Checking in....

Rob, I've moved this thread over to the Streaming Audio room - probably more appropriate in there.

Hi Rob, and you've done the right thing!  Flying without a backup is a bad idea.

Getting the backup set up can be a little tricky.  There are complete instructions in the HDX manual, and there are numerous posts here about it.  There is a thread by HungryHalibut here where he described his journey getting the backup set up; please try to find that and read it.

One small contribution I can make initially, and something I think is NOT in the HDX manual, is that you need to change the workgroup name on the nas to "naim"  (no quote marks just naim).  This small bit has foiled many a would-be backuper!

Ok, thanks..... no prob.

Hi Bart, thanks - I'll look out for that one along the way.  I'm fairly sure I've read the post you mention.  If it is the one, I copied the text to have next to me as I do the setup!

Backing up my then UnitiServe was a total nightmare. I don't think the detailed instructions existed back then. So, if you get in a pickle, don't think you are the only one! You will get there in the end. Once backed up, set a differential backup for say once a week. 

The other thing I'd advise is, if all your albums are in WAV, convert them all to FLAC before you back up. You can then set the HDX to transcode to WAV on playback. The reason for doing this is so that if your HDX ever breaks down, you will be able to put a media server package on your nas and still play your albums. If you leave the backup in WAV, the collection will just be a load of tracks, all muddled up. 

I have done the above.  If you back up everything in wav, you'll be able to restore, but using the backup as a streaming source will be neigh impossible.  If you convert to flac and then backup, the backup folders will be ready to use as a source if ever needed.

Oh, I wasn't expecting that!  So the backup in WAV is not saved as individual albums?  The Synology NAS does have a DNLA server built in....

I'm another who has had great difficulty in setting up a backup for my UnitiServe (hard drive version).  I bought a Synology NAS but have not been able to copy any files to it thus far.  Presently the UnitiServe is on its way to Audio Plus Services in Canada for repairs and once it gets back to me I'll work again on trying to set up a proper backup.  I will say it is a much more difficult task than one would think.

It's because of the way the Naim servers rip the files, and that add the metadata alongside. If you backup the WAV rips to the Synology, and then try to play them with the Synology media server, you will see 20,000 tracks in alphabetical order, and not the 2,000 albums. 

Note also that the Synology media server cannot do gapless when you set it to transcode to WAV from FLAC.

I sold my Serve when I found that the Synology sounded better, with Minimserver installed as the upnp server. This will transcode and do gapless at the same time, which makes it ok for classical and other gapless material. You can also back it up to a £60 USB drive, so you get better sound for £2,000 less.

Thanks fot your info HH.  The issue of backups is just frought with obstacles, it seems.  How about this scenario..... 

You backup the HDX rips to the Synology as original WAV's.  HDX later suffers drive failure and gets serviced with new drives.  You then restore from the Synology back to the HDX.  Is the music back in album formation..... or individual tracks? 

If it's a pukka backup, done via the HDX backup routine, it should be fine. 

It will be restorable to its original formation.  Naim can help with this if it's ever needed.

Well that's good!  Thanks for your helpful comments gents.

I have a unitiserve with all my albums loaded there in Wav.  I also have a Synology Nas which Phil Harris setup so its a backup for the unitiserve. 

My question is whats the best way to now have all my albums in flac for when the unitiserve breaks down again ( twice now)?

Can i get the Nas to convert the Naim backup to flac and keep all the tracks in the correct album folders?  Thanks guys!

You need to tell the Serve to convert all the files to FLAC. When it then backs up, the backups will then be FLAC too. 

Rob,

How do you use the HDX? To serve the files or to play them?

If you play the files direct from your HDX into your system, or use the HDX to feed a DAC via SPDIF, then I have found that WAV is the best.

I would suggest you do some tests and determine what sounds best for you. Then adopt the technical solution that supports this.

M

II use the HDX as a player directly into the system, which is why I decided to rip everything in WAV.

I have to admit to being a little confused about the idea of converting the WAV's to FLAC for backup and then transcoding back to WAV if the backup was (perish the thought!) *needed*...... from the point of view that, although FLAC is regarded as lossless, there is still compression. So when transcoding back to WAV from a compressed file format, would there not be some loss at this point? 

The backup as WAV is specially structured for userve and can't be read by other upnp software. However, the backup of FLACs can be used by other upnp software (Asset, Minim etc.).  If you got rid of the userve, your WAV backup would be useless, but the FLAC would not.

I want to keep the files on the Unitiserve as Wav and then have a FLAC backup on the Synology Nas. 

Is this possible?

How do you convert Wav into Flac on the Unitiserv? I don't see anything for conversion on the n-serve app!

This is the bit that confuses me a tad! If the Flac is smaller file size, and therefore, to a degree must be compressed, how does it get scaled back up?  If there is compression, is there not some loss that cannot be recovered?  Not doubting your knowledge..... just trying to understand what's going on in that process.

Yes, FLAC is compressed, but as it's lossless, nothing gets lost..... 

From memory, you go into the library in the DTC. If you right click at the top of the tree, the convert to FLAC option comes up. Done that way, all the albums get converted. It took three days when I did it. 

I currently use a Unitiseve for storage and serving purposes and have been meaning for a while to get a NAS as a storage back up. As the Unitiserve has broken down twice on me I should get on and get a NAS back-up sooner rather than later.

Most of my files on my Unitiseve are WAV and I understand that can be a problem when transferring to a NAS back up device and it is preferable to have all files as FLAC rather than WAV when backing up to a NAS. Is this correct?

I know I can convert all my WAV files to FLAC on my Unitiserve but before I do I wanted to check if it is necessary to do so for the impending NAS backup and whether any resolution is lost from converting to FLAC and then have the Unitiserve transcode to WAV.

Advice politely sought.