NAS and Laptops

I've researched this on the internet, and just left myself confused! Sorry in advance for the long post, but I wanted to make clear where I am, and where I want to be.

I work from home, as does my wife, and we have 3 Win 10 PCs on a wired network (We each have a work PC, and I have a leisure/hobby PC). I also have a laptop which I use in the field (I'm an industrial controls engineer).

I seemed to spend a ridiculous amount of time copying files from one device to another, and often forgot to update all PCs with my laptop when going on a site visit, so end up not having all the files I need.

I purchased a Buffalo Terastation NAS to try to relieve the situation, but it has just made it worse!

I have set this up so that data files are stored on the NAS in two drives; S: for shared files (music, family photos, finances, family history (our hobby), and personal data on Y: (two separate partitions on the NAS, one for myself, one for my wife, but mapped to Y: on each of our PCs).

That bit was easy!

Now for the laptop, which is proving to be a data management nightmare!

If the laptop is connected to the network, all is fine and dandy; I have the S: drive and Y: drive mapped and it works just like on my PC. However when I go out, I don't have the network so I lose access to all my data.

To get round this I have created two partitions on the laptop to hold the S: and Y: drives, but had to assign two different letters (J: and K:). I then use FreeFileSync to sync these two partiotins to the NAS; not ideal, but workable. However I use several programs that store data on absolute paths (this cannot be changed), so when I try to run them on the laptop away from home, they are looking for the S: and Y: drives, which aren't there.

At the moment I have two options; keep changing the path in the apps, or re-map the partitions.

Is there an easier way to do this? I don't want to go down the route of using Windows Server (which I think would solve my problems, but it's too expensive), I want to just keep on a simple home network.

If you are still with me, thanks for reading!

Thanks for the reply, but that's not quite what I am looking for. Files are already backed up to the cloud using iDrive. I am after using the NAS like a traditional file server, where files are stored and accessed from the NAS rather than the local drive, unless it is the laptop when away from the network.

Maybe try the work folders feature after mapping a folder on the NAS drive to your laptop so the files are available offline until you reconnect? See control panel > work folders for more info.

Thanks @Bree, that's exactly what I am looking for. I dont have Pro on the laptop, only one of the desktops, but I will upgrade and give it a go.

Hi there
@PeteW1959

There should be nothing complicated about this at all -- no need to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro etc

All you need to do is

1) ensure Files on NAS are shareable, and accessible (read / read/write or whatever privileges you want to assign per user etc).

2) enable network discovery is enabled on (the Windows PC's) if switched off

3) browse network for the NAS server -- if you don't see it then enter its IP address

4) Map Network drive -= windows will usually start at Z then Y eyc.

Now simply use those folders like any other bog standard Windows folder -- "Seemples !!!!!".

Any other PC connected to your LAN can connect the same way.

Personally for NAS I'd rather use a cheap PC with my own drives in it and install any decent Linux distro -- enable software RAID and configure SAMBA for your shares and then use as above -- that's a bit more complex initially and beyond the scope of this post but having a non proprietary system on which you can install your own software / hardware is IMO the best solution rather than buy more expensive dedicated NAS drives -- of course YMMV however.

I wouldn't use the "Offline" facility - just copies extra data, fills up HDD and is difficult to delete -- IMO simply copy files you want to use offline to external USB drive / stick / cloud server.

Once you get a bit more technical you could set your NAS system up as a LAMP / WAMP server and access it from anywhere over the public internet. Again beyond the scope of this post but should start you in the right direction. I use LAMP as I'm running Linux NAS servers -- for Windows equivalent is WAMP.

Here's a brief link on how to do it on UBUNTU (a popular Linux distro).

How To Install Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) stack on Ubuntu 18.04 | DigitalOcean



Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Now simply use those folders like any other bog standard Windows folder -- "Seemples !!!!!".
jimbo

That's what I am already doing, but the problem comes when I take the laptop away from the network; the mapped drives disappear!

Hi there
@PeteW1959

That's why you need some sort of Internet access to have access to your network from outside it e.g over the public internet.

I really prefer LAMP over "offline facility" .

For transferring files is easy via any FTP type program e.g sftp -- but loads of GUI´s available so works just like Windows explorer.

Cheers
jimbo