I just got my first Mac (Mac Mini) and am hoping to fully convert over without still needing my PC. But there are a few things that I want to keep a certain way and have not yet found a solution.
1.) I have 5 PCs in my house. 1 is a "server" PC that is connected to my router via gigabit ethernet connection. It has a dedicated partition that houses all of our photos, videos, music, and shared files. With the other 4 PCs, I basically map that drive on each machine and call it the "K" drive. This makes it very easy to view from each machine and allows programs, such as iTunes, to point to that K drive from each machine and load the library of songs.
With my new Mac Mini, I was able to do basically the same thing without issue (not called "K" drive, but wasn't hard to add to my library from that server PC).
However, when I try to use iPhoto, my Mac Mini wants to copy over every photo from the folder on the server PC. I do not want that. Is there some way to point to that library in iPhoto (similar to iTunes) without copying them all over to the Mac Mini?
2.) Time Machine - I can't seem to allow it to backup my Mac Mini to a networked computer or drive. Does Time Machine only allow you to make backups via an external drive connected right to the Mini? I don't want to buy Time Capsule or something like that. On my PCs, I use Acronis True Image and Retrospect to do semi-weekly backups of my PCs through the network to that "server" PC without issue.
Thanks!
1.) I have 5 PCs in my house. 1 is a "server" PC that is connected to my router via gigabit ethernet connection. It has a dedicated partition that houses all of our photos, videos, music, and shared files. With the other 4 PCs, I basically map that drive on each machine and call it the "K" drive. This makes it very easy to view from each machine and allows programs, such as iTunes, to point to that K drive from each machine and load the library of songs.
With my new Mac Mini, I was able to do basically the same thing without issue (not called "K" drive, but wasn't hard to add to my library from that server PC).
However, when I try to use iPhoto, my Mac Mini wants to copy over every photo from the folder on the server PC. I do not want that. Is there some way to point to that library in iPhoto (similar to iTunes) without copying them all over to the Mac Mini?
2.) Time Machine - I can't seem to allow it to backup my Mac Mini to a networked computer or drive. Does Time Machine only allow you to make backups via an external drive connected right to the Mini? I don't want to buy Time Capsule or something like that. On my PCs, I use Acronis True Image and Retrospect to do semi-weekly backups of my PCs through the network to that "server" PC without issue.
Thanks!
