Mac Mini as a NAS

Okay, here's the deal. I got a 500g MyBook External Firewire drive, and I wanted to use it as a NAS from my Mac Mini. The idea is to use time machine on my Macbook over the network on the external HD. Is this possible? Because I can't even seem to get the external to show up on the network.
The macbook is running 10.5.3, but the Mini is running 10.4. whatever's latest for Tiger.

I use an iBook G4 as my NAS. I have 2TB of external storage attached to my iBook via USB.
My iBook is running Mac OS X 10.5.3.
I have Sharing -> File Sharing enabled.
I connect as the administrator of the iBook, so I have full access to all the volumes on the iBook.
I use this iBook to backup several Macs in my home.
With respect to Time Machine, my MacBook is also Mac OS X 10.5.3 and its Time Machine configuration is setup to use the 2TB external iBook volume as its backup device. The MacBook's TM automatically mounts the external iBook backup volume when I'm at home. When I'm out of the house, TM just waits until I get back home before continuing backups.
This setup works very well for me. Your Mac mini should work just as nicely. And as soon as you get Mac mini upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5.*, you should be able to do the same thing (Time Machine backup over the net between 2 Macs requires that BOTH Macs be running Mac OS X 10.5.*)

Similar Messages

Mac mini as NAS?

Is anyone using a Mac mini as a NAS, and if so what brand/model external drives have you paired it with? Thanks!

Well, far as I've seen, USB3 on the minis has a real problem with interference from Wifi & Bluetooth...
http://blog.macsales.com/15990-shielding-resolves-usb-3-0-conflict-with-bluetoot h.
So until that is taken care of I can only recommend Firewire Drives with a Thunderbolt->FW adapter, or expensive TB drives.

Mac-mini looses wired ethernet connection

Hey out there.
I know this topic has been covered, however i could not find a solution that works for me.
Last week I bought a intel mac-mini and got home and happily connected it to my wireless router (this all went fine)
I am using a Asus wl500g router.
However, once i updated all the software via the wirless and moved my router closer to my mac-mini.( i am using a 1 meter Cable) it tell's me that my etherent cable is not connected.
So I swapped out my ethernet cable with the one connected to my NAS which is connected to the same router and it is still did not work, Even though it functions fine on my NAS which also had two gigabit ports.
After messing with the setting on my ethernet connection i disabled IP ver 6 and did a renew and all of sudden i had wired ethernet connection.
So i thought that i fixed it. However after the next reboot, the wired connection did not connect again and it continued to tell me that there was not cable attached. I used the same cable connected to the mini to test on my macbook (also intel) and it worked just fine. I also tried swapping the cables from my mac mini and my nas again. My nas device connected with the cable that did not work for the mac and ofcourse my mac told me that i have no cable attached.
I then tried to put my mac to sleep and woke it up again and bam.. i had wired ethernet!
Great, however after another reboot, i have not been able to get connection again or since. this has been for a few days now.
SO what i know is this:
The cables are the right length.
The cabels work!
it should have nothing to do with the fact that my router is 100baseT cause my nas connects to it just fine which as i said also has two gigibit ports.
THe issue is on the mac side that is forsure!
I took my mac back to the store where i bought it and they tested it and they said that is fine, they must be connecting to some airport.
So, could some please tell me what i need to do to get a constant connection between my mac-mini and my router please.
there must be a way of getting it work as it works on and off at random times.
I have been a happy mac user for a few years, so this kind of issue is really puzzling, why does it not just work like most other things MAC?
Buying a airpot extreme is not an option in my books, as the rest of the my mac network functions just fine on my current router.
Looking forward to some inlightenment.
thanks
Dino

Hallo dinodam,
I am having exactly the same problems you are. Everything worked fine for a few months and now I copy you problem identically. Again, the shop in Frankfurt says everything works fine. All my other PCs and cables work.
I have been quietly going around the bend. Every now and again I have a connection for a short while and then it is gone. "Kabel nicht verbunden".
This tends to suggest that the problem lies either in the OS or the hardware, nothing external. Surely someone at Apple must be aware that there is an issue? The time I have wasted on this issue more than covers the cost of buying a new pc. Unless someone has any bright ideas, that is what I shall end up doing and send Apple the macmini back.
I should be grateful for any suggestions how to resolve this.
Thanks,
dilystagi

Mac mini can not find the NAS

In my network I have a Mac mini, AirPort Extreme base station and a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo v2. Everything is connected by cable. The problem is that the Mac mini can not find the NAS. Mac mini is looking for wirelessly connected devices, type TimeCapsule. How do I get my Mac mini to find the NAS and set the NAS as a source of data storage?

I have a ReadyNAS and use it as a Time Machine destination with no problems, even over WiFi. The ReadyNAS and Mac are both on the same LAN (even though the Mac is on WiFi), please check to see if your WiFi is on a different LAN to the Ethernet side of things, I have my Airport set to bridging mode so both sides of the AirPort count as the same LAN.
Next you need to check you have actually configured Time Machine in the ReadyNAS, as shipped it is initially turned off. You need to go to the ReadyNAS web management interface (FrontView) and then click on Backup on the left, and then select Time Machine. You also need to make sure Bonjour is enabled for the ReadyNAS, this is accessed by clicking on Services on the left and then selecting Discovery Services, make sure all the Bonjour options are ticked on.

I transferred files from a NAS server to the Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server and now some of the files have Custom Access and can't be opened by some users. How do I fix this?

We're setting up our Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server, and in the process transferred files that had been stored and accessed from our Blackarmor NAS server over to the Mac. These files were all created on PC's and are Office Excel files, WordPerfect files or PDF's. When you look at the files on the Mac from the Mac and bring up Get Info for the affected file, it says that the file has Custom Access. The files that work properly don't have that configuration. I can access and open the files on some computers, but some users can't open the files from their computer even though they can see it. We're all using PC's and they get the Error: Access Denied-Contact your administrator--or something similar. I've seen on the web similar issues and it may have something to do with ACL permissions. I don't know enough about Mac OS to understand this, but what is baffling is that they can be opened from some PC's but not others, and all of the Users have the same accessibility to the files. Thanks for a solution!!

Oh, on the losing Internet, try this...
Make a New Location, Using network locations in Mac OS X ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2712
10.7 & 10.8…
System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.
10.5.x/10.6.x/10.7.x instructions...
System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.
The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.
Instead of joining your Network from the list, click the WiFi icon at the top, and click join other network. Fill in everything as needed.
For 10.5/10.6, System Preferences>Network, unlock the lock if need be, highlight the Interface you use to connect to Internet, click on the advanced button, click on the DNS tab, click on the little plus icon, then add these numbers...
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
Click OK.
PS. Your English is quite good & completely understandable.

What is the best way to set up connection from my Mac Mini to my Seagate Black Armor NAS

I am new to the MAC scene (loving it). I have My Seagate BA220 NAS setup with My Belkin N600 Router in my living room which is pretty much central everywhere.
I have all my media, itunes library, docs, pictures everything on the NAS and all computers connect to the NAS
I have a PC W7 wirelessly connected to the Network and speeds are great with the NAS
I have my mac mini connected on the same Network (wirelessly) but connection to the NAS is very poor. I do not have an ethernet connection in this room.
I was wondering if anyone could suggest what might help obtain a better connection.
I was thinking along the lines of power over ethernet, but i am not sure if this is compatible.
The other thing I was thinking, would it pay for me to attach an External Hardrive to my mac, then back it up to the NAS via Time Machine, but then this would be pointless having the NAS??? Really not sure what to do.
Any suggestions are more than welcomed. I'm at a loss as what to do next.

Who told you that you have unwanted software on your Mac?
How did they find out that this was the case?
Did you allow someone to remotely connect to your Mac?
What is the name of this software?
Only after we know the validity of this information will it be time to do something about it.
At the present time I would not load any crapware on your Mac such as AppZapper. It is never needed for any reason on a Mac.

Importing files from a Synology Nas to Itunes on my Mac Mini

I have managed to import about 50 CDs from my NAS to a MAc Mini I am using as a music server to my HiFi system. A folder appears on the Mac with the items loaded onto I tunes and files waiting to add. I simply clicked and dragged the folders to Automatically add to I tunes and they went into it OK, now they don't. The folders disappear or are added to a separate file, "not added". I have been struggling
with this for days and can't find a solution. I presume the preferences on I tunes have been changed by mistake, but I can't find where, going through the preference folders.
Any ideas, Thanks David

You can clean them up once they are on the device.
If you want to permanently exchange your Apple Lossless files for MP3 (why!?! ) you could use my script ConvertFormat.
tt2
Message was edited by: turingtest2

My folders on my QNAP NAS turned to be exec files when listed on my mac mini - not being accessible. When I restart the QNAP or my MAC I can see tham as a normal folder until my MacMini goes asleep and after awaking it I have again exe files.

I have a QNAP NAS which is connected to my Mac Mini.
When turning on I see my folders as folders, although one folder (might be too big) is not present.
After my computer turns off in energy saving mode and after starting it again, some of the folders turned to "exec" (black tile with green letters). They are not accessible anymore.
On my Windows machine and via the QNAP filesystem they are stil accessible.
The folders I talk about are full of Camera RAW files and XML-files (belonging to the camera raw files) as well as jpg and tiff files.
Who can help me....

Thanks for the obvious question. I mean it. The very same thought came to me this morning and, sure enough, I had booted into another drive--my old one that, of course, had the old desktop, etc.
It didn't dawn on me that this was the case since I hadn't set it as a boot drive but I guess in the course of all the restarts I did, it got switched.
I'm back to normal again.

I have a Mac pro(1 free bay) and a mac mini I need to back both of them Is it better to use an external NAS HD or an internal hard drive on my mac pro (mid 2010) What option has the faster GB/s?

I have a Mac pro(1 free bay) and a mac mini I need to back up both of them (time machine) Is it better to use an external NAS HD or an internal hard drive on my mac pro (mid 2010)
What option has the faster GB/s?

Disk drive using native SATA bus interface will allow the drive to copy and always present and ready.
But once you have backup any hourly changes should be smaller and as long as the NAS and your switch should allow enough.
You should always have off line backups and don't rely on just one backup set or just TimeMachine.
WD RED models are designed for RAID and NAS and 7.2k instead of your more standard slower green 5400 rpm green models while still costing less than WD Blacks.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008JJLW4M/
How to clone your system:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.bombich.com/software/updates/ccc-3.5.html
Clone to internal, TimeMachine to NAS is one way to go at it.

Apple TV with Nas or Mac mini?

Hi all
i have a couple of Apple TV units, both work fine. My only issue is my home broad bad speed is pitiful (live in a rural area) and I have to leave a movie buffering for a few hours before starting to watch.
I Can just about live with this for new purchases, but obviously the atv's will only keep the most recent content - so previous library content has to to through the motions once more.
So, i'm happy to let my library, and any future purchases trickle down on my terrible broadband, but then I'd like that content to be available on the atv's via my home wifi network.
Do I get a Mac mini with an external 2tb harddrive and have it all there?
OR
Do I get a Nas drive (no experience with these at all)?
if I go for the mac mini, do those little bt handheld keyboard/trackpads work ok?

I have just helped the boss setup a system along these lines.
We have a Mac mini with an external RAID5 system (he has a lot of purchased media), all the media he has purchased from the iTunes Store is downloaded via iTunes and stored on this drive. I have setup iTunes Sharing on the same Mac mini and connected multiple Apple TV units via iTunes Sharing to it.
He has a nice fast WiFi in his house and all the Apple TV units can stream full 1080 HD media from the Mac mini with no problems.
I have also set the Mac mini to auto-download new purchases from the iTunes Store.

Issues with brand new mac-mini, NAS, transmission, external HD's

Hi,
I am totally new to mac, got my first mac mini about 2 weeks ago, what a lovely shiny box of joy it seemed at the beginning.
I have the 2GHz model, upgraded to 2GB ram (by the apple store tech's) I have a 250GB 2.5 usb powered drive connected to it to be solely used for Time machine. I also have 2 other 250GB drives, one for Music and one for video.
as the 250GB drives are not so big I bought a 'my book' 500GB firewire WD drive and used the firewire connection to connect this to the mac, at this point it all still seems fine.... Realising that I'm pretty quickly going to have space limitations with these small sizes I bought a 1TB NAS by Lacie, this ethernet disk is connected only to the router (thompson speedtouch) and I've setup the automatic login so I can see a desktop icon for the open share.
Applications which are installed are media-link (to use to link to PS3) quicksilver (nice little utility), transmission and the ethernet agent installed for the lacie NAS drive.
in the last week, its like I cannot make transfers to the Lacie, 130GB was to take 25 hours, but would dip out after a couple, yes I set the computer to not sleep, connection dips out even still.
Transmission has crashed a couple of times, when pointing to foder on the NAS, the app could take up to 2 minutes to load and all transfers were stuck on paused, resume wouldnt work, then crash, restart, verify local data, start, dip out, crash.... and on and on.....
Anyone have similar gear working well? or same gear working in the same faulty way?
Please help and be gentle, I'm only new

oh...something more to add, when I had transmission setup to write directly to the NAS, it would write to a folder called 'incomplete'
Now I have removed any transmission transfers and reassigned the folders transmission shouild point to as being the WD mybook on firewire, it seems to be working so far and application not as slow as wioth the NAS, however the NAS will not let me delete this junk folder full of 'incomplete' files.
so the biggest issue it seems I am facing is with the NAS.
thanks.

Mac Mini unable to reach NAS while MacBook Air can

Hi Everyone,
I've got an issue with my LAN. One computer on the LAN, a Mac Mini, is unable to reach the NAS even though all other devices can.
The setup is nothing exotic. It's a home wifi router from my local telco provider. On the Cabled interface I have a NAS, on the Wifi side I have several devices amongst which a Mac Mini and a Macbook Air. All IP addresses are handed out through DHCP. The DHCP server is set to assign a fixed address to both the NAS and the Mac Mini.
The Macbook and the Mac Mini can see each other just fine, the Macbook can access the NAS but the Mini can not. The Mini has no other issues to speak of, it can access everything else just fine.
The issue appears intermittent but I have not found a pattern. Rebooting the NAS, Mini or router individually had no effect. Below is a log of commands and output from the mac mini.
What should I be looking for to troubleshoot this appropriately?
[admin@htpc] ~ $ system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType
Software:
    System Software Overview:
      System Version: OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)
      Kernel Version: Darwin 12.4.0
      Boot Volume: Macintosh HD
      Boot Mode: Normal
      Computer Name: HTPC
      User Name: admin (admin)
      Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled
      Time since boot: 25 minutes
[admin@htpc] ~ $ ifconfig
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
        options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
        inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
        inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        options=2b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_HWTAGGING,TSO4>
        ether 10:9a:dd:6d:8b:b7
        media: autoselect (none)
        status: inactive
en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        ether 10:9a:dd:ba:d4:96
        inet6 fe80::129a:ddff:feba:d496%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
        inet 192.168.1.19 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
        media: autoselect
        status: active
fw0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 4078
        lladdr 70:cd:60:ff:fe:5a:f2:30
        media: autoselect <full-duplex>
        status: inactive
p2p0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304
        ether 02:9a:dd:ba:d4:96
        media: autoselect
        status: inactive
[admin@htpc] ~ $ arp -a
livebox.home (192.168.1.1) at 3c:81:d8:d7:bc:a4 on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
lightmac.home (192.168.1.15) at 10:93:e9:7:a8:66 on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
droboshare.home (192.168.1.20) at 0:1a:62:0:7:ce on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
? (192.168.1.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
[admin@htpc] ~ $ ping droboshare.home
PING droboshare.home (192.168.1.20): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
Request timeout for icmp_seq 4
Request timeout for icmp_seq 5
Request timeout for icmp_seq 6
Request timeout for icmp_seq 7
Request timeout for icmp_seq 8
Request timeout for icmp_seq 9
^C
--- droboshare.home ping statistics ---
11 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss

Hi Linc,
The NAS responds to pings from other devices on the network.
The Mac Mini has no other issues with regards to accessing the network or the Internet.
I'll restart the router once more to see if this has an effect, but so far no positive change.

Replacing an old Mac Mini and getting the new Mac to reference the existing iTunes account stored on a NAS drive.

I'm getting rid of an old Mac Mini which has it's iTunes library stored on a NAS drive. I want the replacement Mac to reference and use this existing NAS stored iTunes library rather than loading the entire contents onto the new Mac. What do I need to do?

Open iTunes with the option key pressed. You should see a window asking you to choose a library, create a library and cancel. Select choose a library and navigate to the NAS drive.

ITunes on new Mac Mini does not show shared libraries on network or songs on NAS drive

iTunes on new Mac Mini does not show shared libraries on network or songs on NAS drive
The latest version of iTunes on a 3-month old Mac Mini (8 gig RAM, OS 10.10.2) does not see any of the shared iTunes libraries on a MacBookPro (MBP) (OS 10.9.5) and a 14-month old Mac Mini (OS 10.9.5). And a network shared drive/media server does not appear as well. I have a Gigabite Ethernet G4 and on it, the MPB and the "old" mini I can see the various shared music libraries and NAS, but not on the new Mini.
The little house with a music note inside it that I see on the upper left corner of the iTunes 12.1 window on my MBP does not appear on iTunes 12.1 on the new Mac Mini. I have gone through all the iTunes preferences and can not find where I can turn on this feature. The new Mac Mini is on the local network and I can reach the internet successfully.
I have been using iTunes since its beginning (still have a PowerTower Pro with a working copy of SoundJam), so I am not a newbie, but this has me baffled.

May I add, that I gave full rights to the user at the Mac Mini to access and change data on the server drive for ITunes Media.

ITunes Library is locked on NAS - Config = three PC's and one Mac Mini

I have just purchased a mac mini to compliment the familys three laptops.
My itunes media and library are stored on a NAS and previously all the computers (running Windows) could access the library simultaneously. However now I am not able to open a iTunes on the Mac Mini and a Windows laptop at the same time, the 2nd compputer to access, whether it be the Mac or the PC gets the message "The iTunes Library.itl file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file."
My sole intention of getting the Mac Mini was to have itunes permanently open on it so that my ipads etc could access the DRM content. so to keep closing iTunes on the Mac is not realy an option.

See above message.

Mac Mini as a NAS

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