Still cant get Time Machine to see my Drobo...

[iMerlin]

Hey all, I just picked up a new MBP which I love already. This is my first Mac and Im already converted. Im trying to talk my wife into getting an Air or something else. Anyway... I recently got an Airport Extreme and a Drobo about a month before I got my MBP. I formatted the Drobo with a PC using MacDisk and then plugged it into my AEBSn. It saw the Drobo right away, and prompted me for a disk password to access it. I provided the info which I configured in the Airport Utility. My PC then displays the drive mounted and accessible. I can read and write to the Drobo from my PCs no problem. So all is well.
I get my MBP on Friday and start setting it up. Initial set up couldnt have been easier. So refreshing to not have to fight with my computer to get it to work.. So my MBP sees the Drobo but it is showing up as a Shared and not a device. I can read and write to the Drobo and I even put my iTunes Music folder on the Drobo and use that to feed my iTunes, working like a charm.

When I attempt to set up Time Machine, no such luck. It does not display my Drobo. Also, my Drobo isnt displayed when I go to Disk Utility I dont see the Drobo, which I think is ok because the Drobo isnt locally mounted.

So anyway, anyone have any ideas why I cant point Time Machine to my Drobo? I dont think the Drobo is the problem cause I can read and write to it without issue. Is there a way to mount my Drobo so its not a share but instead a device?

Thanks all.

 

[Bunsen]

I believe Time Machine requires backup disks to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using the GUID partition map. It has to do with the way the file system keeps track of which files have changed, and the way it uses symbolic links to only store one copy of each file. You may need to reformat the Drobo using your mac to make sure the partition table and the format are correct.

We just got a Drobo and a Drobo share to use as a backup in our office (mixed platforms), but I haven't had a chance to set it up yet. I think we are going to have to format it FAT32 to be compatible with windows, so we will be using Chronosync instead of Time Machine for our Mac backups.

 

[iMerlin]

I believe Time Machine requires backup disks to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using the GUID partition map. It has to do with the way the file system keeps track of which files have changed, and the way it uses symbolic links to only store one copy of each file. You may need to reformat the Drobo using your mac to make sure the partition table and the format are correct.

We just got a Drobo and a Drobo share to use as a backup in our office (mixed platforms), but I haven't had a chance to set it up yet. I think we are going to have to format it FAT32 to be compatible with windows, so we will be using Chronosync instead of Time Machine for our Mac backups.

I think you are right Bunsen, thanks. I think I originally formatted it to HFS and not HFS+. I wonder if I can create a partition just for my Time Machine backups. I guess Ill have to copy everything on there to another drive in order to partition it, right? Or can I use disk utility to partition it without effecting the data already on there?

 

[skottichan]

I think you are right Bunsen, thanks. I think I originally formatted it to HFS and not HFS+. I wonder if I can create a partition just for my Time Machine backups. I guess Ill have to copy everything on there to another drive in order to partition it, right? Or can I use disk utility to partition it without effecting the data already on there?

Oh, you should be able to add a partition without effecting the data on the drive, with Disk Utility.

 

[iMerlin]

Oh, you should be able to add a partition without effecting the data on the drive, with Disk Utility.

I sure hope so!! I dont have a drive big enough to hold all of this data. Ill give this a try tonight when I get home. Thanks guys!

 

[iMerlin]

Well I emailed Drobo and according to them Time Machine does not support Non-Apple devices. He mentioned some hack but didnt provide details. So my only option would be to use a program like SuperDuper instead.

 

[pprior]

That is total nonsense. Time machine certainly does work with Drobo - I'm doing it myself. Mine does NOT show up as shared, that's where your problem is.

Are you running the drobo utility?

 

[iMerlin]

That is total nonsense. Time machine certainly does work with Drobo - I'm doing it myself. Mine does NOT show up as shared, that's where your problem is.

Are you running the drobo utility?

Well, I think its showing up shared cause its my AirDisk, right? I plugged it directly into the Mac and Time Machine found it right away. But when its on the AEBS it never sees it. Finder sees it as a shared and I cant figure out how to mount it as a regular device. So I figured I would try to format it just to be safe.

pprior, is yours hooked up to an Airport Extreme or plugged directly in?

 

[pprior]

Well, I think its showing up shared cause its my AirDisk, right? I plugged it directly into the Mac and Time Machine found it right away. But when its on the AEBS it never sees it. Finder sees it as a shared and I cant figure out how to mount it as a regular device. So I figured I would try to format it just to be safe.

pprior, is yours hooked up to an Airport Extreme or plugged directly in?

I apologize - I didn't see that you are plugging into the AE - mine is direct to my mac pro.

However you can use a HD mounted to the AE for time machine, I'm doing that for my kids imac. Have you been to the drobo forums - there you will find your answer I bet.

Sorry I misled you by my misreading of your original post.

 

[iMerlin]

I apologize - I didn't see that you are plugging into the AE - mine is direct to my mac pro.

However you can use a HD mounted to the AE for time machine, I'm doing that for my kids imac. Have you been to the drobo forums - there you will find your answer I bet.

Sorry I misled you by my misreading of your original post.

No problem at all. It happens.
I did go to Drobo forums, thats where I found a walk through on how to
format the Drobo using MacDisk and then how to hook it up to the AEBSn.

However, that walk through is what suggested I use HFS and not HFS+ and I think thats why Im having a problem with it now. Not to mention Im not sure how reliable MacDisk really is.

Well thanks for responding pprior, any help is better than no help at all.

 

[iMerlin]

I tried formatting my Drobo last night using Drobo dashboard and it told me to use the Mac OSX Disk Utility. So I tried that too and it told me I didnt have permission to do this. I am the admin on my laptop so why wouldnt I be able to format the Drobo?

 

[The Mad Hatter]

I tried formatting my Drobo last night using Drobo dashboard and it told me to use the Mac OSX Disk Utility. So I tried that too and it told me I didnt have permission to do this. I am the admin on my laptop so why wouldnt I be able to format the Drobo?

If you haven't solved your permission/formating problem yet, you might want to see what the read/write permissions are on the Drobo. You may have admin status on your laptop, but you formatted your Drobo via PC/MacDisk. Am I correct? ...and so, you may have assigned permissions (via you PC) that don't give you admin access on the Drobo.

Does that make sense?

HTH

 

[iMerlin]

If you haven't solved your permission/formating problem yet, you might want to see what the read/write permissions are on the Drobo. You may have admin status on your laptop, but you formatted your Drobo via PC/MacDisk. Am I correct? ...and so, you may have assigned permissions (via you PC) that don't give you admin access on the Drobo.

Does that make sense?

HTH

Yep, I formatted it originally with the PC using MacDisk. I will try to plug the Drobo directly into the PC and load up Drobo Dash and see if there is any kind of permission properties I can change, good suggestion. Thanks Mad.
I did however, plug it directly into the Mac and Drobo Dash told me there was a firmware update and a Drobo Dash update, I loaded them both up, rebooted the Drobo, plugged it back into the AEBS, rebooted the AEBS and now I can see the Drobo in Time Machine, it backs up and can restore no problems.
My main reason for wanting to format the Drobo was so I could create a partition just for Time Machine backups. But customer support over at Drobo is going to get me a script that supposedly limits the amount of space Time Machine can take up on my drive. They havent sent it over yet but so far they have been very responsive.

Thanks again

 

[CultHero]

did you ever get any resolution to this? I am having the same issue and don't want to reformat my 1.2 tb of data.

 

[SHIVERINGGOAT]

Drobo/Airport Extreme/Time Machine 3 Macs.

Hi Guys - can anyone help me?

I just bought a second Drobo to hang off my airport extreme to use as shared data in our house and to back up 3 macs using Time Machine.

I formatted the Drobo to 8GB partition HFS+ as I need to make sure I don't have to reformat it for a few years.
I want to allow around 1GB limits for each mac on Time Machine, this should be enough space.

Would you format partitions for each relevant mac to back up to?

any help would be appreciated as I have a headache with this!

Thanks shaun

 

[iMerlin]

Hi Guys - can anyone help me?

I just bought a second Drobo to hang off my airport extreme to use as shared data in our house and to back up 3 macs using Time Machine.

I formatted the Drobo to 8GB partition HFS+ as I need to make sure I don't have to reformat it for a few years.
I want to allow around 1GB limits for each mac on Time Machine, this should be enough space.

Would you format partitions for each relevant mac to back up to?

any help would be appreciated as I have a headache with this!

Thanks shaun

I was also concerned with the amount of space multiple machines would eat up. Drobo ended up sending me that script I mentioned above that limits the amount of space time machine can use. Its working out very well.
If you really want it partitioned, maybe just one partition for the backups and the other can be a shared drive?

 

[iMerlin]

did you ever get any resolution to this? I am having the same issue and don't want to reformat my 1.2 tb of data.

Hey Cult, sorry I missed your post. My resolution was the updates. I plugged the Drobo into my Mac and downloaded all available software updates, did the same for the Airport and rebooted everything, then went into the Airport Utility and configured the AirDisk and it saw the Drobo right away. Hope that helps.

If not, what exactly is your issue? Drobo not seen by Time Machine, or not seen as a shared drive at all? How is your Drobo formatted?