Problem with Airport Extreme USB drive and multiple partition/multiple TM's

[wwooden]

I'm having a problem getting two Time Machine backups to work on a Airport Extreme (n) USB drive.

I have the drive partitioned into three parts; 100gig, 100gig, and 40gig. The two 100gig partitions are going to be used for TM, the 40gig was just to have a place to put files to share.

The two computers are an iMac G5 which is wired in and and MacBook Pro which is wireless.

Both computers are running 10.5.2 and have all the latest updates including the last weeks Time Machine update. Also, the Airport Station also has last weeks update.

Ok, now that you have all the information, here is my problem. I got the iMac to see one of the of 100gig partitions and it is backing up perfectly to the drive every hour. I can't get the MBP to backup to the other 100gig partition. It will mount the other drive, I'll open up TM preferences and it will see the drive but when I select to use it for TM it will not except the request. It doesn't give an error, it just acts like it ignores the action and continues to show the initial TM pref where you need to select a drive. I've tried repairing permissions but that didn't solve the problem.

Is this setup not possible? can a USB drive with multiple partitions not be used for more than one TM backup? I could try connecting the MBP wired to get it started and see if that works. I will also try connecting the iMac wirelessly and see if it still does a backup. I feel like this should work though.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

You don't really need to partition an AirPort disk if you want to put multiple computer Time Machine backups on it. Time Machine is smart enough to separate the two backups and not let one access the other's backup data.

That said, I agree, your setup SHOULD work but I haven't the foggiest idea why it isn't.

 

[wwooden]

My only worry with not partitioning is that one backup will get much larger than the other and there won't be enough space to get a full backup of either.

I definitely wanted at least two partitions so I could keep one area always available for random files I wanted to put on the drive. I like to keep installers on a drive accessible to everyone so I can keep all computers up-to-date.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

My only worry with not partitioning is that one backup will get much larger than the other and there won't be enough space to get a full backup of either.

I definitely wanted at least two partitions so I could keep one area always available for random files I wanted to put on the drive. I like to keep installers on a drive accessible to everyone so I can keep all computers up-to-date.

I wasn't suggesting not partitioning the drive at all. I was suggesting changing the partition scheme from 3 partitions to 2. One for Time Machine to use, and one for file sharing. Oh, and don't worry about Time Machine backup sizes - one backup may very well grow larger than the other but Time Machine is smart enough to purge old backups if it runs out of space, and will warn you before it does this (by default, the Warn when old backups are deleted option is turned on).