AFP Volume does not unmount.

Question

Hi,
I have just started running Time Machine.
I have a MacBook Pro (current model) and a PowerBook (penultimate model), both running 10.5.1.
I have a firewire drive connected to my PowerBook, and the two laptops are connected via gigabit ethernet.
I would like to use the drive attached to my PowerBook as the backup drive for my MacBook Pro. So far everything has been fine, I haven't had to do any hacks to get Time Machine working over the network. The firewire drives attached to my PowerBook showed up straight away in the list in the Time Machine preferences on my MacBook Pro.
Running backups seem to work fine. Accessing the files on the backup drive manually through finder works fine.
However, the flashy Time Machine GUI causes problems. When you click the Time Machine icon in the dock, the backup drive is first mounted and then I go into the Time Machine interface fine. But, when I exit Time Machine, the backup rive is not unmounted. It stays there in Finder as a mounted disk image. Clicking the eject button next to the drive in finder does not unmount the drive, even though the icon disappears.
When I try to unmount the firewire drive from the PowerBook, it does not let me, it says that the drive is still in use.
Anyone else experiencing this?

Answer 1

{quote}I'm guessing -- and this is only speculation -- that even though the destination drive is unmounted in MBP's Finder, that only unmounts it from Finder and Time Machine is still "using" it.{quote}
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking, just wondering if anyone else has experienced the same.
{quote}You might try turning Time Machine off on MBP, then unmounting the destination, and then see if it can be unmounted from PowerBook.
If that works, it would answer your question, but then you'd have to turn TM back on -- a hassle.{quote}
If I'm the only one experiencing this then I suppose I could do a little more troubleshooting. But to be honest, it isn't really a massive problem. Running Time Machine backups do not cause any problems. And browsing the backup files directly in Finder does not cause any problems. So I'm unlikely to want to use the Time Machine UI (in the same way that I have never used Dashboard or Exposé).
If I ever need to use the Time Machine UI to actually restore something, I can mount the FireWire drive physically on the MBP in which case there are no problems.
{quote}Do you have a wi-fi network where you could use the FireWire drive? You might try connecting the FW drive directly to the MBP and allowing TM to recognize it as the destination, then connect it to an always-available machine.{quote}
Yeah, this is the plan in the future, leave the PowerBook and FireWire drive always on and connect to it via wi-fi, I have just been doing tests over ethernet to start with.
I did start by running Time Machine with the drive connected to the MBP, and then accessing via the network later, in the same way as you describe. But it seems as if it is better to use the drive for the first time over the network. If you use it for the first time locally then the .sparesebundle is not created until later.