to a network share.

 

 

You've got to love Microsoft's completely arbitrary feature restrictions in place for no other reason than to try to get you in the door and then charge more money. So glad none of this festering maggot of a company's products are no longer in my home.

Yes, you can use UnRAID as the destination for your backups with no problem IF you're using a version of Windows that supports network locations for the backups.  For example, with Windows 7 you can only use network destinations with Pro, Ultimate, or Enterprise editions -- the Home Premium edition does not support backing up to a network share.

 

I'm sure there's some trick you can do to get around that, may it be symbolic links or just a simple move command every couple of hours, I'm sure you can get past it.

No need to "get past it".   

 

First, with regards to this question, the user is already using the Pro version, so it's not an issue.

 

Second, as noted in the discussion, there are several excellent products that don't have that restriction -- and these are, for the most part, better than the built-in Windows backup anyway ... and, at least in the case of Macrium Reflect, free