Use a DMG for Time Machine Disk?

Hello everyone,
After extensive googling, it seems at first that Time Machine will not allow you to use a mounted disk image for a backup drive. I was wondering if there was a way to rig it up so that it would work, somehow disguising the mounted image as a hard drive.
My situation is as follows: I have an external FireLite Smartdisk hard drive for Time Machine backups. And yet, the drive is plenty big, while my computer's hard drive is fairly small. I want to have the backups not take up the whole drive, as they have. I attempted to partition the drive via Disk Utility, but it gave me the following error:
Partition failed with the error:
Filesystem resize support required, such as HFS+ with Journaling enabled.
I tried it with all file systems, including free space. I finally decided to try a sparse bundle disk image, with a size of 100 gb. I mounted it, went into Time Machine prefs, and it did not appear on the list of available disks.
Does anyone have any ideas?

I'd quit trying to outsmart the backup system (Time Machine is picky already) and focus on the hardware. I don't have one of those drives, but I'd be looking at why you can't repartition or format the drive. Firmware? Using a hub? Does it have a USB port you can try?
Many hard drives like the MyBook series have had problems with FW on Leopard and there are firmware updates for them. The USB ports worked fine.

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I am setting up a time machine backup to a external Hard drive. I want to backup by Mac book Pro running OSX 10.8.5. I would like to Partition the disk and use one partition for Time machine backups and the other for my Lightroom backups. How to do this?

I want to create a two partition disk. One partition for time machine, the other for Lightroom backup. Currently Time Machine is using the entire drive and it is doing the intial encryption and is about 29% complete after two days. I've decided that I want to turn encryption off and partition the disk. So I do I start over?

With the external drive attached, open Finder>Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility. Select the external drive from the list in the left side panel of the DU window. In the main window panel, click Partition in the buttons top center of that panel.
Select the number of partitions you want and adjust their sizes.
For the first partition, click to highlight the partition, then select the format, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then the partition table as GUID [both of those are the defaults]. Click Apply and it will ask to confirm and erase and format that partion...oh, give the partition a name, like Backup.
Then repeat those steps for the second partition..and remember to name it...something like Lightroom.
Close Disk Utilitty and you are ready to send TM to the one partition, and do your backup of Lightroom to the second partition.

HT201250 Can I partition my external hard drive and use one partion for time machine and the other one for data that i may want to use in different computers?

I have this doubt. I've just bought an external drive, especifically a Seagate GoFlex Desk 3 tb.
I want to know if it is recomendable to make a partion exclusively for time machine and let another one so I can put there music, photos, videos, etc that I should need to use or copy to another computer.
May half and half, 1.5 tb for time machine and 1.5 tb for data.
I have an internal hard drive of 500 GB (499.25 GB) in my macbook pro.
Any recommendation?

As I said, yes. Be sure your Time Machine partition has at least 1 TB for backups.
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Can use old macbook for Time Machine Backup?

Have an old macbook running snow leopard. Can I use it for Time Machine Back-up for my current macbook pro?

Boot your old into Target Disk mode, then plug a FireWire cable from your old to your pro. Presto! Your old's internal HD will appear in your pro's Finder as a disk on your pro. Time machine running on your pro can use it for backup. Time machine won't disturb its contents, except to add a potentially huge folder there, which will grow to fill the disk with copies of your backups. (Backing up, then) partitioning (and then restoring from backup) your old's internal hard drive will keep your pro's Time Machine from consuming all free space.

Use TC 2TB for Time Machine Backup and Storage simultaneously?

Hi
I am planning to buy a TC 2TB.
I would like to know if the TC can be used as a Time Machine backup device and for storage simultaneously?
for example:
Can I use 1TB for Time Machine backups and 1TB for storage.
Please let me know if this is possible?
Thank you

I tried for ages to seek a relatively easy way to do this.. i.e. partition it, it's a huge pain! You can, but i'm pretty savvy and got bored and confused! What I did do was switch the TM back-ups to manual so they don't end up filling the disk. Trust me it's the easiest and best option!

Use ext. harddrive for time machine or just as additional storage?

I was wondering, given the problems some people have had with TM, should I maybe just use it to store stuff and free up space on my laptop, or can I use one drive for both my TM backups as well as additional storage?

Mark_Clemons wrote:
I was wondering, given the problems some people have had with TM
First, take what you read here with a grain (or large block) of salt. This is the ER for Time Machine, and no more representative of the average user's experience than your local bricks-and-mortar ER is of the health of your community. Second, most of the problems here are either misunderstandings of how TM works and how to use it; or hardware problems that would be the same with any backup app.
should I maybe just use it to store stuff and free up space on my laptop, or can I use one drive for both my TM backups as well as additional storage?
You can do both, but if you do, your best bet is to partition the drive so TM has it's own, exclusive partition. And TM can back-up the other partition. See item 5 in the +Frequently Asked Questions+ post at the top of this forum for instructions.
Still, this isn't a very good solution, as both the original and copies of those files will be on the same physical disk drive: when (not if) it fails, you may lose both. So you may want to archive those files to DVDs instead of (or in addition to) TM.

Using a computer for time machine?

Can I use a g4 tower, create a RAID with the 4 drive bays and use it for time machine? Or does it have to be an external hard drive? How would I go about doing that if it does? Use firewire and boot the tower in target mode? Or can I use ethernet? Does it have to be in target mode?

Yes, you can. It will be able to be done as long as the G4 Tower is running 10.5.x. It can be set up to backup wirelessly across the network while the G4 Tower is fully open and running the normal OS (not target disk mode).
Message was edited by: alex349

No green icon for time machine disk ?

Just a very minor question:
My time machine disk now appears with the same yellow icon that is used for all "standard" hard disk drives.
Is there no more green disk icon ? Or can I set this manually ? (if so, how ?)

Thanks Stef_Heck
You are perfectly right: at some stage this morning (something like 10 hours after having installed Yosemite) the icon became green automatically.
So just a question of being patient
Now 100% happy with Yosemite (while I only was 99,5% happy before.....)

Have to wait for Time Machine disk before opening or saving

I can't tell you how irritating it is, when it click open or save (any program) , to hear my Time Machine hard disk begin to spool up. As soon as hear that sound, I know that means I have to sit and wait for the Time Machine disk to initialize and get all set before I can save my work. This is majorly ticking me off.
This problem is present on any document i go to save/open.
Why is the OS trying access the Time Machine disk when I try to open or save anywhay??? There's no reason for that! No one is ever opening up and saving to Time Machine while doing normal workflow! The only thing the Time Machine hard drive should be responsible for is backing up!
I swear, I'm thinking about disconnecting my Time Machine disk while I'm working and just reconnect it when I'm away from the computer...it's getting that bad. I shouldn't have to do that. That's ridiculous.
Any ideas?
Thank you

Why is the OS trying access the Time Machine disk when I try to open or save anywhay???
The system will wake ALL hard disks when the save dialog is opened TM is not excepted from this. There is nothing very special a TM volume other than its icon.
There's no reason for that! No one is ever opening up and saving to Time Machine while doing normal workflow!
There are many users who use a TM drive for data other than TM backups.
What make and model is your drive? Some drives have power management controllers which have to be set with disk management software. If you have one of these drives you may need to turn off the hardware power management with this software. The problem here is that some manufactures only provide this software for Windows. Seagate is one such manufacturer

Still possible to use airport extreme for time machine?

I know apple doesn't officially support it but I remember with one of the airport utility updates, it allowed you to use an external HDD with an airport extreme for time machine backups. I tried hooking my external western digital to my airport extreme and it showed up as an airport disk, however I couldn't get time machine to access it. Is there a way I can get this to work?

I followed the instructions found on the link above and had a couple of issues:
1) Instructions state "Make sure 'Share disks over Ethernet WAN port' is checked." Could not find that check box anyplace.
2) Using first disk and then airport passwords as security, the disk does not show up in the Time Machine preferences. Am I to mount the disk first? Does not state that in the instructions.
3) If I mount the disk in the finder (security is a disk password), I am then able to see the drive in Time Machine and the back-up commences. The disk icon appears on my desktop and contains machine.sparcebundle. Another "disk" also appears on my desktop with the name "Time Machine Backups" and which contains the folder Backups.backupdb. I am also able to remotely attach to the machine doing the TM backup from another mac on the network and login.
4) Back-up started and appeared to go well (240G backed up with several partials after that) until I rebooted.
5) After reboot, it was frozen in "Making backup disk available" Opened preferences and it locked up. Had to force a reboot.
6) After restart, manually mounted the extreme external, opened Time Machine prefs, and when selecting back up location saw one with a red "∅" which I could not select and the other the extreme drive with 240G used. Attempted the back-up to the drive and I got "Making backup disk available" on the menu bar and the same message on TM system prefs with a spinning beach ball. Have been able to force quit system prefs and sent to error log to apple, but a forced reboot is still required because the TM icon on the menu continues to spin. Even a "sudu shutdown -r now" in terminal will not reboot the machine. Get to a blue screen with the spinning tick marks and it just sits there.
I wonder if the fact that I could not find "Make sure 'Share disks over Ethernet WAN port' is checked." is the issue. It does not appear to be available in the current version of the extreme base 7.4.2. Could those of you who were able to configure it with a previous version get grandfathered in? I wonder if I need to manually mount the extreme hard disk each time I reboot the machines. I am not sure how to do that but will try and see if it works.
I will be losing internet and e-mail access for a few weeks so will look at this thread again when I return.

Will I loose existing data on the Time Capsule if I use it now for Time Machine also?

Till now I only save photos, music and movies on my AirPort Time Capsule 2 TB. From now on I also want to use it for Time Machine Backups also. But I am not sure if it my data and the backup will exist in parallel.

You can drag and drop files to the Time Capsule using the Finder.
Open Macintosh HD or the Finder and look for the Time Capsule icon under the SHARED heading on the left side of window.
Click on the Time Capsule icon and a folder representing the drive will appear in the window to the right.
Double click the folder to mount the drive on the desktop.

Using iPod Classic for Time Machine or Startup Disc

I have enabled my iPod to be used as external disc on iTunes. iPod icon does show up on desktop, but is not one of my options as backup volume for Time Machine, nor as an option for startup disc. Any ideas?

It can't be used as an ext drive for Time Machine.
Also, unless you are using an Intel Mac, you cannot use it as a bootable drive via USB. Only Firewire drives can be used as bootable drive on non Intel Macs and of course the iPod Classic is not a Firewire drive.

Can multiple users use one drive for time machine

I have an older G4 which I have put a 500mb drive into. I want to put it on the newtork and use it as a time machine. Do I need to partion the drive, such that each user has there own partition? Or just one large partition and allow users access?
Thanks

see if this user tip can help: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/26.html
JGG

Stop Disk Full Alerts for Time Machine disk?

Hi there,
I have an alert set up on a Mac Mini server to notify me if a disk gets over 50% full. Unfortunately, this is warning me now that the Time Machine disk is getting over 50% full, which is to be expected. Is there a way to set it so I am only notified if the system disk is getting full?
Thanks!

You might do better searching, browsing, or re-posting in the Server forum, at http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=96

Using external HDD for Time Machine and files in one single partition ?

Hello everybody.
I've been searching for some time now and have encountered some contradictory answers, so I turn to you.
I would like to know if it's possible (one) and safe (two) to use a single partition for both Time Machine and file storage. I've read that this should be ok, since TM is actually only a single folder, which means the rest can easily be used as a standard Finder drive. Some people say however that this is not good to do so, because TM will run out of space quicker. But if the -let's say- 30Gb used for files where used by TM after a month, that would be the same, wouldn't it ? It would simply erase older backups. But is it safe to do so ? Will Time Machine not makes errors when accessing files or doing an entire system backup ? I don't won't to make a new partition really, that's why I'm asking you here, to let me know some arguments about it.
Thank you very much for your answers.

Marekova wrote:
Yet, overlooking that, you say "safe: mostly", why is that ? where's the "danger" or, what where you thinking when you said that ? Aren't these simple folder's ? Do you mean that, because during a full backup, these "stranger" files could be a problem ? It would be great if that was clarified, since I've found no indication about it elsewhere, has anyone tryed it ?
Oh, yes folks have tried it. That's why I (and many others) recommended against it.
Here's a similar thread from just the other day: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1926893 Note the responses from the top 2 "gurus" on this forum.
I probably should have asked you what you mean by "safe." If you mean, will TM delete other files on it's partition, no, it won't. If you mean, can there be problems, then yes, there can be conflicts and difficulties, as mentioned.
As to whether TM backups are simple folders, no, they aren't. They look like normal files and folders, but they actually contain what are variously called "hard links," "multi-links," and (my own personal favorite term) "ghost clones." Think of them as very fancy aliases. So they're not to be fooled with directly, by us mere mortals.
If you want more on this: http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/14
and/or: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/12/roadto_mac_os_x_leopard_timemachine.html
and, if you haven't seen it yet: http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#tutorial=leopardtimemachine
You should also know that, for some reason, TM stores it's backups differently when it does them wirelessly. In that case, they're in a "SparseBundle," very different from the structure used for directly-attached backups.
All the more reason to put each Mac's backups in a separate partition, and if you want to store other data there also, a 3rd partition for that.
I've been using Mac since many years now, but I have no idea about backups, so excuse me if the statements appear a little childish.
Nope. Even those of us who are "older than dirt" and have used many flavors and varieties of backup systems for decades are in a whole new world with Time Machine.
And most of the folks on this forum who found themselves in deep trouble got there because they assumed things or didn't ask.

Use a DMG for Time Machine Disk?

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