Two Macs.... One External

[billmister]

Hey Guys please give your point of view.

My wife (2011 iMac 1tb HD) and I (2009 MBP 500gb HD) had our own External. My wife's failed. I like my little WD passport external but would really like to use it to rip my Jiu Jitsu video's and have it connected to the tv. SOOoooooo

I purchase a 2TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro External Hard drive. So here is what i was planning.

1)have it connected via Firewire 800 to my wife's iMac. So it will back up using Time machine all the time. Then i will have another Firewire 800 port connected to the same Hard drive and use it to back up my computer to it as well via Time Machine.

So here is my questions.

Should I,
1-Partition the external Hard drive to 1TB each. One will be mine and one will he hers?

or

2-Don't partition. just plug in and let time mating create a .backup folder for each of us?

If her computer is asleep and i decide to back up. ONce i plug it in, i wonder if it will wake her computer. I don't mind, but just wondering if anyone knows this.

Please let me know you advise guys. Thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

You shouldn't have the same drive connected to two Macs simultaneously via Firewire. Instead, leave it connected to her iMac. Partition the drive, so when it mounts, it's two separate logical drives. Have her share your partition over your network, where you can access it. She can backup to her partition and you can backup to yours. I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner for creating and maintaining bootable backups, which TM can't do.

 

[old-wiz]

You absolutely should not attempt to connect one hard drive to two computers at the same time. For one thing, the interface won't do it.

Even if the interface was stupid enough to allow it, the result would be a mess. No ordinary HDD, without a very unusual interface, can be connected to two computers at the same time. Don't even think about it.

Just put it on one computer, partition it, and share the partition.

 

[billmister]

Hey guys i GREATLY appreciate your resonse. Perhaps i wrote it wrong but no, i do not want o connect them at the same time to back up. It will always be connected to my wires iMac. Then every friday i wanted to connect the other firewire 800 port to my macbook pro to back it up with time machine. I guess at that point it is connected at the same time. The only reason for this is to take advantage of the firewiree 800 speed.

GGJSTUDIOS- I totally get what you are saying, and it looks like thats a great idea. But i use time machine to restore certain files that i deleted. From the research i've done, CCC is AWSOME to back up ... CLONE you os and make it bootable. in case you need to replace your HD. However, although i would like to use that feature, i also like to restore certain files. Say i got two long video's that i made and find it just takes up space and delete it. In 2 weeks someone comes over and wants to see it. With time machine i can just restore that video, and all is well. Any thoughts?

2nd, I LOVE your idea about partitioning it, plugging it to hers for her 1tb partition, and the second partition she see's on her iMac, to SHARE IT in the network. Which i assume will allow me to back up my laptop... WIRELESSLY? If that's the case AWSOME!!!!!, but my only questions. Will i be backup up wirelessly thru time machine? Like i go to time machine preff. Select disk, and if that drive is shared on my the network, choose it, and BOOM. Correct?

3rd. Unless you have a better idea, i guess i can tell time mating to wirelessly back up my Home folder items limited to (DOCUMENTS, PICTURES, MUSIC, VIDEOS, DOWNLOAD, DESKTOP). This way CCC will Close my OS and everything plus my home directory. But it will be faster for me to wirelessly back up my personal files thru the network via Time machine.

I've also read threads where people use both. I mean, that would be awesome, but damn that would take up a lot of space from the Hard drive. Maybe i can create a CCC every month, and have the CCC option to delete any files NOT on my computer, since time machine will already have it, but then to do that i think it would be best to UNMOUNT it from my wires iMac
and only to mine for the CCC back up.

Old-wiz, I understand to partition it and share the partition. You mean on the network as GGJSUDIOS said right? wireless backups of my computer thru the network will be fast, but the first one will take a day I think. Currently i'm using 147GB out of 500.

Am i headed the right path? BTW guys i REALLY appreciate the time and answers. It really means a lot.

 

[old-wiz]

I'm not sure if the cloning apps (Carbon Copy Cloner/Super Duper) will work on a networked drive though.

I have several machines in my house, and I prefer just having separate drives to backup the systems. I have a large 2TB drive that I move from computer to computer and plug in and then do SuperDuper clone and then it goes into a fireproof box.

If the stuff you are backing up is important to you, then have more than one physical backup. If your backup drive fails you don't want to be up the creek; have a second one.

 

[TwitchOSX]

Time Mating. LOL

 

[GGJstudios]

However, although i would like to use that feature, i also like to restore certain files. Say i got two long video's that i made and find it just takes up space and delete it. In 2 weeks someone comes over and wants to see it. With time machine i can just restore that video, and all is well. Any thoughts?

CCC can do that, as well. You can archive previous versions of files, like TM's "roll back" (although not with the fancy interface). You can also restore any file or folder or group of files or folders you select. Just drag and drop. You're not limited to restoring an entire drive.

I'm not sure if the cloning apps (Carbon Copy Cloner/Super Duper) will work on a networked drive though.

http://www.bombich.com/ccc_features.html

With CCC, you can back up to a locally-attached hard drive, to a network volume, or to another Macintosh across your network or across the Internet.

 

[billmister]

So i've spend the whole day so far (7:58pm eastern) reading up on this. CCC is great as a cloner. Here is what i believe i want to get done.

I will partition the External to TWO 1tb of storage. Connect it via Firewire800 to her iMac and use time machine to begin backup up all her stuff as normal. Or even CCC. I'm new to it and don't want to mess up her backups. My laptop is the main concern.

Then i use the second partition and share it on the network. I will start up CCC and choose to back up to clone it every night. Also to archive all the deleted things. because when i delete something, there is always a 70% change i need it again.

My 2 CONCERNS.

1-Can I make my first backup to that from my macbook pro wired with a firewire 800 cable and once done CONTINUE MAKING FUTURE BACKUPS TO THE SAME BACKUP wirelessly to CCC?

2-If i have CCC clone my device every night, but decide not to use my laptop one night, will it just do it the next night?

I was going to use Time machine but after reading, many use CCC, because it's faster. My main concern was the ability to be able to browse thru the files, and also, being able to clone keeping my deleted items every night. Sort of like time machine.

I feel time machine is unstable to use wirelessly and also take a LONG time. If you guys recommend it, i guess i will get my wife to use CCC to clone her iMac making it bootable and to do regular clones with keeping deleted items.

What happens when the drive becomes full?? Do I have to manually delete older once, or what?

 

[GGJstudios]

1-Can I make my first backup to that from my macbook pro wired with a firewire 800 cable and once done CONTINUE MAKING FUTURE BACKUPS TO THE SAME BACKUP wirelessly to CCC?

You should be able to. I'm sure that scenario has been asked before. If you want to find anything about CCC, just do a Google search for what you're looking for and include this after your search terms: site:bombich.com

That will restrict your search to their site, so you should find most or all of what you want to know.

2-If i have CCC clone my device every night, but decide not to use my laptop one night, will it just do it the next night?

Yes, you can schedule backups to occur on a schedule, but skip any particular backup if the backup drive isn't available.

I feel time machine is unstable to use wirelessly

Any backup that's done wirelessly may take longer, depending on wireless interference, network speed and load, etc. I wouldn't call it unstable, however, as both TM and CCC run checks to ensure the backup file's integrity.

If you guys recommend it, i guess i will get my wife to use CCC to clone her iMac making it bootable and to do regular clones with keeping deleted items.

Yes, I do recommend it. Once you set it up properly (their site and Help feature will document how), the backups run automatically.

What happens when the drive becomes full?? Do I have to manually delete older once, or what?

Try finding that answer by searching their site, using the instructions above.