Backup of TC or AEBS drives?

[Freeks]

Hi,

I'm getting either Time Capsule 500gb + 1tb usb drive or AEBS with two 1tb usb drives.

With TC my plan was to use the internal drive as my iTunes and iPhoto share and the 1tb usb drive as Time Machine backup for my macs. Same would be with AEBS that other drive is for TM and other for shares.

The problem comes with how to backup the drive with the shares? All my music and photos would be there so it would be essential to have that drive backed up. Do either of the devices come with some kind of backup utility to backup the drive? Kind of reverse TM.

I want my photos and music to be accessible from two laptops and one mini. The Mini could be used as a backup machine for the share drive when it's on. Mini is not on 24/7.

Is there better alternative for this setup than TC and AEBS.

Thank you!

Freeks

 

[flapperdink]

I do not believe there is a utility to install onto the TC or AEBS which would do automatic backups for you. The backup software would have to reside on one of your computers that would periodically do a backup from one shared drive to the other. The biggest downside I see to this (if i'm correct) is that it would most likely be painfully slow...I'm guessing the files would start from the primary shared drive, go through the network connection to the computer having the backup software installed, then back through the network connection to the secondary drive. I am not sure if the data would stay only within the TC/AEBS hub.

The way I would tackle this situation is to get the AEBS and two 1TB drives. Attach one of the drives to the Mac mini with all of your photos and music on it...share that drive to all other computers on the network. Have the other drive attached to the AEBS and use it as a Time Machine backup from the Mac mini. Of course this would require your Mac mini to be on at all times, but heck I leave my computers on all the time without problems.

I would steer away from the TC since external 1TB drives are cheap.

Just my two cents.

 

[Freeks]

Of course this would require your Mac mini to be on at all times, but heck I leave my computers on all the time without problems.

I would steer away from the TC since external 1TB drives are cheap.

Thanks for the reply!

That would be the easiest option, but my house has problems with electricity in bad weather. So I keep all computers disconnected when not in use. AEBS is cheaper to replace than the mini.

Does TC have any advantages over AEBS with usb drive or is the same thing?

 

[flapperdink]

Does TC have any advantages over AEBS with usb drive or is the same thing?

i think it's the same exact thing as far as what your computer will see. the only real downside to going AEBS instead of TC is that, unless you have a usb hub, you will be using the only usb port on the unit. i'm not sharing a printer so it doesn't matter for me right now, but i imagine that will soon change. no biggie, though.