My trusty Core Duo iMac has become the Kitchen computer and I want to use it along with an external HD to make backups of my MBP. I'm just wondering what the best way to go about this would be. I know I can enable file sharing and do it that way, but there's is the problem of the iMac going to sleep. How does one deal with sleeping when using a mac as a home server?
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Using iMac as a "Time Capsule"
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BlueRevolution
macrumors 603
One leaves the computer running 24/7. -> System Preferences -> Energy Saver -> Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for: (never)
Yeah, I figured. I was hoping there was some way to wake it up remotely. Wouldn't leaving it running 24/7 shorten the life of the HD considerably? I suppose I could set it so that it sleeps at night but stays awake during the day or something like that.
That problem is secondary to my new one. I decided to do the initial backup wired because it would have taken an obscene amount of time over the network. I then tried tried backing up wirelessly and it told me that the HD wasn't properly formatted to work with Time Machine (which is ********). After messing with it a bit, Time Machine no longer sees tho initial backup I've made and tries to start all over. Surely there is a way to point Time Machine in the right direction.
I love my Macs, but this is some retarded ********.
That problem is secondary to my new one. I decided to do the initial backup wired because it would have taken an obscene amount of time over the network. I then tried tried backing up wirelessly and it told me that the HD wasn't properly formatted to work with Time Machine (which is ********). After messing with it a bit, Time Machine no longer sees tho initial backup I've made and tries to start all over. Surely there is a way to point Time Machine in the right direction.
I love my Macs, but this is some retarded ********.
BlueRevolution
macrumors 603
Ok, one final question then. Should I or should I not select the option to "put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible"?
akutad
macrumors regular
The answer is yes. Ironically I have an iMac core duo in my kitchen as well. I put computer to sleep never and put the HDD to sleep after 15min. Screen saver goes to black after 15 min. So..... it doesn't sleep and the display and harddisk drops down in voltage for energy saver.
When you log in when you log in remotely on your mbp there will be a slight lag because the HDD has to power up.
DoFoT9
macrumors P6
OP: i think the reason why it wont recognise the Time Machine backup is because you have changed interfaces. i am fairly certain that over ethernet it creates a disc image (dmg) to store the backup in.. and maybe over wireless it is trying to search for a folder? im not 100% sure but that could be the issue.
additionally: putting the HD to sleep is a great idea and wont effect the overall life of the computer at all 😀😀 i prefer to leave my older HDs running more often then not anyway, they love being used rather then not as they may seize up or something (it just seems to happen that way i dont know why).
anyway goodluck with it all, any more questions just ask 🙂
additionally: putting the HD to sleep is a great idea and wont effect the overall life of the computer at all 😀😀 i prefer to leave my older HDs running more often then not anyway, they love being used rather then not as they may seize up or something (it just seems to happen that way i dont know why).
anyway goodluck with it all, any more questions just ask 🙂
Ah, I was just a little confused. I wasn't sure if the HD going to sleep would affect my ability to connect to it from another computer on my network. TM does seem to treat wired and wireless backups differently. I'm going to see if my network might be the problem. It would literally take days to back up my 87 gigs of data over the network.
I hope I don't sound like too much of a fool. I've actually replaced the HD in my iMac if that helps my street-cred at all. 🙂
I hope I don't sound like too much of a fool. I've actually replaced the HD in my iMac if that helps my street-cred at all. 🙂
geoffreak
macrumors 68020
Not the case. I backup from my MBP to my Mac Mini (with Drobo) by wired and wireless without issue.
It creates the disk image in both cases.
The drive has to be formatted in HFS+ in order to work with Time Machine.
DoFoT9
macrumors P6
as we have seen from geoffreak, it doesnt really matter about wired vs wireless (apparently), come to think of it i do both as well (but to TC). but yea backing up 87GB would take a while, do you have 802.11n or just 802.11g?
also, putting the HD to sleep doesnt effect anything, if you try to connect it will simply wake up (after say 10seconds of 'warm up' time. 🙂 easy.
haha nah your fine! replacing the Imacs HD really boosts you up in the charts 😛 most people dont know what a HD is! they think it is that box thing that you plug everything into and stuff 😉
ok fair enough, was just putting an idea out there..
YES! something i can say your wrong on!! thats not true, it can copy to say an NTFS drive over a shared network.. or even FAT32 over the network (not recommended though!).
geoffreak
macrumors 68020
I should have added that this is only for local drives. But seeing how the OP is using an iMac and will likely want to back this up too, I figured I should leave that part out.😉
Yes, a FAT32 drive isn't recommended to to the 4GB file limit which could cause problems with large files being backed up.
Are people really desperate to prove me wrong here?😕
I have a linksys wrt110. Linksys seems to want to make you think it's n but I'm pretty sure it's actually g. Both computers are connected wirelessly to the router and the external disk is connected via usb. I don't know if there's a setting that needs to be tweaked on the router or what. After two hours of TM backing up only 1GB was done, so I aborted. After that, I tried backing up with the disk plugged into my MBP and it was done in an hour or so. I then tried backing up again over the network and it gave me an error saying that drive wasn't correctly formatted to be used with TM. The drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). With the wireless backups TM creates a sparsebundle and with the wired backup it creates a folder.
Is this perhaps just not a good method to use?
DoFoT9
macrumors P6
yea fair point 🙂
haha you proved me wrong so i only thought it logical to do the same back 😛
that seems like a fine method! many many people use it but it seems that the linksys router might be the problem. if geoffreak is able to do it via both wired and wireless (and i presume that he has a router other then linksys) then i see no problem with it.
but as you said, wireless creates a dmg, wired creates a folder.. im not sure about that thought as geoffreak seemed to not agree. the fix doesnt seem clear yet im afraid.