Hi folks, as my old thread posted on this Forum in April regarding this subject is "closed" and does not permit new post, I'm creating this thread again. As time did not permit me "exploring" the backing up/transferring etc. from my UnitiServe (with hard disc built in) ('US') to my Synology NAS, I just managed to rip some CDs on my US during the last couple of months. Now it's time for me to move on and do the back up/transfer.
However, just before tried to follow you guys' advice given in the old posts, I rang up the Naim HK dealer yesterday, and asked if I could transfer the files I ripped on my US to my Synology NAS, as I’ve ripped nearly 1,500 CDs on my US so far (without copying/backing up on a NAS).
I’m concerned that the space on my US is getting full after ripping further a few hundred CDs on it, so I’m thinking about transferring the CDs ripped on my US to a NAS (which currently stores a thousand or so other CDs). I understand that the US can hold around 2,000 CDs but I have in total over 2,500 CDs to rip.
After the transfer is done, I could delete the CDs on my US and go on to rip some more on it. The dealer's answer struck me like a thunderbolt... He said it is NOT possible to do such a transfer from US to NAS, what a horror! His answer seems to be a complete opposite to what the information I gathered from this Forum. I trust you guys must have done the same before? It’d be much appreciated if you could share your experience. Thanks!
Simon
Posted on: 10 July 2016 by ChrisSU
Is your NAS currently backing up the Unitiserve? If not, it certainly should be. It is then possible to convert the backup into a usable music store for playback should you want to.
If you run short of space, the US is quite capable of seeing and playing from external drives. If you run out of space, you should be able to configure it to use external storage as well as its own.
Are you storing your rips in WAV? If so, converting to FLAC at the maximum compression setting will save quite a bit of space. If you then find you prefer the sound of WAVs (as many people do with Naim streamers) you can set the US to transcode back to WAV on the fly during playback, which sort of gives you the best of both worlds.
Posted on: 10 July 2016 by Bart
The dealer is WRONG.
If you want to get your rips from your uServe onto you nas, you can easily just copy them from the MQ folder to the nas using your computer. That part is super-simple; the uServe gives you such access and copying the files over is no issue.
The first issue is that if you've been ripping to .wav format, these rips will not be very useful as they will not have embedded in them the metadata you will want. So I would definitely let the uServe first convert them to .flac format, and THEN copy them to your nas. In this format they will include enough basic metadata to make them useful. They will include Album and Artist name, and will have the album art embedded (albeit as a very small and relatively low-res file).
Converting your existing rips to flac, and doing all future rips as flac, will save a lot of space on the uServe hdd. I suggest doing this anyway. Then you can set the uServe to transcode from flac > wav for playback, such that you'll have lost nothing vs. ripping to wav in the first place.
I hope this helps; ask away if you have follow-up questions!
Posted on: 10 July 2016 by Bart
PS - if you convert to flac, copy over to your nas, and then want to delete the 'original' flac files from the uServe's Store, you must use Naim software to do the deleting (n-Serve for OS X; the Desktop Manager for Windows). You cannot delete files from the Store with your computer; the folder security is set to prevent that. And after you delete, empty the recycle bin to recover all the space 
Posted on: 10 July 2016 by Claus-Thoegersen
Hi agree with others it is possible.
I would let the userve convert to flac for the reasons others have outlined.
Then make a backup to your nas.
Check the free space on the userve after your wav files have been converted to flac.
when that is done and you think it is time to store future rips on the nas, create a store on the nas and make it the store that the userve rips albums into.
It sounds complicated since some of this language is more or less Naim\s own, but it will take little time, since most tasks are automated when setup correctly.
And one important thing to remember, a store for ripped cds on your nas needs to be backed up by yourself.
If you have a Windows pc the desktop client dtc in my view is the simplest way to perform these tasks.
Claus
Posted on: 11 July 2016 by Adam Zielinski
Simon - see my email reply for the technical aspects of transferring the files.
Glad to see that my esteemed colleagues have already suggested what I forgot - transfer the files from WAV to FLAC.
It's not mandatory of course, but may make using those files with other UPnP servers easier due to correct tags carried by the FLAC files.
Adam
