Moving a Time Machine backup disk from direct-attached USB to an AirPort Extreme?

[chrisgl]

Hello,

I've just purchased an external hard drive, and plan on using it exclusively as a Time Machine backup disk.

My intent is to stick it behind my AirPort Extreme and allow the few machines in our house to all collectively back up to it via the AirPort Disk feature.

For the initial full backup from each machine, it would obviously crawl if I did it over wireless. So, my question is: can I attach this disk directly to each machine, perform an initial backup, and then move it to behind the AirPort? Will OS X recognize it as the same drive? I'd prefer this method. Or, should I start with the disk attached to the AirPort, and then attach each machine directly (via Ethernet) to the AirPort and perform the initial backup that way?

Thanks much.

 

[rusty2192]

ethernet for initial, then wireless

I've done a little research on the matter and it looks like the AEBS writes the backups in a different way than a local USB connection in time machine would. If your ultimate goal is to have it backup wirelessly, and it is a fresh backup, I would definitely just wire the computers to the AEBS with an ethernet cable for the initial backup and then let them go wirelessly after that.

I could be wrong, but from what I have read, a backup made over USB cannot be migrated with one done through the AEBS, so better just go through it the entire time. Gigabit is much faster than USB, so that should not be an issue as far as speed goes.