Time Machine Now Works with Airport Extreme USB Drives

[NicoMan]

Journaled or not journaled???

I am not doing partitions, but just used Mac OS extended and it worked. I was just getting ready to research the difference between journaled, etc.

Are you sure it wasn't journaled? Because I have tried to format the drive both ways: journaled and not journaled. I then unmount the drive, plug it into the AEBS, within a few seconds the AEBS shows in the finder of all my computers, but the drive still doesn't show in the Time Machine prefs. You need to connect to the drive first (if you hadn't done it before). And then it shows in the Time Machine prefs, but (in my case) only if I enabled journaling on the drive when I formatted it.

In my experience, only a journaled drive will show up in the Time Machine prefs. Anybody else?

 

[BLACK MAC]

How can I get account management to work with Time Machine backups for multiple computers? I just would like more protection if possible.

 

[bacaramac]

I wonder how many people sold their Airport Extreme for a Time Capsule, only for this to come out. I know at leas one person who did.

+1 one here. Although I wanted TC, I probably would have waited to buy it if this had come out a few days earlier. Oh well, happy with TC so far (and it's quiet).

 

[bacaramac]

Are you sure it wasn't journaled? Because I have tried to format the drive both ways: journaled and not journaled. I then unmount the drive, plug it into the AEBS, within a few seconds the AEBS shows in the finder of all my computers, but the drive still doesn't show in the Time Machine prefs. You need to connect to the drive first (if you hadn't done it before). And then it shows in the Time Machine prefs, but (in my case) only if I enabled journaling on the drive when I formatted it.

In my experience, only a journaled drive will show up in the Time Machine prefs. Anybody else?

I am sure, I specifically tried this because I didn't know what it was. I just tried this with a cheap Maxtor 100GB drive to make sure it worked before I did anything with my other drives. My opinion is this setup process is not consistent and it may be the drives, etc that cause differences between users.

 

[PhilaScott]

will it only work with the new AEBS or will it work with G ones too?

Doesn't work with mine...

 

[pagansoul]

I knew they were going to fix this. I am one of those people who have AE and decided not to get TC but instead purchased 1TB drive and case for backup and just waited. I currently just use TM with an external 500gb HD for my main drive on my Mac Pro directly connected. Now I can cover my other 3 drives using my AE.

 

[Digitalclips]

At least for me it was a no go on backing up first with firewire. I'd already been doing that to my external HD for the last several months. When I loaded the new firmware, it didn't recognize the old backup and told me that I needed 40+GB to back up my HD onto my 80GB partition (which already had 40+ GB on it). I basically erased the partition and started over. Not that big of a deal to erase everything since I didn't need that archive, but a pain to have to do the initial back up again (which it is still doing after 10+ hours). My suggestion is to hook up your computer via ethernet to do the initial back up since it could take forever to do it wirelessly.

But ... once done and the drive relocated to AE it won't use the initial back up and starts over ... my question is is there away to make it use the initial back up already done (how ever it was done)?

 

[TheSpecialist]

You are one of the smarter, and at least you don't whine. Good job, I'm glad that you can backup wireless now. Have fun!

I knew they were going to fix this. I am one of those people who have AE and decided not to get TC but instead purchased 1TB drive and case for backup and just waited. I currently just use TM with an external 500gb HD for my main drive on my Mac Pro directly connected. Now I can cover my other 3 drives using my AE.

 

[Dimwhit]

As the owner or a MacBook Air, I must say -- this is great news.

One question about this for you experts out there...

I currently have two HDs connected to my Express Base Station (via USB HUB). One of them is for Time Machine backups (which is working properly), and the other contains my iTunes library (I keep it on an Air Disk to save room on my tiny internal hard drive).

The thing I'm worried about is the possibility of the drive containing my iTunes library failing. Is there a way of having my Time Machine drive include the Air Disk iTunes drive in the backup? So far as I can tell, this isn't possible when they're both connected to the base station.

Thanks, friends!

I honestly don't know if you can set TM to do this for you automatically. However, you can always manually copy your iTunes library over to the TM backup drive. If you don't change your library often, you won't have to do that often, either. But if nothing else, that will work in a pinch.

 

[rvcontre]

New option

Now I only wish there were some way to back up your mac with a hard wired option without having to go through an AE. You could even use this device as extra space that would be outside of the hard drive in your computer. Like some sort of outside hard drive that plugged directly into your computer. Make that possible, Apple, and I'll be impressed.

 

[bilbo--baggins]

+1 one here. Although I wanted TC, I probably would have waited to buy it if this had come out a few days earlier. Oh well, happy with TC so far (and it's quiet).

I wasn't going to buy a TC purely because Apple had screwed us over by not fixing the Airport Extreme. Not until they proved they stood by their products and (eventually) got them working as advertised.

 

[diamond.g]

Another poster mentioned SOX, I am wondering. If Apple never said that TM would work with the AEBS then why didn't they charge for this new feature? Is everyone just counting this as a bug and saying that the AEBS was supposed to always work with TM?

 

[Tosser]

Now I only wish there were some way to back up your mac with a hard wired option without having to go through an AE. You could even use this device as extra space that would be outside of the hard drive in your computer. Like some sort of outside hard drive that plugged directly into your computer. Make that possible, Apple, and I'll be impressed.

Mwuahaha!!
Yes, that seems like a good idea. I wonder why noone ever thought of that?

 

[Tosser]

Another poster mentioned SOX, I am wondering. If Apple never said that TM would work with the AEBS then why didn't they charge for this new feature? Is everyone just counting this as a bug and saying that the AEBS was supposed to always work with TM?

Because SOX with regards to the paid updates on the Touch is merely the excuse used by the Apple-fanatics. It was never about SOX to begin with.

 

[bluefido]

Time Machine

I think most people who are using Time Machine for the first time will get frustrated with the initial backup. Trust me. It gets much better after that. I have been using Time Capsule and Time Machine for a while now and find it the most unobtrusive way for me to back up my files. I used to forget about backing up, but now I don't even think about it. Maybe I'll get another HD to connect to Time Capsule, but right now I don't see the need.

 

[ilogic]

I have a problem I hope can be hacked or something....

Here's the thing: I have a MacBook, so I'm a fan of mobility. But, say I want to use Time Machine on the move. I have to wait until I am hooked up to my external hard drive, which isn't the portable kind. Is there any way to access it over the Internet if it's hooked up to my AirPort Extreme?

Yes there is, Google, AIRDISK over internet, or Access Airdisk remotely...

but if you want to do Time Machine access?, thats a little harder, i'm not sure if that is available look it up. I'm thinking VPN if it is possible... try googling Time Machine over Internet

 

[NicoMan]

I don't want to burst anybody's bubbles, but I haven't experienced any success with this. It's no different for me from before the software/firmware update. My USB drive does not show up in Time Machine until after I manually mount it in Finder. Of course, the drive has an existing Time Machine backup on it already, so maybe I need to reformat the drive before this actually works as people are saying it does. So far, no go here.

You definitely need to 'mount' the drive first, in my experience. I don't know if that's the expected behaviour (I think it is). BUT (and that's the big BUT) it looks like what has been fixed with this AEBS software update is the overall reliability of the AirDisk functionality, which means that you don't need to manually unmount the drive every time you put your computer to sleep. Wake up from sleep and the AirDisk is in your finder, connected and functional. That's a big difference. AirDisk was totally unusable until now, IMHO.

 

[drlunanerd]

Now I only wish there were some way to back up your mac with a hard wired option without having to go through an AE. You could even use this device as extra space that would be outside of the hard drive in your computer. Like some sort of outside hard drive that plugged directly into your computer. Make that possible, Apple, and I'll be impressed.

I've had a few drinks at lunchtime, but you are joking right?

 

[W1LLk]

I don't want to burst anybody's bubbles, but I haven't experienced any success with this. It's no different for me from before the software/firmware update. My USB drive does not show up in Time Machine until after I manually mount it in Finder. Of course, the drive has an existing Time Machine backup on it already, so maybe I need to reformat the drive before this actually works as people are saying it does. So far, no go here.

did you do the firmware update through airport as well? Thats separate from the software update.

Then you go into finder and simply navigate to the drives under your base station and they should populate in Time Machine.

 

[skinnylegs]

What exactly is AirDisk?

 

[EagerDragon]

Concerned

I am a bit concerned about some of these changes:
1) Apple does not yet have a statement that Time Machine can use an AirDisk
2) The Airport does not have a statement that the AirDisk can be used with TM
3) TM records into the disk differently when connected directly to a USB drive, it creates a series of folders and stores the backup in a folder with the machine name.
4) TM when connected to a drive via AirDisk, skips the creation of the directory structure and instead it writes the backups at the root level of the drive
5) TM is unable to take into consideration the previous backups that were created when the drive was directly connected to the Mac and does not attempt to convert the old backup to the new format (sparse tree).

Before you answer, I understand things are working, but the big question in my mind is: Is this what Apple intended, for the two methods to produce so completely different results? and Is the fact that is working an accident given that Apple has yet to post the capability?

My backups are very important to me, this makes me nervous.

 

[W1LLk]

i'm guessing that yeah, if the AEBS is not running your network but extending it or bridging it, you'd need to click the "I have an exisiting"

Actually, No, the process resets the base station, he needs to tell it to create a new network, all of the settings will be saved, but it needs to know to start over as the base, even in a WDS as other express stations are merely "repeating" the signal.

After telling it to start a new network it will lose the IP from before, so it might be a good idea to reset the modem (while airport unplugged), then after it has captured a new IP - plug airport back in and it will acquire the new address for you.

 

[W1LLk]

oops

 

[W1LLk]

What exactly is AirDisk?

Time Capsule
It is an Airport Extreme with the HD built in, so you don't need to buy an external one. Works for some people, doesn't for others.

Airdisk
It is an Airport Extreme with your own external HD plugged into the USB port in the back (hubs work too) and the disk becomes available over the network via wifi - sans Airdisk.

 

[ilogic]

Uh. Can't wait to try it when i get home