USB Splitter

[Corey Grandy]

I just got a MacBook Pro recently and am looking to have it backed up via Time Machine. I already have an iMac and a 500GB External HD that I am using to back that up. I think 500GB would be plenty to back up both machines, but I don't have any idea how to have both of the computers using the drive at the same time.

My first idea was to do it over my wireless network, but for some reason the wireless in this particular room is not very reliable and so it does not seem to work very well.

My most recent idea was to have them both connected via USB, but I would imagine I would need a double male splitter and I'm not sure if they exist, or are reliable if they do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gsahli]

You can't use a "splitter." If you can't use the network, you'll have to move connection from one to the other.

Maybe we can help with the network problem. Have you used iStumbler yet to see if there's interference?

 

[martinX]

I think 500GB would be plenty to back up both machines.

No it's not. Time Machine isn't just a single backup, but it performs incremental backups and versioning.

"As big as possible" is the answer to the question: how big should my Time Machine drive be?

 

[Corey Grandy]

You can't use a "splitter." If you can't use the network, you'll have to move connection from one to the other.

Maybe we can help with the network problem. Have you used iStumbler yet to see if there's interference?

I have. Everything checks out. It should work fine, it just..doesn't. Can't figure it out.

If not a splitter, I understand a switch is probably the next best option? Instead of simultaneous access, the two computers will both have the drive plugged in but will only be able to use it when they are selected via the switch. That would work fairly well, I believe.

No it's not. Time Machine isn't just a single backup, but it performs incremental backups and versioning.

"As big as possible" is the answer to the question: how big should my Time Machine drive be?

This is irrelevant. I never asked if it was a large enough size. I have been backing my iMac up on this drive for 2 years and right now it tops out with about 186 GB of disk space used. I'm not keep backups from years ago, and OS X is very good at selectively deleting older backups if it becomes full anyway. I know how Time Machine works and what I'll need/can afford. Don't need help there.