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How to Backup a NAS or Network Share Using a UNC Path in NovaBACKUP through the Management Portal

This article explains why mapped network drives are not visible when creating backup jobs in NovaBACKUP and how to add a NAS or network share as a backup source using a UNC path. 

Why Mapped Drives Don't Appear

NovaBACKUP backup jobs run under the Windows Local System account. Mapped network drives are associated with individual user sessions and are not available to the Local System account. As a result, any drive letters you've mapped to a NAS or file share will not appear in the backup job source selection tree.

To back up files on a NAS or network share, you need to reference the share directly by its UNC path (for example, \\NAS-hostname\ShareName).

Prerequisites

  • NovaBACKUP PC Agent or Server Agent installed on the target machine
  • Access to the NovaBACKUP Management Server portal
  • The UNC path of the network share you want to back up (e.g., \\192.168.1.100\Backups)
  • Network credentials for the share, if it is password-protected
  • Administrator access to the Windows machine running the NovaBACKUP agent

Option 1: Browse via the Network Node

When creating a new file backup job in the portal, the source selection tree includes a Network node. Expanding this node uses Windows network discovery to enumerate shares visible to the agent.

Note: Because this browse also runs under the Local System account, password-protected or permission-restricted shares on your NAS may not appear. If your NAS share requires credentials, use Option 2 instead.

Option 2: Add a UNC Path Manually (Recommended)

This method works reliably for NAS shares regardless of whether network discovery can enumerate them. It requires briefly taking the agent offline to edit the job in manual mode.

  1. On the Windows machine running the NovaBACKUP agent, open Services (services.msc).
  2. Locate the NovaBACKUP Client Agent service and Stop it.
  3. In the NovaBACKUP Management Server portal, navigate to the agent and open the backup job you want to edit (or create a new one).
  4. With the agent offline, the job editor will display only what is currently selected and will show an + Add button at the top of the selection list.
  5. Click + Add and enter the full UNC path to your NAS share, for example: \\ag-bigbuffalo\NovaBACKUP-Share\Nate-NUC Buffalo
  6. Click the checkmark or confirm the entry to add it to the selection list.
  7. Save the job using the Save button (disk icon) in the toolbar.
  8. Return to Services on the agent machine and Start the NovaBACKUP Client Agent service.

The agent will pick up the updated job configuration automatically. When you next view the job in the portal, the UNC path will appear as a selected source alongside any local drives or folders in the job.

Important: If your NAS share requires credentials, the NovaBACKUP will need access to authenticate. You may need to configure the NovaBACKUP backup job to run under a domain or local account that has access to the share and has local admin access, or configure the NAS to allow the machine account.

Best Practices

  • Use the full UNC path including any subfolder if you only want to back up a specific directory rather than the entire share.
  • Test a manual backup run after adding the UNC path to confirm the agent can access the share before relying on scheduled jobs.
  • If the NAS share is password-protected, consider configuring the account that is running the Backup Job to run under a service account with explicit permissions to the share and the local system.

Related Articles

  • How to Add and Configure Backup Devices in NovaBACKUP
  • How to Create a File Backup Job in NovaBACKUP
  • NovaBACKUP Management Server: Managing Agents and Jobs