Mixed Mac/PC Home Network Backup Setup

[Howard54]

I run a small home network with a mostly Windows computers but now with my new Mac included. Right now I am backing each of the computers up separately. I am looking into a networking backup hard drive such as a Seagate Black Armor or WD World Edition.

My question is whether I can backup all the computers on the network or if the Mac will not be backed up because of the different hard drive formats on the computers.

If I format the network backup drive using NTFS, will it be able to backup and restore to the Mac as necessary. Will the Mac be able to read/write to the network backup drive as necessary?

Any other backup suggestions for this mixed environment would be appreciated. Thanks!

[jigizen]

I think you would need a hard drive formatted as Mac OS Extended for the mac to back up on it. You could check if bootcamp can format the external hard drive as a NTSC and MACOS Extended drives. Worth a try.

[balamw]

I recently added an HP MediaSmart EX 490 to my all Mac client home network. It runs Windows Home Server and when I run Windows 7 on the Macs it's perfectly happy. Unlike other "regular" NAS devices and other Windows Home Servers. HP has made a significant effort to support Macs with their servers.

Time Machine backups are supported out of the box, including bare metal restores. Even though the server is using NTFS and Windows internally.

So, you might want to consider an HP LX instead of the Seagate or WD NAS.

B