NAS Hard disks, time machine and maybe iTunes

[WaRrK]

The current set up in my house is 2 MacBooks and an ageing iMac G5 all connected to a wifi adsl router...

I'd like to do 2 things - it might not be possible to do both but I wondered if anyone else was doing something similar and what they were using:

1) Most important: I don't keep back ups. I know I should; so I want to. Is it possible to buy a NAS hard disk and plug it in to my router then set all the Macs to back up with time machine to it? I've had a dig on Google and there seems to be a lot of contradicting information!

2) Bonus: Both me and my wife have similar tastes in music - would it be possible for us to put the iTunes library on the networked drive and use it from all the machines (seems daft filling 3 disks up with the same stuff!)

The iMac is permanently on so maybe an external HDD plugged in to this would be better?

Cheers,
Ash

 

[jamin100]

I have an Airport Extreme with 2 x 1TB** Western digital my books attached to it.

I use the one for Storage & the other for time machine.

Every-things wireless

** you'll need a mains powered USB hub (about £20) to use more than 1 USB device on an Airport Extreme

 

[RedTomato]

Last time I looked into this (maybe it's changed) Apple only supported backing up over the network to either a Time Capsule or an HD connected to another Apple computer.

There were various hacks to enable backing up to a HD connected to an Airport Express, but I myself refuse to take any risks with my backups. I want it working properly, and I want it to be set up the way Apple says it should be. I'll cut corners in other places thank yew ver muchly.

For you, yeah an external HD connected to the iMac seems best. All three computers can back up to it, and they can share it.

The first backup takes ages so turn off wifi, plug your laptops into the ethernet network and leave them overnight. Perhaps one at a time would be best, not both.

Once you've done a few backups, you could think about storing that HD somewhere outside the house, maybe at work, and backing up to a second HD at home. Swap the two HDs maybe once a month or so.

re iTunes, I'm not an expert but yes I think all 3 computers can share the same iTunes library. You could put it on the G5 internal drive. Or on another drive connected to the Airport Express.