Setting up Time Machine

[pendo]

Hello guys,

I know I should know the answer to this by now, but I don't so here's the question....

I need to get a new router and haven't set up time machine yet. Money is a little tight right now, so getting an airport extreme would be preferable and adding an external drive a little later. But is this the best way to go? I was thinking of going with a RAID 1 backup solution, like G-Safe. Or would you recommend just going with time capsule?

Can I use the external drive for time machine backup's as well as NAS?

 

[stridemat]

I use a time capsule, but it is basically the same thing as an airport with an external hard drive.

Yes you can use one external hard drive for Time Machine and as a NAS.

 

[pendo]

Cool thanks. I know I'm living 'risky' without having a backup solution right now, but I'd rather allocate my funds to a RAID solution. Depending on which company/product, I can get more redundancy for about the same cost as the time capsule.

I've read that LaCie products seem to be recommended here......there seem to be a ton of different products to choose from. Also, for time machine functionality, does the drive need to be a usb drive or can it connect to the airport extreme via ethernet?

 

[Richard1028]

I've read that LaCie products seem to be recommended......

You'll also find and equal number of lacie owners saying they're crap. Actually, insert any drive manufacturer and you'll hear it both ways.

I'm convinced they are all made by "Hop Sing" in a bootleg chinese sweat shop. Drives are so competitively priced it's a cut throat business.

 

[pendo]

You'll also find and equal number of lacie owners saying they're crap. Actually, insert any drive manufacturer and you'll hear it both ways.

I'm convinced they are all made by "Hop Sing" in a bootleg chinese sweat shop. Drives are so competitively priced it's a cut throat business.

lol....

ok, so what's a short list of 2 TB external drives in the $300-$500 range that I should be looking at.

 

[Richard1028]

ok, so what's a short list of 2 TB external drives in the $300-$500 range that I should be looking at.

It doesn't matter - just find a reputable seller with a great prices and a good return policy (like NewEgg).

My opinion? Get some big-assed internals and put them in your own multibay enclosure. The logic being that internal drives are meant to "stay" in the machine and there's really nothing to an enclosure. If *I* were making these things I'd sure as heck put a little extra effort into them just for that reason alone.