Time Capsule vs WD Mybook World - for Mac + PC

[higgalls]

Hey,

I am needing to sort out a backup solution for my laptop and my wifes.

My laptop is a Macbook Pro (10.5.4), but my wife's is a Win XP laptop.

I have been looking at either the 500GB Time Capsule, or the 500GB Western Digital Mybook World. Both devices will connect onto my existing network.

Since I am using both Mac OS and Win XP, what would be the best solution? I don't care that much about the Time Capsule having an N router in it (it is a bonus, but backup is the main concern).

The thing that is making me think twice is that the Time Capsule is about double the price of the Mybook World.

Has anyone had experience with how either of those backup devices work in both Mac OS and Win XP at the same time?
What XP software do you use for the backup?

Thanks.

 

[dibara2003]

IIRC, time capsule made me reformat my hard drive... i don't know how nicely that would play with your windows machines. anyhow, i say just go with the mybook due to the price factor and your non-need of a router. the warranty on the mybooks are longer as well.

 

[Phil A.]

I don't think you can use Time Machine on this drive unless you either plug it in via USB (in which case it is slower than a standard USB drive by some reports, and really defeats the point of a NAS), or do some hacking (is that really something you want to do with your backup solution)

 

[dibara2003]

I don't think you can use Time Machine on this drive unless you either plug it in via USB (in which case it is slower than a standard USB drive by some reports, and really defeats the point of a NAS), or do some hacking (is that really something you want to do with your backup solution)

yeah, i totally forgot about that. well... an airport extreme and external hard drive is still a cheaper solution

 

[higgalls]

yeah, i totally forgot about that. well... an airport extreme and external hard drive is still a cheaper solution

Can't you simply do a command from terminal to allow it to use unrecognised Hard Drives, and therefore do it over the network? (Im sure I read that somewhere).

 

[higgalls]

Can't you simply do a command from terminal to allow it to use unrecognised Hard Drives, and therefore do it over the network? (Im sure I read that somewhere).

Can anyone confirm that what I remember reading is true? I was hoping to buy a solution tomorrow.

Thanks.

 

[Phil A.]

Can anyone confirm that what I remember reading is true? I was hoping to buy a solution tomorrow.

Thanks.

Yes you can, but you need to stop and think for a moment before you do: A backup is intended to protect your data against disasters and user error. Do you really want to use an unsupported hack to get your backup working on a drive it was never intended to work with? There is obviously a reason that Time Machine won't use network drives (except on a Mac and AirDisk) and personally, I wouldn't want to trust my backups to something that wasn't supported...
After all that, if you really want to do it, you can use the following command from a terminal window

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

I would strongly recommend against it though!

 

[higgalls]

Yes you can, but you need to stop and think for a moment before you do: A backup is intended to protect your data against disasters and user error. Do you really want to use an unsupported hack to get your backup working on a drive it was never intended to work with? There is obviously a reason that Time Machine won't use network drives (except on a Mac and AirDisk) and personally, I wouldn't want to trust my backups to something that wasn't supported...
After all that, if you really want to do it, you can use the following command from a terminal window

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

I would strongly recommend against it though!

But it would simply be unsupported because it isn't an Apple product, and if you have any problems with it, then Apple won't help you (which is fair enough). And besides, you will know whether the backup works or not, so your not really playing a gamble with your backup solution. If it came to the time when you needed to restore data, and it was ONLY then that you could see if any backup worked, then yes that is a gamble, but since you can find out whether backups have been working as they go, then not so much of a gamble. But your comments have been appreciated and I have put them into consideration.


WD have released an update for the MyBook World for it to be used with Mac OS, but I am not quite sure what it does yet. Does anyone know?

 

[higgalls]

WD have released an update for the MyBook World for it to be used with Mac OS, but I am not quite sure what it does yet. Does anyone know?

Sorry - I have just realised that the Firmware update is only for the Studio and the Home editions, and NOT the World edition.