Backing up Win 8.1 Machines through Time Capsule

[the bug]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I didn't know where else to ask.
We gave each of our 2 kids an HP netbook running Windows 8.1 for XMas, this year, and I've added both them to my otherwise all Mac network.

Currently my 4 Macs all use Time Machine to back up to a 2TB Time Capsule.
I see that Windows 8 touts an automated backup feature similar to Time Machine, albeit a little more limited, but still I would like to implement it on these 2 Windows machines.

I realize that Windows doesn't recognize the HFS+ internal volume in the Time Capsule, but I was wondering if I still might be able to back these machines up automatically through the TC.

My plan was to hang a Windows formatted drive (either NTFS, or FAT32) off the TC's USB port, and try to set this up as a network backup drive.
Has anyone attempted such a thing, and do you think it will work ?

My TC is kind of buried so it will take some time for me to access the rear USB port with an extension cable, and route it to the Windows drive setup that I plan on using for this.

I was wondering if it was worth the bother to try to set this up, or if I should just try to confiscate the kids machines about once a week, and plug directly into the USB drive to back up.

Any advice would be appreciated, Macs I know... but this is a brave new world for me , thanks.

- Jay

 

[Mike Boreham]

.....or if I should just try to confiscate the kids machines about once a week, and plug directly into the USB drive to back up.

This....or there is probably a network back up option for Windows so that it happens invisibly like Time Machine.

Someone may chip in but my gut says there is not a snowball-in-hell's chance of backing up a Windows PC to a Time Capsule.

You can't do it with Bootcamp so an actual independent PC even less likely.

 

[Altemose]

My plan was to hang a Windows formatted drive (either NTFS, or FAT32) off the TC's USB port, and try to set this up as a network backup drive.
Has anyone attempted such a thing, and do you think it will work ?

In Windows 8.1, the backup feature is called File History. You can have them backup to the internal Time Capsule drive or a USB drive attached to the Time Capsule. You can leave it in HFS+ (Mac OS Extended Journaled) as the Time Capsule will share it over and it will appear as a FAT 32 network volume. You will need to mount the drive in File Explorer and give each of your kids a network account. I am guessing these are the HP Stream notebooks?

Ensure that you buy an ample USB hard drive. If it is the HP Stream then anticipate needing at least a 128 GB hard drive since each has a 32 GB hard drive. The rule of thumb is to double the internal drive size for however many computers that need to backup. Use a drive with an external power supply unless you buy a large USB flash drive that can most certainly be powered by the Time Capsule.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Amazing! I stand corrected.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[the bug]

Thanks for the replies guys !

Wow, Altemose you're good !
These are, in fact the HP Stream 11 netbooks (surprisingly nice little machines for the money) which I'm trying to back up.

It is the "File History" feature in 8.1 which I'm planning on trying to use, I'm mostly concerned with backing up their documents and school work.
As an aside, I do a full backup of my work laptop running Windows 7 monthly to a USB drive, but I was really hoping to avoid all that and automate backing up these 2 machines if I can.

If things go horribly wrong I can do a recovery of Windows, as long as I have the school work backed up, and they have to re-download Minecraft or whatever else then so be it.
There is only about 16 GB of free space now which will be the storage space of their school work, so not really too much to back up.

The drive I was planning on using was a WD MyBook 500GB with it's own external supply, but the news that the internal TC drive may be usable sounds interesting to me.
I do have almost 1TB available on my 2TB TC, so I'm now wondering if I can set up a directory for each of the HP's to back up to on the internal drive.

I wasn't sure if the internal TC drive would be recognized by Windows, Yosemite reports it as an "afp" volume.
I'm going to have to look into seeing if I can share a directory and have Windows see it as a standard NAS volume,thanks !

- Jay

 

[Altemose]

It is the "File History" feature in 8.1 which I'm planning on trying to use, I'm mostly concerned with backing up their documents and school work.
As an aside, I do a full backup of my work laptop running Windows 7 monthly to a USB drive, but I was really hoping to avoid all that and automate backing up these 2 machines if I can.

If things go horribly wrong I can do a recovery of Windows, as long as I have the school work backed up, and they have to re-download Minecraft or whatever else then so be it.
There is only about 16 GB of free space now which will be the storage space of their school work, so not really too much to back up.

When using HFS+ an OS X machine will use AFP to connect, however when using Windows or Linux it will connect via SMB/CIFS. FAT16/32 volumes are always connected to regardless of OS via SMB/CIFS. I am not sure how the Time Capsule handles sharing, but I can say that it works flawlessly with HFS+ volumes on Windows.

How are you sharing the Time Capsule drive? Are you using accounts? If you are then simply create a new account for each kid and create a folder inside of the Time Capsule drive. You can then map that location inside of File Explorer and later use that as the File History drive like a regular network connected FAT 32 share point.

You can also use the Western Digital drive over USB. It will function in the same regard as the internal drive and is bound by the same sharing functionality.

Something to note is that you should not enable accounts if it is not enable already. That would make you lose access to files already on the drive.

 

[the bug]

Wow, thanks Altemose ! That actually works !
I am able to map the entire TC internal volume in Windows and back up using "File History".

I'm going to have to mess around with sharing permissions a bit, since I DO NOT want to to share the entire volume.
Unfortunately when I set up my time capsule, I set it up using "Device Password" to secure the entire disk, so I am hesitant to change that to individual accounts at this point.
It was not a problem years ago when I initially set up the network.

I would love to share one directory on the volume to each of the HP's, but I am not set up to use accounts on the TC, and I am worried about storing the password for the entire volume on both machines.
Sharing control seems to be one place where Windows does give you a bit more localized control than Apple does (as in sharing a single directory).

It's not my 15 yr. old daughter I'm worried about so much, but my 13 yr. old son is unfortunately a "chip off the old block" and likes to "mess around" with computers.

I noticed tonight while trying to back his machine up that within a couple of hours after getting his HP (his first computer), he had not only changed the default browser from IE to Firefox, but had set his homepage to Arstechnica !

Arstechnica for God sakes, I knew he was good but… looks like it's time for ol' Dad to up his game # !

As it is, I have to run all fixed IP's mapped to MAC addresses, since he discovered that he could get around the time restrictions I set for his iPod by spoofing the IP address of the Wii.
Needless to say, I'm not about to leave any of my passwords on his machine. #

Maybe I will have to set up an external drive which I can give permissions to both machines, I certainly don't want to leave the password to the TC drive laying around.
It would be like giving him the "keys to the kingdom", not that he's a bad kid, but as I said he likes to "mess around". #
Thanks again, I'm amazed that mapping the drive in Win 8 actually works !

- Jay

 

[Altemose]

Wow, thanks Altemose ! That actually works !
I am able to map the entire TC internal volume in Windows and back up using "File History".

You could map simply a folder on the Time Capsule's drive for them to back up to. I am the same way with computers but I am 16. I am actually taking classes to be come a Cisco certified network technician by the end of this school year. A limitation that the Time Capsule's have is that the sharing preferences affect both the internal drive and the USB connected drive. Do you have an old AirPort lying around by chance?

 

[the bug]

Thanks Altemose, I didn't realize that the same permissions would be mapped to an external drive also, but I reckon that does make sense the way the TC is configured.

It does not surprise me that you are 16, I have seen some of your responses here on the forum and see that you are very knowledgable about a lot of this stuff, I'm sure you will do well in your studies. #
Sometimes us "old timers" take longer to figure this stuff out, even though we've been doing it for a long time. #

I do have an old "spaceship" 802.11 b/c Airport around, I will have to dig it up and see if it is the later model with a USB port, that is a really great idea, speed shouldn't be an issue with such a small amount of data.

If I can't get it working the way I want, I may have to go the manual USB route, straight to the WD drive.

Thanks again for the help on this.

- Jay

 

[Altemose]

I do have an old "spaceship" 802.11 b/c Airport around, I will have to dig it up and see if it is the later model with a USB port, that is a really great idea, speed shouldn't be an issue with such a small amount of data.

The older UFO style base stations only support USB printer sharing. They do not have a built in file server. You have a few options in this scenario. You can switch to "with accounts" to secure the disk, but you would probably want to start fresh on the Time Capsule drive them, leave it as it is now, or hook a older AirPort base station up in bridge mode to appear as a basic file server. You can get an AirPort Extreme from 2007-2010 for under $25 nowadays and may be a good option rather than dealing with the constant plugging and unplugging of drives.

If there is just Time Machine backups on the drive now then I doubt you would have any issues switching to secure disk accounts. If you use your TC as a bit of a file server then you could lose access.