Can Time Machine write to a Disk Image on a Time Capsule?

I just inherited a Gen 1 Time Machine (500gb). I have three Macs on my network. In my current set up I have an external 500gb drive split into three equal partitions, one for each Mac.
I know I cannot partition the TC HD, but I also know I can create one or more Disk Images.
Question: Can Time Machine write to a Disk Image on a Time Capsule?
Thanks.
MotionMan

I know the backups will not mix.
One of the Macs is a MacBook that only hooks up to the network every couple weeks. Before I partitioned my existing TM backup disk, the TM backups of the other two Macs were filling the disk. When the MacBook then tried to make a backup, the oldest backups of the MacBook would drop off.
So, the other two Macs had backps for months, but the MacBook ended up with much less. That is what lead me to the 3 partitions, so each Mac had an equal space for their backups.
Odd that there there is no good solution for this.
MotionMan

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I'm getting an error message on my time machine backup: "The backup disk image "/Volumes/Data/MacBook.sparsebundle" is already in use." Any suggestions?

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Time Machine worked OK for several months. Now I get this error every 10 minutes or so.
I unplugged Time Machine capsule and "Change Disk" in Time Machine options.
Nothing helps, I continue to get this error.
I cannot Enter Time Machine either. "Connecting to Server, Connecting to backup" does not work.
Help please because I will probably have to archive and reinstall Leopard. I need the backups,
Christine

Christ1ne,
Before you reformat the disk, consider these causes of this error.
*_"The Backup Disk Image Could Not Be Mounted" (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”)_*
First, it is important to distinguish this error message from another, similar Time Machine error that states “The backup volume could not be mounted”. This is important as the causes and cures for these two errors can be very different.
Consider each topic below separately. When one option does not resolve your issue, then move on the next one.
*Unmount the Backup Disk Image* (TC)
If, for some reason, you have manually mounted the Time Machine backup disk image (sparsebundle), or Time Machine failed to eject it after the previous backup, subsequent backups may fail. (Console - “Failed to mount disk image”… “Backup failed with error: 21”)
Eject the backup disk image (white drive icon) by either clicking the little Eject icon to the right of the disk image in the Finders’ Sidebar, or Ctrl-Click the drive icon on the desktop and select “Eject” from the contextual menu. Now try backing up again or launching Time Machine to view previous backups.
*“Disconnect All Users…”:*
If your Time Machine backup drive (“Backup of Users Computer”) is mounted on your desktop or in the Sidebar of the Finder window. then Time Machine may think the drive is already in use. Alternatively, if the Time Capsule hard disk has been recently accessed by a Windows machine, it may not have fully relinquished control. Do the following:
Open Airport Utility and select the Time Capsule on the left.
Click “Manual Setup”.
Select “Disks” at top of window.
Click “Disconnect All Users…” at bottom of window.
Close the Airport Utility.
Now try Backing up again.
One poster reported: “I got it resolved. Apparently it had to do with one of the files being open on the disk from the drive. I had browsed the disk with one of my windows boxes here and it must have left one of the folders "open". Anyway, I rebooted the TC and we are good to go now.”
*Proper Computer Name* #
Make sure your computer has a proper name. Go to System Preferences --> Sharing. Time Machine needs to differentiate your computer from others on your network (i.e. "Bills MacBook" or "Office iMac"). If the "Computer Name" field is blank, create a name. Realize that if this step is necessary, you will likely have to start the Time Machine backup process over again and do another full initial backup.
According to this article, [http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1760], Time Machine may experience problems if your computer name includes certain characters. Make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from the following set.
(0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)
Once a change in the computer name occurs, you should stop and restart Sharing on the affected computer. Uncheck and then recheck Sharing in the Services list on the left.
# Try removing the apostrophe from the disk images name (sparsebundle).
*A Stalled .inProgress Files:* #
It may be that the previous backup attempt was ungracefully interrupted leaving remains that Time Machine can’t deal with.
Stop any current backup attempt. Choose “Stop Backing Up” from the Time Machine menu.
Open the Time Machine Preferences and turn “OFF” Time Machine.
Open your Time Machine drive.
Open the folder labeled “Backups,backupdb”.
Now open the folder containing backups of the computer in question.
Are there any “.inProgress” files there. Delete them by dragging the file to the Trash. Or Ctrl-Click the file and select "Move to Trash" from the contextual menu. (Give this time as deleting a large file on an external disk can take a while.)
Turn Time Machine back “ON”. Now try backing up again.
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Cheers!

Time Machine Backups of Encrypted Disk Images, Part 2

Hi:
If Time Machine is backing up a hard drive that contains a subset encrypted disk image as part of its contents, and this encrypted disk image is mounted (in an unencrypted state) where the enclosed data has been changed/manipulated in any fashion, what and when does Time Machine backup?
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Sorry I can't explain this very well, but hopefully the gist is clear.
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(OS 10.8.2)

Time Machine doesn't back up a disk image file while it's mounted, whether encrypted or not.

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I have my iPhoto libray in a disk image in the shared folder so that it can be shared by two user accounts. Is there a way to use Time Machine to backup the mounted image? I don't want to backup the entire disk image file every time there is a change in iPhoto (over 200GB!). I'd like to just backup the changes, but so far, it doesn't seem to work?

There is no way to back up a mounted, writable disk image with Time Machine. If you want to keep data on a disk image, the best option is to convert it to a sparsebundle, which consists of many small files instead of one big file. It will be backed up much more efficiently, but only when not mounted.

Time Machine error: The backup disk image "/Volumes/----/----MacBook Pro.sparsebundle" is already in use and resource unavailable?

I have a MacBook Pro 13" 2010 model running Mountain Lion. I have always been able to use Time Machine with my Time Capsule. Just today I have been receiving the same error message whenever I would back up my computer:
I removed my name before "MacBook Pro". It takes a long time "Looking for backup disk..." first. The disk I put with the time capsule is called Huge Backup, and in Huge Backup there is my sparsebundle file called "----- MacBook Pro." When I open Finder, open my time capsule, and then open my sparse folder, it should mount a drive where I can see my computer's backups. That doesn't work. Then I get this message:
I once again removed my name before "MacBook Pro" but I can open my sister's sparsebundle who is running Mountain Lion on the same network and her backups work fine. I have researched this topic and have tried to repair the disk in Disk Utility, remount all the drives, remove the drive and restart the backups, and even restart my computer and the Time Capsule. Nothing worked. It just was working yesterday, but now I get this in the settings along with a caution symbol in my menubar:
Is there anything I could do to fix this? Reconnecting it in AirPort Utility (5 or 6) didn't work. Also, for some reason, the error renamed Huge Backup to Huge Backup-1 as you can see above and below in the messages. I downloaded the Time Machine Buddy widget and this is the error report I got. I replaced my names or private info with [-----]. By the way, the network is called NDR Network, and the Time Capsule is alled NDR Time Capsule. Here's the error I keep getting:
Starting manual backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[-----];AUTH=SRP@NDR%20Time%20Capsule._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Huge%20Backu p
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Huge Backup using URL: afp://[-----];AUTH=SRP@NDR%20Time%20Capsule._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Huge%20Backu p
Disk image already attached: /Volumes/Huge Backup/[-----]'s MacBook Pro.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35
Failed to mount disk image: Error Domain=com.apple.backupd.ErrorDomain Code=31 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.backupd.ErrorDomain error 31.)" UserInfo=0x7ff0a483e6c0 {MessageParameters=(
Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://[-----];AUTH=SRP@NDR%20Time%20Capsule._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Huge%20Backu p
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Huge Backup using URL: afp://Rohan;AUTH=SRP@NDR%20Time%20Capsule._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Huge%20Backup
Disk image already attached: /Volumes/Huge Backup/Rohan's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35
Failed to mount disk image: Error Domain=com.apple.backupd.ErrorDomain Code=31 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.backupd.ErrorDomain error 31.)" UserInfo=0x7ff0a343d430 {MessageParameters=(
Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://Rohan;AUTH=SRP@NDR%20Time%20Capsule._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Huge%20Backup
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Huge Backup-1 using URL: afp://Rohan;AUTH=SRP@NDR%20Time%20Capsule._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Huge%20Backup
Disk image already attached: /Volumes/Huge Backup-1/Rohan's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle, DIHLDiskImageAttach returned: 35
Failed to mount disk image: Error Domain=com.apple.backupd.ErrorDomain Code=31 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.backupd.ErrorDomain error 31.)" UserInfo=0x7ff0a34410c0 {MessageParameters=(
Ejected Time Machine network volume.
Giving up after 3 retries.
Backup failed with error: 31
[SnapshotUtilities mountPointForVolumeRef] FSGetVolumeInfo returned: -35
Failed to eject volume (null) (FSVolumeRefNum: 0; status: -35; dissenting pid: -1)
Failed to eject Time Machine disk image: /Volumes/Huge Backup-1/Rohan's MacBook Pro.sparsebundle
Please help!

I didn't remove all of my names, so just ignore that...

Time Machine Restore vs Restoring disk image to Macbook Pro

Hi guys,
Is it best to restore my new Macbook pro Retina from a 2011 Macbook pro via a time machine backup or is it best and easyer to restore my Disk Image from my old Macbook Pro 'Macintosh HD' to my new SSD in a 2013 Macbook pro Reitna via Disk utility??

If you have a new Mac and an old Mac, then it's probably best just to use Migration Assistant to transfer your data, settings and apps from the old Mac to the new one.
If you have fitted a new, blank SSD to the new Mac, then that will need an OS, obviously, before you run Migration Assistant. However, you can transfer an image of the old computer to the new one -- I cloned my 2009 MacBook's drive straight onto the SSD I put into my 2012 MBP.
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Time Machine does Backup to Disk Image but won't browse.

Hi Everyone,
I really enjoy using Time-Machine as my backup-utility as it's build into the system, updated by Apple and comes at no extra cost. Still, there has never been an option to encrypt the Backup. As I'm usually keeping my Backup in the Office, I wanted it to be a little more secure otherwise everybody could just pick up the Disk and read all my private files.
Anyway, I went ahead and manually created a TimeMachine Sparsebundle on my Local Partition (The ones TimeMachine usually creates on Network Volumes). I chose 256bit encryption and pointed the TimeMachine preferences at the Partition where I store my TimeMachine Sparsebundle.
External HDD > Partition 2 'TimeCapsule' > Encryptet Sparse bundle 'TimeMachine'
I had to manually create the TimeMachine Plist on the Volume and now it automatically mounts the Sparse bundle and does the Backup once every hour.
THE PROBLEM: The issue is, when I decide to go back and restore files trough TimeMachine, it'll present me with the Partition the Sparse bundle is located on, which contains nothing. I can only get TimeMachine to browse trough my Sparse bundle (Backup) if I manually choose to browse other Backup disks.
Is there any way to tell TimeMachine to always browse this particular bundle. I don't understand why it doesn't work as it also does the Backup.
I hope somebody can help me with this.
Thanks,
OldSchoolMacs

You can do it your way, but the intended way is to use FileVault to encrypt your Home folder. When you log out of your account then TM will begin the backup of the encrypted Home folder. No need for you to encrypt or decrypt your own disc image.
If you allow TM to run hourly backups as you now do, then both your Home folder and your backups are not secure.

Can Time Machine write to a Disk Image on a Time Capsule?

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