Time Machine backups on NAS

[e-r-a-n]

Hello everyone,
I have issues with time machine.
the configuration at the moment in my house is 2 macbook air with 128gb ssd each, a fritzbox 7390 router and a printer (HP Officejet J5700 series) and 2 HDD (1TB each, NTFS both) both attached as storage devices.
I can access them via smb://fritz.box and use for storage.
but i also want to use them for backups.
The easiest way would be if the fritzbox would support HFS..but its not, only ntfs / fat32.
Is there any way to still be able to backup and restore from that drive?
i really like minimal amount of items on my work desk and prefer the hard drive as it is right now, somewhere out of my sight with the rest of wires and cables

 

[maflynn]

I would look for a NAS that officially supports Time Machine backups. I use QNAP and Synology offers NAS units that support Time Machine backups.

I'm afraid if your current NAS is set to NTFS and software doesn't support apple's protocols needed for TM you'll not be able to use Time Machine

 

[d21mike]

I decided to go with the Time Capsule from Apple. I was using Synology until Mountain Lion and it stopped working. I expect they will fix it in the new release but for my I wanted a solid solution so decided to go this route.

The NAS Device must support the Apple Time Machine Specific Protocol to work.

Good Luck.

 

[e-r-a-n]

Thats too bad for me.
time capsule is an expensive solution for me.
though its 2TB but 300$ is too much..especially when i already have all the hardware - 2TB hdd & expensive router.

I guess Ill do it manually once a week in the old fashioned way..usb cable
So one last question, lets say 128gb is a bit tied up for me, if i wont turn off the local TM backups it'll fill up my disk quite fast.
Once I sync with TM external hdd, does it moves the entire local backups to the external hdd?

 

[blevins321]

Alternately, assuming that the router provides base read/write access to your Mac, you could CarbonCopyClone your Mac on a scheduled basis to a sparesebundle disk image. Pretty easy to setup. Won't keep a history like Time Machine, but rather an exact backup at the point of the latest run. The image wouldn't be bootable, but you can restore it using the Disk Utility provided via OSX Boot Disk or the Recovery Partition.

 

[Weaselboy]

Once I sync with TM external hdd, does it moves the entire local backups to the external hdd?

Nope... they stay there. If you want to zero local backups out just turn Time Machine off then back on again and it will reset to zero.

 

[d21mike]

Thats too bad for me.
time capsule is an expensive solution for me.
though its 2TB but 300$ is too much..especially when i already have all the hardware - 2TB hdd & expensive router.

I guess Ill do it manually once a week in the old fashioned way..usb cable
So one last question, lets say 128gb is a bit tied up for me, if i wont turn off the local TM backups it'll fill up my disk quite fast.
Once I sync with TM external hdd, does it moves the entire local backups to the external hdd?

You have 2 1tb drives so not sure I understand your question. What do you use your external 1tb drives for now? You could take 1 of them and then format it to HFS+ and then connect directly to each MAC AIR once per week to do a backup. The first backup will backup the full disk (max size is 128gb - check actual). Then each week it will backup only what has changed on each one until it is full. That is not that much. Or you could use 1 for each MAC AIR if not using them for any thing else.

 

[e-r-a-n]

Well, To be honest Im not quite familiar with the time machine abilities.
but it seems as a good suggestion, that you for that info
I read a bit in their website. Couldn't really understand few things:
I know time capsule knows to take advantage of power nap. so is carbon copy cloner?
It supports only 1 history point, correct?
Can I browse that backup in any way, lets say its entirely stored on that NAS of mine, can another user in my network browse the backup (from win/mac) and see documents/files in it?
Can I have partial restore of settings/data for specific apps/locations?

I also found there's SuperDuper. How is that option comparing?

Weaselboy, too bad, I would think it makes alot of sense, for atleast most of the backups besides the last one.

d21mike, they're used for media storing & backups of other stuff. The cable option is of course an option, I just like it the way it is right now - they're both stuck somewhere at the corner with the cables..keeping everything clean and simple. I guess I'll either try CCC or SuperDuper or just use time machine with USB cable. I'll see what goes best