Computer backup

[Hawkmoon]

Fo[reasons], I have three Windows 10 desktop computers, two Windows 10 laptops, and a Windows 10 Surface tablet, all for personal use. And I just acquired a third Windows 10 laptop, which is currently awaiting an upgrade from a hard drive to an SSD drive. All have (or will have) 1TB drives except for desktop #3 and the Surface tablet.

I've been installing programs on each computer, but I use a Western Digital 2-drive MyCloud as an NAS, set up to run the two drives as a RAID. That allows me to feel slightly secure about data, but having to reconfigure each computer in the event of a meltdown would be very time consuming and annoying. I thought about buying a larger MyCloud so I can back up several 1TB devices to it, but that's pricey. I can get a Western Digital 14TB external hard drive for less than half the price of the MyCloud I was considering.

https://www.amazon.com/Easystore-14TB-External-Drive-WDBCKA0140HBK-NESN/dp/B083NJPFWS/ref=sr_1_13?crid=3PB7J94PRVFDN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QTilKfD9X3p-WKwxLTJC4Kn_NcW_9o9vBqslJioPeOPVMJ_9pMlAHDeFOP96xcskEEuyITb1ooJ8w2UWmM4bFMj7JvjXQgvp3YaX_DKSCpr1NsX1n0oEiJXhnJweFSn1-TlKNVVhcg9IOxYUwhiKHW1CwXLFT8iU0EuVLEDzpxCNLVYie1OMxkk_4dv8XyMgxxmpE3w8XKgsaIUJc9-pggsbnLoSTCbtvzXDnckciE8.eQRqop3jpMGHvh4qSC5yUP84Ou5TF8LjxffNlAasAao&dib_tag=se&keywords=western+digital+mybook+12tb&qid=1713660694&sprefix=western+digital+mybook%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-13

Can this be connected to one of the computers on my home network and accessed from the other computers over the LAN, or would I have to physically connect it to each computer when I want to make a fresh backup of that device?

[WLJ]

Can this be connected to one of the computers on my home network and accessed from the other computers over the LAN, or would I have to physically connect it to each computer when I want to make a fresh backup of that device?

Yes to the first question but does your router have USB connections? If so you should be able to connect it to the router and have it show up as a network drive from it.

[Hawkmoon]

Yes to the first question but does your router have USB connections? If so you should be able to connect it to the router and have it show up as a network drive from it.

Good thought, but I just checked. No USB -- Ethernet only

[lee n. field]

Fo[reasons], I have three Windows 10 desktop computers, two Windows 10 laptops, and a Windows 10 Surface tablet, all for personal use. And I just acquired a third Windows 10 laptop, which is currently awaiting an upgrade from a hard drive to an SSD drive. All have (or will have) 1TB drives except for desktop #3 and the Surface tablet.

I've been installing programs on each computer, but I use a Western Digital 2-drive MyCloud as an NAS, set up to run the two drives as a RAID. That allows me to feel slightly secure about data, but having to reconfigure each computer in the event of a meltdown would be very time consuming and annoying. I thought about buying a larger MyCloud so I can back up several 1TB devices to it, but that's pricey. I can get a Western Digital 14TB external hard drive for less than half the price of the MyCloud I was considering.

https://www.amazon.com/Easystore-14TB-External-Drive-WDBCKA0140HBK-NESN/dp/B083NJPFWS/ref=sr_1_13?crid=3PB7J94PRVFDN&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.QTilKfD9X3p-WKwxLTJC4Kn_NcW_9o9vBqslJioPeOPVMJ_9pMlAHDeFOP96xcskEEuyITb1ooJ8w2UWmM4bFMj7JvjXQgvp3YaX_DKSCpr1NsX1n0oEiJXhnJweFSn1-TlKNVVhcg9IOxYUwhiKHW1CwXLFT8iU0EuVLEDzpxCNLVYie1OMxkk_4dv8XyMgxxmpE3w8XKgsaIUJc9-pggsbnLoSTCbtvzXDnckciE8.eQRqop3jpMGHvh4qSC5yUP84Ou5TF8LjxffNlAasAao&dib_tag=se&keywords=western+digital+mybook+12tb&qid=1713660694&sprefix=western+digital+mybook%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-13

Can this be connected to one of the computers on my home network and accessed from the other computers over the LAN, or would I have to physically connect it to each computer when I want to make a fresh backup of that device?

How much do you have that you actually need to back up?  What's the backup strategy?  The fact that they've all got terabyte disks doesn't mean you have a terabyte each to back up.  (Most people I see with a terabyte disk actually have less than 100GB used, and way less of that that actually needs to be backed up.)

Yes, you could hook an external to one of the pcs, make a share on it, and back up to that share (however the backup is done in this case). 

[Hawkmoon]

How much do you have that you actually need to back up?  What's the backup strategy?  The fact that they've all got terabyte disks doesn't mean you have a terabyte each to back up.  (Most people I see with a terabyte disk actually have less than 100GB used, and way less of that that actually needs to be backed up.)

Yes, you could hook an external to one of the pcs, make a share on it, and back up to that share (however the backup is done in this case).

The primary desktop currently has 386GB used -- I try to keep the #1 spare desktop as close to this as possible, so it's about the same. The two primary laptops are probably about 150GB each.

[AZRedhawk44]

Can I suggest an alternative?

Get a NAS that runs a Windows Domain for you.

I have a Synology NAS and have configured it to run a Windows domain, and I run professional versions of Windows OS on my computers in the house and join them to the domain.  Then I do roaming profiles on my computers so that my profile is synced from the NAS to the client computer on login and logout.

Benefits are two-fold. 
1.  Anything under C:\Users\<MyAccountName> is co-located on the computer and the NAS sync location in the event of hard drive failure
2.  When I log in to a new computer that I've joined to the domain, my user profile is copied to that PC, making my documents and app settings portable.

There are two drawbacks, easily accounted for and mitigated.
1. In the event of SAN failure, you can lose your domain.  But you still have your data  on your various computers, and can either rebuild the domain or restore from backup if you have one.
2. If you're a data hoarder under your profile, it can take a while to login.  So don't keep 500GB of pictures in your My Pictures folder of your profile; keep them on a dedicated folder on your NAS, or a local folder outside of C:\Users\<MyAccountName> if you need them local.

I'm also about to add a second NAS to my network purely as a backup for my domain.  I have an older Synology NAS (DS214play) sitting idle and powered off, and I'm going to put drives in it and join it to my main domain running on my DS920+.  Aside from replicating domain data, I will also set up selective synchronization of particular folders to reduce the chance of losing data in the event of drive failure or corruption of my DS920+.

[lee n. field]

The primary desktop currently has 386GB used -- I try to keep the #1 spare desktop as close to this as possible, so it's about the same. The two primary laptops are probably about 150GB each.

All unique stuff, unique to each computer?  How much is duplication? Do you need to be able to retrieve prior versions of stuff?  If you need to do that, how long might you need to go back?  Is "bare metal recovery" a thing you might need to do?

Backup means different things to different people in different situations.