Time Machine for two Macs via Airport Extreme - need help

[majkom]

hi guys, need help - i do plan to back up two macbooks on the hdd attached to airport extreme (6th gen - it is supported). My question is -will it work if I create 2 partitions - each for one mac (lets say tm1 and tm2) or it is not possible when using tm via airport and i have to use one partition for both backups? please help🙂

and which solution, if both are possible is better and why?? thx

 

[Weaselboy]

I have not tested it myself, but I don't see why having two partitions would not work. You will be able to see the volume you want in the TM disk selection box and just pick it.

You don't really have to do two partitions though. TM will just make a separate sparse bundle file for each backup and they can live together on the one partition.

The only thing I can see that is added by using two partitions is it give you some control over one or the other of the backups hogging up all the backup disk space if that is an issue for you.

 

[majkom]

thats exactly why do i ask, if it works with 2 separate partitions, i can select how big partition for each mac backup will be, just dont know if it works and if thats better solution than one partition😉

 

[deeddawg]

If it won't work that way, what's your alternative plan?

(point is why not simply try it and see if you can make it work? worst case you put up with a shared drive. Or if that is too much to bear, buy a separate time capsule or NAS that supports TimeMachine and back up the other mac there)

Just curious - why do you need to have them separated?

 

[Weaselboy]

thats exactly why do i ask, if it works with 2 separate partitions, i can select how big partition for each mac backup will be, just dont know if it works and if thats better solution than one partition😉

Okay... seeing as how we are buddies and all now, I just took an external drive I have with two partitions and attached it to my Time Capsule and yes both drives are available in the TM screen for use as backup. 😀

Backup and Other are the two partitions on the external attached to the Time Capsule USB port.

I do think two is better as it gives you control over how much space each backup uses.

 

[majkom]

man thx very much!

 

[ColdCase]

I used to partition drives for TM backups, but I found when the backup drive is sized more than double the combined drive sizes of machines being backed up, partitioning adds nothing except some complexity and constraints.

There are other ways to limit the size of the sparse bundle, forget the best methods off hand.

like: sudo hdiutil resize -size 250g

or as discussed here: http://pondini.org/TM/A8.html

Some when faced with mixed TM backups and user data used Disk Utility to create Disk images sized for the desired TM backup max and then mounted the images and pointed TH to it. Used to be useful if you wanted to encrypt the backups, as DiskUtility provides the capability to encrypt disk images.

Partioning will work, just saying that there are other methods available that don't lock the drive down so much. When you change your mind about what's the right partition size allocations, or add another computer, its reformat the entire drive time. Which may or may not be a big deal for you.