Hi All... Has anybody tried using the Time Machine on Leopard together with an NAS (Network Attached Storage)? Does this configuration works? I'm planning to get an NAS soon for my LAN and am planning to use it as a backup drive as well. Cheers.
I'm using it with my Netgear NV+ with 4x750GB. It works fine, though you have to go thru some terminal commands to setup TimeMachine to see the NAS. Also, it's probably a good idea to create your own sparseimages for the backups with size limits so that your TimeMachine backups don't consume your whole NAS. This is also done via terminal commands. -Mike
Im using also a ready nas and time machine http://www.readynas.com/?p=253 check this out. have a good day
I am trying to set up Time Machine via NAS. But I got a hitch with just basic networking. My 1tb hdd was NTFS formatted. i couldn't erase it directly on my Mac. As per Google search, I just created partitions using MAC OS Journaled. That seem to work and file transfers to each partition via usb direct connection was flawless. I then the NAS up using my Windows 2000 laptop. I installed Macdrive 6 and that revealed the drives through the network. I can mount all partitions. However when I copy a large video fil to one, it takes forever and freezes the machines. When I copy small files, no problem. What do I do now? Do I have to get rid of NTFS completely? How? Is Fat 32 possible on a 1tb hdd? I have not even reached setting up Time Machine for NAS because of this hitch.
Isn't time machine a NAS already. I think it has a USB port that can power a USB enclosed harddrive. Then all you have to do is get a self powered USB hub if you want more that one drives attached to Time Machine. Time Machine should be able to mount the drives on the network
Time Machine is the Apple backup application. I hope somebody with experience on this can chime in on what I can do.
@Mad Mac: What do you mean that you could not erase it directly from your Mac? Did you create new partitions in addition to the NTFS partition already on the disk? If you really plan on using the entire disk for Time Machine, then the entire disk should be re-formatted. You can create partitions if you wish (NTFS/MacOS). I don't recommend FAT32 though as it uses space inefficiently. BTW, how is the disk attached the network? You mentioned that you attached the drive via USB direct on your Mac to test the copying to/from the partitions.
I cannot select the main volume ang erase it since it is ntfs. I have partitioned it using mac OS Journaled and it worked as a usb drive. My server is an old IBM laptop with Windows 2000. I installed MacDrive 6 in it be able to read the drive. I can mount it on my Mac via wifi. But a few seconds into a 350mb file transfer to the drive the Mac and the Windows freezes. Small files transfer ok.
@MadMac: That's weird. Did you use Disk Utility (from the Utilities folder in the Applications folder)? I bought a WD 650GB Drive that was formatted as NTFS. When I opened Disk Utility, it was able to identify the detect the drive and I was able to select the NTFS volume, erase it and format it without any problems. Have you tried doing the reverse? I mean, using the Mac as your server? In my setup at home, the external drive is attached to the Mac desktop. Then I connect with my laptop (not Windows, though - it's also a Mac) to the external drive via wi-fi (Airport). I use Time Machine to back up the laptop and also access shared files on the external drive without issues.
That's exactly what I did with this Seagate FreeAgent Desk. But it won't erase the main volume. I can however create MAC OS Journaled partitions. I really want to keep my 3 Macs mobile. So the IBM has to be the server. But for what its worth, can Time Machine access this hard disk attached via usb on another Mac when File Sharing is activated? Or do I have to go through the tedious voodoo of a NAS setup?
So you still have an NTFS volume on the disk? But wasn't the whole disk formatted as NTFS? If so, I assume that you shrank the NTFS partition so you could create the MacOS Journaled Partitions? Yes, Time Machine can access the drive attached via USB on another Mac when File Sharing is activated. That's how I've setup my Time Machine.
It seems yes, I still have NTFS in there. Just shrunk. I do see a Ghostbuster logo accross an unidentified drive in Time Machine Preferences. I can't isolate the NAS problem. Is it formatting or MacDrive 6. I need to understand why it tranfers small files but not a 350mb one.
I think the main problem is you are trying to share your drive via the IBM notebook. What OS are you running on the IBM? Windows? Linux? I'll assume you are using Windows since you are using MacDrive. Your drive does not necessarily need to be formatted for HFS (Mac OS Journaled or Non) as a lot of NASes like my ReadyNAS usually use a EXT3 file system if they are linux based. The important thing is that your server is capable of sharing the hard drive via AFP. If you are accessing the share via SMB (Windows uses this networking), then you may encounter problems when the sparsebundle is created for your backup. MacDrive allows you to read HFS formatted discs but I do not think it adds AFP support to Windows. My ReadyNAS supports both AFP and SMB (also called CIFS). I do my TimeMachine backups exclusively via AFP and have had no problems.
Another option that isn't too expensive is to setup the hard drive and connect to an Airport Extreme and share it via AirDisk. You should be able to run TimeMachine backups to it since Airport uses AFP for file sharing. Please note, not all models of the Airport Extreme support sharing of hard drives. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2421 The Airport Express does not support sharing of HDDs via its USB port. It is only for printers.
