Buffalo LS NAS Drive, Time Machine, Thinning

I suspect part of this may have to go to the Buffalo forums. I have four shares on this, 2 with sparsebundles, each for a different Mac, and then a share each for iTunes and 'other' media.
First question regards the sparsebundle's type (I guess). Not sure how else to say it. My MBP backs up (via TM) to a share and in that is an icon named MBP_xxxxxxxxxxxx.sparesbunble. My other computer is a G4 Sawtooth and it backs up (via TM) to a share and on that share is a Folder named Sawtooth_xxxxxxxxxxxxx.sparsebundle. My question is how/why the difference between an icon and a folder sparsebundle. Is it possible I created the MBP sparsebundle in Disk Utility and the NAS drive created the other?
Months ago I searched for how to limit the size of sparesbundles and found plenty of info although much of it said the size limits would eventually 'break'. Is that still the case?
The NAS drive is a Buffalo Linkstation 1.5T and currently has 50G of space left. Each computer is using roughly 500G leaving the third 500G to all my media. I want to try and limit the sparsebundles to a percentage more than the drive being backed up. For instance the MBP drive is only 200G so maybe a 250 or 300G sparsebundle.
TMI probably - hope not. Thanks for any insights

Pondini wrote:
Are you sure it's really a folder, not just a misplaced icon?
The best answer is - No. No I'm not sure. All I can say is it looks like a folder as opposed to .... oops!!!
I posted this (OP) from the Sawtooth and on the Sawtooth, looking at the Buffalo Share point for the Sawtooth the post is accurate. There's a 'Folder' containing the bands etc.
Now however, on the MBP looking at the same share point (for the Sawtooth) there's a page icon with bent corner and some symbol on it - same as the MBP image stated originally. So strange.
No idea whats up with this. I went back to the Sawtooth and indeed it is still a Folder icon and clicking on it shows Bands, Backup.plist, Info.plist, Token (maybe not verbatim). Just saying I can't control click to show contents because - well, because they are right there in the folder.
As for size limiting. I have read your 'how to' related to size limiting. Have also read about opening the image and selecting 8000 bands at a time to 'dump' an image. If I wanted to thin an image to say the last months worth, is there a way to do that? If I could, then I would size limit the image and be done. As it is, the images are already quite a bit larger than I want. I only used 'percentage' as a means to an end, as a formula per se to pick a size in GB for the image (drive size plus 50% or something like that).
Thank you for the reply.

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hammer58 wrote:
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As I understand it, the original name and password were supplied by WD and stored on the NAS. Any changes would have been stored on the NAS. And resetting it would have to be done via the NAS.
I would think that there is some way to reset TM and start from scratch
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Hello,
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Do you still have the original System Reinstall DVD set that came with your Mac?
If you created that Lion external drive you have from YOUR Mac, when Lion was installed on it, and it also contains a Recovery HD partition you can use that to boot to the Recovery HD and reinstall Lion on the new drive. And or Clone that external to the new internal drive you installed.
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scardanelli wrote:
I've had a bunch of issues with my computer (you can look at some of my other questions on these forums) which, to my mind anyway, seemed to be finally given a diagnosis when my HD crashed. It may be paranoia but there have been enough problems that I'd rather do a clean install to be on the safe side.
I have an early 2011, shipped with Snow Leopard.
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I am trying to move my old external hard drive (time machine ) to a new one

I have tried to move my old external drive time machine to a new external drive:
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Backing up to a thumb drive - time machine doesn't delete older backups when it's full. I will have to erase and re-do the drive. Why?

Backing up to a thumb drive - time machine doesn't delete older backups when it's full. I will have to erase and re-do the drive. Why?

You are both right.
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I use Time Machine to wirelessly backup my MBA to a Buffalo NAS. It will work fine for weeks or months, then I will see the dreaded "Time Machine completed a verification of your backups. To improve reliability, Time Machine must create a new backup for you.” error. Of course this means I lose all my backups.
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I have a Synology 1511+ and had the same issue. Except my backups would only corrupt every month or two.
After lots of searching I found the issue is backing up over wifi to the NAS. I found the solution to this was to install a small app: Time Machine Scheduler (free).
It can be found here: http://www.klieme.com/TimeMachineScheduler.html
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Using a NAS as Time Machine Backup

Hello Apple Communty!
I just installed a new NAS system and everyting but time machine is working. I have been trying to create a sparse bundle to place on my drive so Time Machine Can find it.
Main point- How can I back up my mac to a hard drive on my NAS device?
When creating a disk image, I have to either place it first on an external and then move it to my NAS drive (I use an SSD, only 14GB free) but once on my NAS drive it wont mount.
The other method was placing the budle straight on my NAS when creating it. I got this error:
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Please follow these instructions:
Lion: Connecting to legacy (pre-Lion) AFP services - and Mac OS X (server):
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3258472

NAS and Time Machine

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Not really. It depends on what filesystems the NAS operating system supports as well as what transfer protocols are supported. Those products that specifically say they support AFP - Apple File Protocol - will work correctly with a Mac and many also will work with Time Machine. But if the product doesn't support AFP, then you will run into major issues due to differences in filesystems, and Time Machine will not recognize the NAS.
As for supporting multiple OSes you need to examine the specs for the device. It also may help to try downloading the user manual if the manufacturer puts it online.
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Can I use my Buffalo Link station with Time Machine?

I know this has been asked over time, but I cant find a clear answer. I have a two month old MacBook Pro with 10.5.5. Can I use Time Machine with my Buffalo NAS Link Station. And if so, how? I currently have the Buffalo attached to my wireless router. Thanks all!

the clear answer is that this configuration is not supported. the only supported backup to a NAS is to a Time Capsule. there are hacks to make it works with a NAS like yours but they are just that - hacks. Use them at your own peril.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080420211034137&query=time%2Bmach ine%2BNAS
(read all the comments).

Iomega Home media network drive & Time machine backups

First timer guys, so go easy. :-)
I have macbook pro. Upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion couple of days ago. I have Iomega Home media network drive NAS box which I had setup for Leopard and my backups via time machine were working perfectly. I could also mount the shares on the Iomega box on my macbook. Post upgrade to Lion, I can access the shares on my MAC (over smb) but backups not working anymore. Apparently Lion requires shares to be accessible over afp only. I have confirmed Iomega box is compatible with smb as well as afp shares and I even tried manually mounting those shares using command, still no luck.
Command I'm trying to mount afp shares & the error -
bash-3.2# mkdir -p /mnt/backups
bash-3.2# mount_afp afp://username:[email protected]/backups /mnt/backups
mount_afp: AFPMountURL returned error -5019, errno is -5019
bash-3.2# echo $?
101
bash-3.2#
Can't see any references to this error. I see few links that ask to carry out some clumsy steps to sort this out. That's not working either for me.
On a sidenote, why mac doesn't have /etc/fstab? Any alternatives?
Appreciate any kind of help here.
Cheers.
soulcurry

Hi,
Have you fixed your problem?
I have the same configuration, and I can't finish a backup. Every time, I have the message, "Try again a new backup".
Thanks
MacBook pro lion 10.7
iomega Home media network cloud firmeware: 3.2.3.15290

External Hard drive/Time Machine backup error message

On a sidenote, I posted a question a week ago about what external hard drive would be compatible with my Macbook, and I so happened to get a WD My Passport Studio hard drive as an unsuspecting gift, so I didn't have to buy one.
Anyways, I started the backup on this hard drive and I had an error message: "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume." I searched this on the Apple Support Communities and found that I wasn't the only one who had this problem. So, I came upon one discussion that suggested downloading Time Machine Buddy (link:http://pondini.org/TM/A1.html) (link that prompted me to download: http://pondini.org/TM/C3.html). I downloaded it and found out that the error was occurring in my Library folder, specifically in the folder entitled "db" in the "Receipts" folder. There's one file in the "db" folder entitled "a.receiptdb" <----can someone please explain what the heck this is??? Lol. Anyways, I decided to exclude the whole "Receipts" folder from being backed up and now my external hard drive is backing up my files fine. My MAIN question is this: What is wrong with my receipts folder that is causing the error?
P.S. here are the error messages in the Time Machine Buddy log:
Error: (-36) SrcErr:YES Copying /Library/Receipts/db/a.receiptdb to (null)
Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying /Library/Receipts/db/a.receiptdb to /Volumes/My Passport Studio/Backups.backupdb/Josh Brew’s MacBook/2012-01-29-162450.inProgress/D9F83053-7FE1-4EBE-991A-F400C35D37CC/Macin tosh HD/Library/Receipts/db
Stopping backup.
Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /Library/Receipts/db/a.receiptdb to /Volumes/My Passport Studio/Backups.backupdb/Josh Brew’s MacBook/2012-01-29-162450.inProgress/D9F83053-7FE1-4EBE-991A-F400C35D37CC/Macin tosh HD/Library/Receipts/db
Copied 246 files (277.4 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Copy stage failed with error:11
Backup failed with error: 11
As you can see, iy is located in the "db" folder. I have no idea what's wrong. Thank you for your time! It is MUCH appreciated.

The connection to 10.6.7 may just be a coincidence. I had a similar problem with a disk and was about to throw it out but decided to try a different USB cable. That fixed the problem and the drive is still in use.
Try a new cable if you have not already done so.
Dave

Buffalo LS NAS Drive, Time Machine, Thinning

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