Airport Disk and Leopard's Time Machine

[kepardue]

I've been thinking about a future configuration option, and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about it. I have an external drive plugged into an iMac at home, and relatively frequently access files from a MacBook from it. I'm thinking about getting the AirPort Extreme because that would automount the disk on both computers, share my printer more seamlessly, and generally make things flow easier.

However, a recent drive crash has also made me realize that I can't do this without the securitiy of backups. So, realizing that info is very sketchy on Time Machine, how does everyone think that it might be able to work on an Airport Disk?

1) Do you think it would be possible to have a large external Airport Disk, have an additional USB hard drive attached to the iMac, and use Time Machine to back up both my iMac and the Airport Disk?

2) Keep sharing my drive on the iMac, and use the Airport Disk as a Time Machine drive to back stuff up to? Could I have documents on the Airport Disk AND use it as a Time Machine drive?

3) Use some other utility to back up the Airport Disk?

I'm just trying to figure out some "best practice" plans here so that I can have my files accessible from the iMac and MacBook and not have to worry about backup.

 

[iW00t]

I have the same thought too, as there is some talk about TM not working well with networked file shares.

Anyway for the purposes of doing backups I have since turned to (and purchased) Chronosync. Works great!

 

[kepardue]

ChronoSync does look nice. If nothing else from the standpoint that it also syncrhonizes files across Macs. That might be nice to have my iPhoto library automatically sync from the iMac to the MacBook so I can view and edit photos when I'm over at family's houses.

I do wonder if anything like this will be in Leopard (without .Mac that is)? I guess I'll wait until it comes out before I purchase anything. That way I know whether or not ChronoSync will work with Leopard.

 

[The Stig]

I have a new base station and a HD plugged into it. It just shows up as a network drive or just like any other drive really that you plug into the computer. So I don't see why TM wouldn't work with it. I'd say it will work with TM in 10.5.

Of course I'm talking to Apple support now because the write speed to the HD is SO SLOW you wouldn't want to transfer anything to it, let a lone use it with TM. I don't know if this is only my problem but it isn't fixed yet.

The Stig

 

[kepardue]

Of course I'm talking to Apple support now because the write speed to the HD is SO SLOW you wouldn't want to transfer anything to it, let a lone use it with TM. I don't know if this is only my problem but it isn't fixed yet.

Have you been able to resolve your writing speed issue? I can see how you wouldn't want to use the drive for video editing purposes, but is it fast enough for general day to day use?

 

[hal0n]

Simple solution is use redundant disk arrays in the network drive. Set up a backup schedule to back up your machine to the network space. Wifi is still pretty slow, so you should set it up to do that transfer at night.

 

[donmei]

A best practice is to never use any on-line disk as a backup.

A lightning strike/power surge could wipe out your backup along with the rest of your stuff. (Are all of your dsl, cable, and ethernet connections surge protected?)

A usb drive used periodically, then removed from the machine and put in a safe place (preferably off site or in a fire safe) is a good solution.

Another reason any on line storage is bad has to do with viruses/trojans. If it propagates and wipes out a pc's hard drive, it will also wipe out mounted external drives.

Don