Age old question: NAS/Time Capsual

[Mr.T]

So my new mac mini arrives within the next week and I have been researching the options of backups and storage. I have sinced learned that it is possible to use a non apple NAS as a time capsual style backup solution.

My query is, if using as a 1tb USB HDD as a time capsual to backup a 320GB mac mini will the whole drive be dedicated to the time capsual? Or can the drive be partitioned to form 2 500GB partitions?
Also how big of a partition will be suitable for a 320GB mac mini to be backed up using time capsual?


Edit: I should note I'm looking at an airport extreme to utilize 802.11n wifi speeds, and a such would connect a nas via USB or Ethernet to the airport extreme.

 

[Hellhammer]

You can partition it. 500GB should be more than fine, even 400GB is sufficient, depends on how much you have data and how much you add and delete it

 

[Mr.T]

So u have to manually delete data off of the time capsual? There's no "purge after 2months old" options?

 

[Mr.T]

So u have to manually delete data off of the time capsual? There's no "purge after 2months old" options?

To answer my own question - and perhaps other people who are unaware, when your Time Capsule (either official Apple product, or USB HDD) is full, for every new backup added, an old backup is purged.

I think im going to go down the path of Airport Extreme & a NAS rather than the official Time Capsule.

 

[Hellhammer]

To answer my own question - and perhaps other people who are unaware, when your Time Capsule (either official Apple product, or USB HDD) is full, for every new backup added, an old backup is purged.

I think im going to go down the path of Airport Extreme & a NAS rather than the official Time Capsule.

Yeah, that's what Time Machine does, no matter what HD you are using. Sorry for not replying, didn't see your post

 

[Mr.T]

One last question, and thanks for your assitance thus far, if I were to buy an Airport Extreme and a 2tb USB drive, how would I limit time machine to using, say, a max of 500GB for osx backups, and leave the remaining 1.5TB of disk to be used as additional USB storage for music/movies/data?
Is this possible or will the whole drive be consumed as backup media for time machine?

Thanks, Mike.

 

[Mr.T]

*bump*
Last question, can anyone assist?
Thanks!

 

[skorpien]

Partition the hard drive using Disk Utility while connected directly to your Mac. Then when you connect the hard drive to your AEBS later, you'll be able to share both partitions as though they were separate drives. In Time Machine, you would use the 500GB partition as the target drive leaving the 1.5TB partition untouched. Time Machine will only use the 500GB partition and will not encroach on the 1.5TB of the other partition.

 

[applesupergeek]

Yes partition the drive(s) in two volumes with disk utility and assign one to time machine.

May I suggest if you go down the nas way to try a synology product, I don't work for these guys, but they have great products, and great software that interfaces well with macs. They even have an iphone app to stream music and media directly from your nas.

May I also suggest that you go for a two upwards hd nas so you can use the raid redundancy for almost complete peace of mind for your data.