Time Machine and 2 Macs

[jmre5150]

I'm buying an iMac and already own a MBP. Now, I purchased a 1TB G-Tech from the Apple store. This will always be connected to my iMac, but not my MBP (for obvious reasons). However, I want Time Machine to back both up. How will this happen for my MBP (clearly TM will do this automatically for the iMac)? Will I have to plug it in each night an manually tell TM to do its thing? Or is there some other way?

I have read that the 1TB Apple TC is having major problems and lackluster reviews about its wireless backups. Not so sure I want to get a TC due to its hundreds of bad reviews on this function alone.

Please advise asap. I'm a click away from purchasing. If I need to rethink my purchase, give me some suggestions, and why.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DavidLeblond]

It's not exactly reliable. I had the exact same setup, a 750gb hard drive hooked into my iMac that my wife's MBP backed up to wirelessly. Appeared to be fine. Then one day she had to have her HDD wiped by an Apple Genius. Came home only to find that Time Machine had decided 10 days before that it didn't want to back up her laptop anymore. So she lost 10 days of work.

After I recovered her laptop I found that it wouldn't wirelessly back up at all. I didn't change anything. So now every once in awhile I have to unplug my external and hook it into her laptop in order to back it up. Which is a major pain.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I have a TC with an iMac G5, Alu iMac Rev A, and a MBP Penryn backing up to it and it works flawlessly save for the iMac G5. I don't worry too much about that and will eventually take it off of the TC since it's only 160GB and 40 or so are only being used and mostly by apps and the OS.

The only issue I have with the TC is that it's over WiFi so it's quite slow on the first backup.

For your situation, you will have to unplug the G-Tech from the iMac and attach it to the MBP, or connect the MBP to the iMac through WiFi and essentially work it like it were a TC.... backing it up through the iMac.

Backing it up over WiFi is very reliable, but you have to have a reliable router (the Time Capsule) and ensure that you fully backup all of your files, i.e. don't put your book to sleep while it's backing up since it will stop. And don't forget to keep it on the network when backing it up through the TC.

The other alternatives work just fine though, like getting a portable drive or a second full sized drive to hook the MBP up to. Which is what I may do for speed reasons.

 

[jmre5150]

Forgive my novice questions, but with the 1Tb HD, will I have to set it up so it recognizes my MBP seperate from my wife's iMac data being stored on there? never shared storage before.

In other words, when I periodically connect my MBP, will it know automatically that this data is seperate from my wife's? This is gonna be a pain, I can tell.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Forgive my novice questions, but with the 1Tb HD, will I have to set it up so it recognizes my MBP seperate from my wife's iMac data being stored on there? never shared storage before.

In other words, when I periodically connect my MBP, will it know automatically that this data is seperate from my wife's? This is gonna be a pain, I can tell.

No it won't be a pain for anyone. You don't have to separate the data, the file will have a different name and TM will know to put both backup files on the same TC drive.

All you will have to do is tell TM to backup to the TC. The hardest part for me was assigning a password to the HDD portion of the TC, since you don't want people having access to your backup file.

 

[jmre5150]

Wait, now I'm getting confused based on your reply.

I will only get the G-Tech (its coming with the iMac) and will not be getting the TC. (No reason to buy both, and I'm terrified of the TC's problems).

So, I'll just manually unplug the G-Tech from the iMac (which it always be attached to) and plug it into my MBP for periodic updating. Thats all? TM will know what to do?

If so, thats great. If not (you made mention of TC, so I'm a bit confused with the process), I'll have to figure something out.

by the way, that caricature of you looks strangely like a professor I have had in college. You're not a professor, are you?

 

[Digital Skunk]

Wait, now I'm getting confused based on your reply.

I will only get the G-Tech (its coming with the iMac) and will not be getting the TC. (No reason to buy both, and I'm terrified of the TC's problems).

So, I'll just manually unplug the G-Tech from the iMac (which it always be attached to) and plug it into my MBP for periodic updating. Thats all? TM will know what to do?

If so, thats great. If not (you made mention of TC, so I'm a bit confused with the process), I'll have to figure something out.

by the way, that caricature of you looks strangely like a professor I have had in college. You're not a professor, are you?

Sorry, I forgot that you weren't getting the TC.

You can just unplug and re-mount as far as I know. I personally haven't done this with an external drive, but there hasn't been a backup solution that I have used that locks out a drive from being used as a regular drive.... it's just not recommended.

Even the TC (sorry for bringing it up again) doesn't do that. You should be fine for putting the backups on one drive, also, TM names the backup file after your machine, so there is no over-writing.

I have never been a professor, sorry. I plan on being one, but have been in the industry for a while getting that "real world experience" to bring back to the classroom. In my opinion however, it's highly over-rated to do so right after you get your bachelors... I wish I'd had gotten my masters first, then went into the work world.

 

[DavidLeblond]

Wait, now I'm getting confused based on your reply.

I will only get the G-Tech (its coming with the iMac) and will not be getting the TC. (No reason to buy both, and I'm terrified of the TC's problems).

So, I'll just manually unplug the G-Tech from the iMac (which it always be attached to) and plug it into my MBP for periodic updating. Thats all? TM will know what to do?

You plug the external up to the iMac and the iMac will ask you if you want to use it for Time Machine. Say yes, and back up the iMac. Then you unmount and unplug the external from your iMac and hook it into the MBP. It will recognize that another computer has already backed up to it and create a separate folder for your MBP. Easy as pie.

 

[jmre5150]

Both you fine folks have been a big help. Thank you for being patient with me, and explaining yourselves fully. This is the kin d of post that should set an example for some other "less-to-the-point" posts out there.

 

[HLdan]

I'm sorry that the OP feels that way about the Time Capsule. I have the 1TB TC and it works flawlessly. I've had zero issues setting it up and backing up my iMac. It will indeed be a pain connecting his MBP to the G-Tech every time he wants to back it up. The nice thing about TC is each time you use your MBP TC will be silently backing it up without hassle.

I'm not sure where the OP saw "hundreds" of bad reviews of the TC, there aren't hundreds unless you are counting posts on public forums. I've read great reviews including my own experience.

Any HDD works great with TM but TC is made for notebooks or anything wireless.
Not everything said bad about something is true until you try it yourself. That's why there's more Mac users today because they decided not to listen to the naysayers.

 

[Digital Skunk]

....

Same here. I have three machines backing up to them flawlessly, with the only issue being that the backups are SO flawless and quite on my MBP that I forget that it's backing up and close the lid, or walk away from the TC.

I wouldn't do it anyother way IMHO... not to mention that two of the machines are iMacs that could have their own harddrive, but it was about the same price/cheaper to get the 1TB TC and kill two birds with one stone: back up every machine in the house sans the Power Mac G5 (2TB of disk space) and get an "N" router for the iMac and Penryn MBP.

 

[DavidLeblond]

I'm sorry that the OP feels that way about the Time Capsule. I have the 1TB TC and it works flawlessly. I've had zero issues setting it up and backing up my iMac. It will indeed be a pain connecting his MBP to the G-Tech every time he wants to back it up. The nice thing about TC is each time you use your MBP TC will be silently backing it up without hassle.

I'm not sure where the OP saw "hundreds" of bad reviews of the TC, there aren't hundreds unless you are counting posts on public forums. I've read great reviews including my own experience.

Any HDD works great with TM but TC is made for notebooks or anything wireless.
Not everything said bad about something is true until you try it yourself. That's why there's more Mac users today because they decided not to listen to the naysayers.

My wife's MBP backed up flawlessly via wifi for several months too. I looked back through the back up history and it did it every day. But then when it stopped, we had no idea and she lost data because of it. I know the TC is different but I'm pretty sure the issue existed in the Time Machine client, not in my iMac seeing how I could see the external HDD on the network but TM wouldn't back up to it. Therefore, I think you should be happy with your Time Capsule... but be vigilant. Keep an eye on those backups!

 

[distantdoc]

2 macs and a time capsule

Time capsule 101. How do I share files between the mbp and iMac with the TC. I am wireless at present and both computers work fine. I have a huge music library loaded from the iMac and want to be able to access it from the mbp. Probably a dumb question but I can't seem to find the simple answer I need.