Laptops and Timemachine

[archdelux]

I asked around and looked around for various specific solutions to no avail; so maybe a more general query would be best:

There is a pretty big annoyance in using Timemachine with a laptop because it requires you to eject the drive everytime you unplug the laptop to go somewhere or move around the house.

Anybody find any unique solutions to get around this annoyance?

Thanks

 

[QuarterSwede]

I asked around and looked around for various specific solutions to no avail; so maybe a more general query would be best:

There is a pretty big annoyance in using Timemachine with a laptop because it requires you to eject the drive everytime you unplug the laptop to go somewhere or move around the house.

Anybody find any unique solutions to get around this annoyance?

Thanks

I used to plug in and back up once a week but now I've just repurposed my old 12" PowerBook as the house server. I've got my external backup drive attached to it and Time Machine works great over the network (after the initial backup [takes a looooooong time over 802.11g]).

 

[neko girl]

@archdelux, you could hook up a Time Machine drive to an Airport Extreme. Unfortunately, it's a $200 "solution".

You could also use any network drive or shared folder from another computer anywhere in your house.

 

[archdelux]

@archdelux, you could hook up a Time Machine drive to an Airport Extreme. Unfortunately, it's a $200 "solution".

You could also use any network drive or shared folder from another computer anywhere in your house.

Thanks to both of you for the responses.

I actually tried setting up a network backup solution via an old computer and had everything set up and in place... until I realized that a mac-formatted HD wouldn't work on a windows machine for my purpose (please correct me if I am wrong).

My other computer is a windows computer with 100GB of space (not enought to backup my MBP). I also have a 500GB external HD. Now, I have set up my windows computer as a network drive and left it running so that I can access the HD from anywhere with my MBP as long as I am on wifi. However, I need to use my external HD for the extra space (ie 100GB is not enough). The problem is, if I format it for mac (to use with timemachine), then the windows computer doesn't recognize it. If I format it for Windows, then I can't use it on a mac computer if I need to get files from it (right?) Can I even use it as a timemachine backup? never really tried this option.

Any advice?

 

[nospeed411]

@archdelux, you could hook up a Time Machine drive to an Airport Extreme. Unfortunately, it's a $200 "solution".

You could also use any network drive or shared folder from another computer anywhere in your house.

Yeah if you buy it new....ebay is polluted with AEBS's for less than a 100 bucks. That is by far the easiest way to do it. After switching over my home network I will never go back. Plus if you have applecare for the macbook it will cover the AEBS....used or not. I just took in a doa airport express I bought and they swapped it out no questions asked.

Actually you could just use an Airport Express and add it to an existing network. That is a much cheaper option if you are buying new.

 

[archdelux]

Yeah if you buy it new....ebay is polluted with AEBS's for less than a 100 bucks. That is by far the easiest way to do it. After switching over my home network I will never go back. Plus if you have applecare for the macbook it will cover the AEBS....used or not. I just took in a doa airport express I bought and they swapped it out no questions asked.

Actually you could just use an Airport Express and add it to an existing network. That is a much cheaper option if you are buying new.

Thanks for the input.

I thought that Airport express supported printing and audio, but not HDs..? I was under the impression that only extreme would support network harddrives.. am I wrong?

 

[Dalton63841]

A networked drive CAN be used with Time Machine or just normally accessed whether it is formatted as Fat32 or NTFS or whatever you want. Filesystem formats are not honored over a network protocol. To share files you need to enable SMB in the Sharing prefpane. Then just hit CMD+K and in the bar type: smb://"ip of windows computer"/"name of folder".

For time machine check this out: http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-use-time-machine-over-a-network/

 

[QuarterSwede]

Thanks for the input.

I thought that Airport express supported printing and audio, but not HDs..? I was under the impression that only extreme would support network harddrives.. am I wrong?

You're correct.

For time machine check this out: http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-use-time-machine-over-a-network/

None of that is needed. On 10.6.6 at least TM automatically creates a sparse bundle when you select the TM drive on a SMB share. If you want it to only get so large than just create a partition. That's what I did. The other half of my external drive is a separate partition that has my iTunes media on it.

 

[Dalton63841]

You're correct.


None of that is needed. On 10.6.6 at least TM automatically creates a sparse bundle when you select the TM drive on a SMB share. If you want it to only get so large than just create a partition. That's what I did. The other half of my external drive is a separate partition that has my iTunes media on it.

Don't you still need to put in the Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

For me Time Machine doesn't recognize SMB shares unless I do that. Anywho, the point is that a SMB share will work just fine with Mac and Time Machine.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Don't you still need to put in the Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

For me Time Machine doesn't recognize SMB shares unless I do that. Anywho, the point is that a SMB share will work just fine with Mac and Time Machine.

I didn't have to. All I did was enable file sharing on the mac with the external drive. I selected it as the TM drive on my MacBook and it created the sparse bundle itself. You may have to do that trick in 10.5 or early 10.6 versions. Got me. But you're right, it definitely works and it works very well.

 

[m7ammed]

I created a shared network drive on my PC (Windows Vista) but I can't use it as it keep saying it doesn't support AFP. Is there a way to use this drive ? I don't want to go out and buy a NAS to be honest and don't want to keep connecting and disconnecting an external Harddisk. I think before Lion OSX you could back on SMB but now you can't it has to be AFP is there a workaround ?