NAS Harddisk Time Machine Backup

Is it possible to create a backup of external harddrives which are connected to a AirPort Extreme with Time Machine? Thanks for your help!

Is it possible to create a backup of external harddrives which are connected to a AirPort Extreme with Time Machine?
Time Machine cannot back up drives that are connected to the USB port or LAN ports of the AirPort Extreme.
You will need a 3rd party application like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper for this type of operation.
If you connect a hard drive directly to your Mac using the USB or FireWire connection, then Time Machine can back up both your Mac and the external drive.

Similar Messages

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:
How can I set up time machine to work with my NAS? Any help is greatly appriciated

Please follow these instructions:
Lion: Connecting to legacy (pre-Lion) AFP services - and Mac OS X (server):
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3258472

I want a new and more powerful (non-Apple) wireless router but I still want to use my existing Time Capsule to continue with my Time Machine backups and I still need the Time Capsule's Network Attached Storage (NAS) features and capabilities

THE SHORTER STORY
My goal is to successfully use my existing Time Capsule (TC) with a new and more powerful wireless router. I need a new and more powerful wireless router in order to reach a distant Denon a/v receiver that is physically located in a master bedroom some 50 feet away from my modem. I need to provide this Denon a/v receiver with an Internet connection so that it can obtain its firmware updates and I need to connect this Denon a/v receiver to my network in order to use its AirPlay feature. I believe l still need the TC's Network Attached Storage (NAS) features because I am not sure if the new wireless router will provide me with the NAS like features / capabilities I need to share files between my two Apple laptops with OS X 10.8.2. And I know that I absolutely need my TC's seamless integration with Apple's Time Machine (TM) application in order to continue to make effortless backups of my two Apple laptops. To my knowledge nothing works with TM like Apple's TC. I also need the hard disk storage space built into the TC.
I cannot use a long wired Ethernet cable connection in this apartment and I cannot use power-line adapters. I have read that wireless range extenders and repeaters are difficult to successfully set-up and that they will reduce data speeds, especially so when incorrectly set-up. I cannot relocate my modem and/or primary base station wireless router.
In short, I want to use my TC with my new and more powerful wireless router. I need to stop using the TC to connect to the modem. However, I still need the TC for seamless TM backups. I also need to use the TC's built in hard drive for storage. And I may still need the TC's NAS capabilities to share files wirelessly between laptops because I am assuming the new wireless router will not provide NAS capabilities for OS X 10.8.2 (products like this/non-Apple products rarely seem to work with OS X 10.8.2/Macs to provide NAS features and capabilities). Finally, I want to continue to use my Apple laptop and AirPlay to wirelessly access and play my iTunes music collection stored on the TC's hard drive. I also want to continue to use my Apple laptop, AirPlay and Apple TV to wirelessly watch movies and TV shows stored on the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB. Can someone please advise on how to set-up my new Asus wireless router with my existing TC in such a way to accomplish all of this?
What is the best configuration or set-up to accomplish my above goals?
Thank you in advance for your assistance!!!
THE FULL STORY
I live in an apartment building where my existing Time Capsule (TC) is located in my living room and serves many purposes. Specially, my TC is at least all of the following:
(1) Wi-Fi router connected to Comcast Internet service via Motorola SB6121 cable modem - currently the TC is the Wi-Fi base station that connects to the modem and has the gateway address to the Internet. The TC now provides the DHCP service for the Wi-Fi network.
(2) Wireless router providing Internet and Wi-Fi network access to several Wi-Fi clients - two Apple laptop computers, an iPod touch, an iPad and an iPhone all connect wirelessly to the Internet via the TC.
(3) Wired Ethernet router providing Internet and Wi-Fi network access to three different devices - a Panasonic TV, LG Blu-Ray player and an Apple TV each use one of the three LAN ports on the back of the TC to gain access to the Internet.
(4) Primary base station in my attempt to extend my wireless network to a distant (located far away) Denon a/v receiver requiring a wired Ethernet connection - In addition to the TC, which is my primary base station, I am also using a second extended Wi-Fi base station (a Netgear branded product) to wirelessly extend my WiFi network to a Denon receiver located in the master bedroom and requiring a wired Ethernet connection. I cannot use a wired Ethernet connection to continuously travel from the living room to the master bedroom. The distance is too great as I cannot effectively hide the Ethernet cable in this apartment.
(5) Time Machine (TM) backup facilitator - I use my TC to wirelessly back-up two Apple laptops using Apple's Time Machine (TM) application. However, I ran out of storage space on my TC and therefore added external storage to it. Specifically, I added an external hard drive to my TC via the USB port on the back of the TC. I now use this added external hard drive connected to the TC via USB as the destination storage drive for my TM back-ups. I have partitioned the added external hard drive, and each of the several partitions all have enough storage space (e.g., each of the two partitions used by TM are sized at three times the hard drive space of each laptop, etc.). Everything works flawlessly.
(6) Network Attached Storage (NAS) - In addition to using the TC's Network Attached Storage (NAS) capabilities to wirelessly back-up two Apple laptops via TM, I also store other additional files on both (A) the hard drive built into the TC and (B) the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB (there are additional separate partitions on this drive for these other additional and non-TM backup files).
I use the TC's NAS feature with my Apple laptop and AirPlay to wirelessly access and play my iTunes music collection stored on the TC's hard drive. I also use my Apple laptop, AirPlay and Apple TV to wirelessly watch movies and TV shows stored on the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB. Again, everything works wirelessly and flawlessly. (Note: the Apple TV is connected to the network via Ethernet and a LAN port on the back of the TC).
The issue I am having is when I try to listen to music via Apple's AirPlay in the master bedroom. This master bedroom is located at a distance of two rooms away from the TC's current location in the living room, which is a distance of about 50 feet. This apartment has a long rectangular floor plan where each room is connected to the next in a straight line. In order to use AirPlay in the master bedroom I am using a second extended Wi-Fi base station (a Netgear branded product) to wirelessly extend my WiFi network to a Denon receiver located in the master bedroom and requiring a wired Ethernet connection. This additional base station connects wirelessly to the WiFi network provided by my TC and then gives my Denon receiver the wired Ethernet connection it needs to use AirPlay. I have tried moving my iTunes music directly onto my laptop's hard drive, and then I used AirPlay on this same laptop to connect to the Denon receiver. I always get a successful connection and the song plays, but the problem is that the connection inevitably drops.
I live in an apartment building and all of the many wireless routers in this building create a great deal of WiFi interference on both the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands. I have tried connecting the Netgear product to each the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, but neither band can successfully maintain a wireless connection between the TC and the Netgear product. I also attempted to maintain a wireless connection to an iPod touch using the 2.4 GHz band and AirPlay on this iPod touch to play music on the Denon receiver. Again, I was able to establish a connection and successfully play music, but after a few minutes the connection dropped and the music stopped playing. I therefore have concluded that I have a poor wireless connection in the master bedroom. I can establish a connection, but it is intermittent with frequent drops. I have verified this with both laptops by working in the master bedroom for an entire day on both laptops. The Internet connection in this master bedroom proved to drop out frequently - about once an hour with the laptops. The wireless connection and the frequency of its dropout are far worse with the iPod touch and an iPhone.
I cannot relocate the TC. Also, this is an apartment and I therefore cannot extend the range of my network with Ethernet cable (I cannot drill through walls/ceilings, etc.). It is an old building with antiquated wiring and power-line adapters are not likely to function properly, nor can I spare the direct power outlet required with a power-line adapter. I simply need every outlet I can get and cannot afford to block any direct outlet.
My solution is to use a more powerful wireless router. I found the ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router which will likely provide a better connection to my wireless Internet in the master bedroom than the TC. The 802.11ac band of this Asus wireless router is totally useless to me, but based on what I have read I believe this router will provide a stronger connection at greater distances then my TC. And I will be ready for 802.11ac when it becomes more widely available.
However, I still need to maintain the TC's ability to work seamlessly with TM to backup my two laptops. Also, I doubt the new Asus router will provide OS X 10.8.2 with NAS like features and capabilities. Therefore, I still would like to use the TC's NAS capabilities to share files on my network wirelessly assuming the Asus wireless router fails to provide this feature. I need a new and more powerful wireless router, but I need to maintain the TC's NAS features and seamless integration with TM. Finally, I want to continue to use my Apple laptop and AirPlay to wirelessly access and play my iTunes music collection stored on the TC's hard drive. I also want to continue to use my Apple laptop, AirPlay and Apple TV to wirelessly watch movies and TV shows stored on the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB. Can someone advise on how to set-up my existing TC with this new Asus wireless router in such a way to accomplish all of this?
Modem
Motorola SB6121 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem
Existing Wireless Router and Primary Wi-Fi Base Station - Apple Time Capsule
Apple Time Capsule MC343LL/A 1TB Sim DualBand (purchased June 2010, likely the Winter 2009 Model)
Desired New Wireless Router and Primary Wi-Fi Base Station - Non-Apple Asus
ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router
Extended Wi-Fi Base Station - Provides an Ethernet Connection to a Denon A/V Receiver Two Rooms Away from the Modem
Netgear Universal Dual Band Wireless Internet Adapter for TV & Blu-Ray (WNCE3001)
Addition External Hard Drive Attached to the Existing Apple Time Capsule via USB
WD My Book Studio 4TB Mac External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0
Existing Laptops on the Wireless Network Requiring Time Machine Backups
MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2012) OS X 10.8.2
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010) OS X 10.8.2
Other Existing Apple Products (Clients) on the Wireless Network
iPod Touch (second generation) is model A1288.
iPad (1st generation)
Apple TV (3rd generation) - Quantity two (2)

Thanks Bob Timmons.
In regards to a Plan B, I hear ya brother. I am already on what feels like Plan Z. Getting WiFi to a far off room in an apartment building crowded with WiFi routers is a major pain.
I am basing my thoughts on the potential of a new and more powerful router reaching the far off master bedroom based on positive reviews on cnet.com, pcmag.com and pcworld.com. All 3 of these web sites have reviewed the Asus RT-AC66U 802.11AC wireless router as well as its virtual twin cousin 802.11n router. What impressed me is that all 3 sites rated this router #1 overall in terms of both range and speed (in both the 802.11n and 802.11AC flavors). They tested the router in real world scenarios where the router needed to compete with a lot of other wireless routers. One of the sites even buried this Asus router in a media room with thick walls and inside a media cabinet. This Asus router should be able to serve my 2.4 GHz band wireless clients (iPod Touch and iPhone 4) with a 2.4GHz Wireless-N band offering some 50 feet of dependable range and a 60 Mbps throughput at that range. I am hoping that works, but it's borderline for my master bedroom. My 5 GHz wireless clients (laptops) will enjoy a 5GHz Wireless-N band offering 150 feet of range and a 200 Mbps throughput at that range. I have no idea what most of that stuff means, but I did also read that Asus could reach 300 feet and I got really excited. My mileage may vary of course and I'm sure I'm making some mistakes in my interpretation of their data. However, my Winter 2009 Time Capsule was rated by cnet.com to deliver real world performance of less than that, and 802.11AC may or may not be useful to me someday. But when this Asus arrives and provides anything other than an excellent and consistent wireless signal without drops in the master bedroom it's going right back!
Your solution sounds great, but I have some questions. I'm using OS X 10.8.2 and Airport Utility (version 6.1 610.31) and on its third tab labeled "Wireless" the top option enables you to set "Network Mode" to either:
Create a wireless network
Extend a wireless network
Off
Given your advice to "Turn off the wireless on the TC," should I set Network Mode to Off? Sorry, I'm clueless in regards to how to turn off the wireless on the TC any other way. Can you provide specific steps on how to turn off the wireless on the TC? If what I wrote is correct then what should the rest of this Wireless tab look like, or perhaps it is irrelevant when wireless is off?
Next, what do you mean by "Configure the TC in Bridge Mode?" Under Airports Utility's fourth tab labeled "Network" the top option "Router Mode" allows for either:
DHCP and Nat
DHCP Only
Off (Bridge Mode)
Is your advice to Configure the TC in Bridge Mode as simple as setting Router Mode to Off (Bridge Mode)? If yes, then what should the rest of this "Network" tab look like? Anything else involved in configuring the TC in Bridge Mode or is it really as simple as setting the Router Mode to "Off (Bridge Mode)"?
How about the other tabs in Airport Utility, can they all stay as is assuming I use the same network name and password for the new Asus wireless router? Or do I need to make any other changes to the TC via Airport Utility?
Finally, in regards to your Plan B suggestion. I agree. But do you have a Plan B for me? I would greatly appreciate any alternative you could provide. Specifically, if you needed a TC's Internet connection to reach a far off corner of your home how would you do it? In the master bedroom I need both a wired Ethernet connection for the Denon a/v receiver and wireless Internet connection for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Power-Line Adapters - High Cost, Blocks at Least One Wall Outlet and Does Not Solve the Wireless Need
I actually like exactly one power-line adapter, which is the D-Link DHP-540 PowerLine AV 500 4-Port Gigabit Switch. This D-Link power-line adapter plugs into your wall outlet with a normal sized plug (regular standard power cord much like any other electronic device) instead of all of the other recommended power-line adapters that not only use at least one wall outlet but also often block the second outlet. You cannot use a power strip with a power-line adapter which is very impractical for me. And everything about my home is strange and upside down. The wiring here is a disaster and I don't have faith in its ability to carry Internet access from the living room to the master bedroom. And this D-Link power-line adapter costs $90 each and I need at least two to make the connection to the Denon A/V receiver. So, $180 on this solution and I still don't have a dependable drop free wireless connection in the master bedroom. The Denon might get its Ethernet Internet connection from the power-line adapter, but if I want to use an iPhone 4 or iPod Touch to stream AirPlay music to the Denon wirelessly (Pandora/iTunes, etc.) from the master bedroom the wireless connection will not be stable in there and I've already spent $190 on just the two power-line adapters needed.
Extenders / Repeaters / Wirelessly Extending the Wireless Network
I have also read great things about the Amped Wireless High Power Wireless-N 600mW Gigabit Dual Band Range Extender (Repeater) SR20000G and the My Net Wi-Fi Range Extender. The former is very powerful and the latter is easier to install. Both cost about $150 ish so similar to a new Asus router. However, everything I read about Range Extenders points to them not being very effective for a far off corner of your house wherein it's apparently hard to place the range extender in the sweet spot where it both gets a strong enough signal to actually effectively extend the wireless signal and otherwise does not reduce network throughput speeds to unacceptable speeds.
Creating a Roaming Network By Hard Wiring with Ethernet Cable - Wife Would Say, "**** No!"
Even Apple seems to warn against wirelessly extending your network (see: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4145#) and otherwise strongly recommends a roaming network where Ethernet cable is used to connect two wireless base stations. However, I am in an apartment where stringing together two wireless base stations with Ethernet cable would have an extremely low wife acceptance factor (WAF). I cannot (both contractually and from a skill prospective) hide Ethernet wire in the walls or ceiling. And having visible Ethernet cable running from room-to-room would be unacceptable, especially to the wife.
So what is left? Do you have a Plan B for me? Thanks in advance for your help!

Time Machine Backup *from* basement (NAS)?

Hello:
I read multiple times that it is currently not possible to backup from a NAS via Time Machine. I have two questions:
1/ Can anyone explain why this is so?
2/ I have my iMac in my living room and would like to put an external hard drive with all my media files on it in the basement, because a) it is noisy and b) for security reasons. There is a network cable going to the basement, but obviously I cannot run a USB cable down there. I have a 2TByte-Time Capsule for backup and WiFi. Does anyone have a suggestion, what to do?
Thanks,
Hal

Thank you for the feedback, William. I am not sure how your suggestion would help with my problem, maybe I did not explain well enough. I do not want another hard drive in my living room, but rather in my basement. If I understand correctly, Time Machine only backups *from* the internal hard drive or external hard drives directly connected via USB, F/W, eSATA etc., but not network drives. Does your suggestion imply that I use a different backup software?

Centralized Time Machine Backup on RAID 6 enable NAS

Hello. I have over 100 Mac computers on my network. I want to have Time Machine backups on each of these machine to a Centralized RAID 6 enabled NAS. All Machines are running Snow Leopard. Can anyone please guide me how to setup this. Thank you in Advance.

Sorry, but you're going to need another solution. Time Machine doesn't back-up to NAS devices: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1733

Time Machine Backup to NAS

I am desperately trying to figure out how to back up my MacBook Pro to a NAS. I am having trouble figuring this out. Here is what I have done so far:
1. I have enabled Time Machine to work with NAS by using the following command: “defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1”
2. I rebooted the machine to make sure that the above was implemented
3. I determined my Computer Name and MAC Address of local computer by using the following command: “ifconfig en0 | grep ether | sed s/://g | sed s/ether//”
4. I tried to make a new “sparsebundle” on the local disk by using the following command: “sudo hdiutil create -size 500g -type SPARSEBUNDLE -nospotlight -volname "Time_Machine" -fs "Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+" -verbose ./[NAME][MACID]” --> Where [NAME] is the computer name and [MAC_ID] is my MAC address.
But … this process asked for a password. I tried every password I have and none worked. In short, there was no password.
5. I then looked up this error and learned that this is a problem with my “sudoers” file. Following the directions, I then changed the permissions to allow me to edit this file (I have a stand-alone MacBook Pro that is not part of a work network or controlled by an administrator, so I am also the administrator and don’t know why I had to do this in the first place).
This seemed to work and it processed the “sudo” comment, but then it gave me another error that said: “sudo: /etc/sudoers is mode 0666, should be 0440”
6. Continuing to follow the online help, I then rand the “Disk Utility” to fix the problem. But, this just seems to reset the “sudoers” file and I am back to the same problem identified in point #4 above.
So, now I am stuck and don’t know where to go or what to do. Any help would be appreciated very much.

New2MacBookPro wrote:
James: Thank you for the response. I did not realize things had changed.
Regarding the NAS, I do believe that my NAS (Buffalo Terastation) does support Apple Talk Protocol.
But does it support Apple File Protocol (AFP) file sharing, as specified in [Disks that can be used with Time Machine|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html]?
Second, Time Machine sees my NAS, but gives me the following error once is tries to execute Time Machine: "Time Machine could not complete the backup." and "The backup disk image "/volumes/Backup/[NAME].sparsebundle" could not be created (error 45)."
In short, it seems like it should work, but it is not.
Thoughts?
Some folks seem to have made it work to some Buffalo devices; I don't know one of their models from another, much less how they work. That's the downside of using a 3rd-party NAS with Time Machine; the two (very different) operating systems have to work together seamlessly. And when there's a problem, there aren't many folks familiar with both.
Double-check that the NAS's software and setup instructions are up to date, and that you've followed them to the letter.
Have you tried the Buffalo folks? AppleCare?

Nas on airport extreme not recognized by time machine. same nas was previously used as time machine backup on different airport extreme. are there any configuration files that i can delete to fix this problem ?

nas on airport extreme not recognized by time machine. same nas was previously used as time machine backup on different airport extreme. are there any configuration files that i can delete to fix this problem ?

Time Machine has been working just fine, but in the last week or two it has given up the ghost. I reset the connections to the drive, and it will basically save a few bytes of data and then hang.
Although Apple originally announced, prior to the release of the first 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Stations (AEBSn), that it would support Time Machine backups to AirPort Disks, they removed that option before they did finally release the base station for sale.
Since then, Apple has posted (as you have noted) that they DO NOT support Time Machine backups to AirPort Disks. As far as I know, they have not changed from that position and those who do these backups find that they become corrupted over time. Sorry, but it sounds like you just confirmed that for yourself.
1) Has one of the recent updates either on the AE (firmware) or OSX disabled this function?
No. Again, this feature has never been supported by Apple for every generation of AEBSn released.
2) Are there any changes I can make to get this working again?
If your data backups are critical to you, then you will want to use a different solution for your Time Machine backup destination drive strategy. I would suggest that you connect your WD My Book directly to your Mac in the mean time.
Your other options would be to either use a Time Capsule (which interestingly does support TM backups to AirPort Disks) or a non-Apple solution like the Drobo FS or HP MediaSmart server.

Time Machine Backup on a NAS

Hello,
I've recently started using Time Machine to backup my iMac to my external NAS (WD MyBookLive).
The backup was done correctly, however I want to know why can't I find the backup folders & files when I browse the NAS. Instead, the Time Machine backup appears as a separate "mount" among my Devices.
I know the backup is on the NAS, judging by the free space there, but I want to know why I can't locate and browse the folder & files of the backup there (even though I've enabled the hidden folders).
Regards,

http://pondini.org/TM/2.html

Time machine backup on NAS using WebDav?

Hi, I regularly use Time Machine to backup my mac on a NAS using my home network (Synology instructions are for configuration using the afp protocol). I have been travelling a lot lately and Time Machine backups on my NAS are not a choice. I’m using an external drive as a temporary strategy until back home. Anybody knows if it is possible to configure Time machine to backup on a NAS using WebDav protocol? If so, how to do it?
I appreciate any information / help with this.

Extremely unlikely.
It is possible to use Back to my Mac to back up to a Time Capsule over the Internet, but many folks can't get it to work; even when it does, it's very slow.
I've never seen any posts about it being done to any other Internet destination.

AEBS Ethernet NAS Hard Drive + USB Time Machine Backup

Hello,
I currently have an Airport Extreme Base Station, which I utilize the USB port for Wireless Time Machine Backups. However, I would like to know if it is possible to connect a NAS drive to the AEBS via Ethernet and still use the USB port for wireless backups for multiple Mac laptops simultaneously. The backups must also include whatever is on the NAS drive. Is this functionality possible?
Thanks!!

infamousirshad, Welcome to the discussion area!
...I would like to know if it is possible to connect a NAS drive to the AEBS via Ethernet and still use the USB port for wireless backups for multiple Mac laptops simultaneously.
Yes
The backups must also include whatever is on the NAS drive. Is this functionality possible?
No. Time Machine does not backup data FROM any network drive.

Due to NAS issues, when I started a new time machine backup it did not have the old backups available. My question is do I need to delete them or will time machine automatically reclaim the space? Only one Sparse Bundle, same name.

Due to NAS issues, when I started a new time machine backup it did not have the old backups available. My question is do I need to delete them or will time machine automatically reclaim the space? There is only one sparse bundle but when I enter time machine I don't see my historic backups. I use a synology DS212 for my time machine. Started a new backup which is 218gb but it says 618 gb is occupied therefore it looks like 2 or 3 backups are still on the disk. Before my NAS issues the last backup was in 2014. As you can see there is a second sparse bundle from 2012. Not sure what that is.

This is an old message now, but what happened to me similarly was:
I had a major computer crash and through complicated pathways ended up reinstalling (Mavericks) as a new user (long story).
At least I had good Time Machine backups on an NAS drive (Synology DS212j), or so I thought - when I started Time Machine up again, the old backup file was gone, replaced by a new one using my "new computer" name. The old file was gone both by directly mounting the NAS drive and by clicking "Enter Time Machine".
It's like I had {OldShareName}.sparsebundle and then it was replaced by {NewShareName}.sparsebundle, all of the old info vanished.
(I have spent a week finding old files elsewhere and have completed a satisfactory self-restore. It pays to "archive" [my own variation of] as well as "back-up".)
My belief is that if this were a wired-netword-drive, e.g. plugged right into my iMac with a USB cable, then the old file would have remained.
But this is an NAS drive, connected directly to my Airport wireless router, and I don't know the significance of the fact that it stores its Time Machine backups as "sparsebundle" files rather than simply as plain(er) files.
As usual when things get complicated with computers (not just Apple computers) there was never a warning message. Something like "YOU'RE ABOUT TO DELETE A TIME MACHINE BACK-UP FILE!!!" would have made my life a lot simpler.
BTW, I did try a "restore from Time Machine" option the first thing I had my "new computer" (old hardware, 2009 iMac) up and running, using Migration Assistant, and it ran for many hours and then failed in the wee hours - what that has to do with anything I'm not sure.
I'm not sure that I have a question about this other than "why do these things happen to me?", but it's a warning. Apart from that I've been very happy with the stability and reliability (but not the cost or set-up complexity) of NAS vs. directly-cabled external drives.
Charles

Partition external HD to use it for time machine backup and nas storage

i have a macbook pro with retina display with 500gb of ssd storage runing yosemite and a airport extreme latest model.
what i want to do is to use an external drive (1TB) and use it to hold all my files of my macbook, and i want to make time machine backups for each drive over airport extreme.
so i have made in my mind a backup plan and im not sure if it will work.
im planning to buy a 4TB external HDD and make 3 partitions, one for my macbook of 500gb, another for my external drive of 1TB and a third to use it as a NAS.
im not an expert in storage but i have read a lot from internet.
Thanks.

so i have made in my mind a backup plan and im not sure if it will work.
It won't work with TM..
TM will either backup the internal disk plus external or internal only.. it cannot backup external only. So there is no point using 3 partitions.. just two will work fine.
You can buy Carbon Copy Cloner and it will work fine doing backups of internal and external as separate items.. but it is better over network to backup as sparsebundles.. much faster than direct copying.. but it does work.
As a NAS.. an Airport Extreme plus USB drive.. is slow.. might be ok over wireless.. because the wireless is even slower.. but it is not ok over ethernet. A Time Capsule or a cheap single disk nas will work a lot better.
So your plan can be made to work.. just need some adjustments.
BTW be very careful what USB drive you buy. Not all work on the USB of the Airport routers.
USB drive compatibility with Airport Routers. Help make database.

Can the time capsule be used as both a time machine backup and NAS storage

Can the time capsule be used as both a time machine backup and NAS storage? I want to use the drive as external, wireless storage for all of my files so all my PCs, MACs and iOS devices can access the files. Plus, I want to use the drive for backing up my iMac via time machine. Can the time capsule device be used for both these purposes simultaneously? If not, are the other suggestions on how I can do this?

Can the time capsule device be used for both these purposes simultaneously?
It can, but is really not recommended. Sooner or later there will be a fight for space on the drive between Time Machine and the other files.
If you have plenty of free space on the drive, you can do this......but.....have you thought about how you will back up the "other" files that are stored on the Time Capsule?

Time Machine backup to my NAS drive (MyBookLive from WD) stopped working after Lion Upgrade

After my upgrade to Lion OS, I noticed that Time Machine backup failed to connect to my MyBookLive WD NAS drive. It was perfectly working while the machine was still on Snow Leopard. This is the error I am getting.
"The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features.
Open Time Machine preferences to select a different backup disk."
Any help with workaround would be greatly aprreciated. Thx for your help and support.

OK I ran into issues. I'm doing the play by play on Q18 for copying a locally connected backup to a network connected backup - so I start the backup with the backup disk connected to the TC and then stop it when the XXX of YYY copied shows up. I disconnect and connect the disk directly. The problem is I don't seem to have permission to mount the sparsebundle:
So I get info and click the lock and enter my admin password and change the everyone from no access to read and write. Then I try to open the sparsebundle and I get:
So I did that twice with the same effect. Then I noticed I can mount the sparsebundle if I leave it connected to the time capsule. So its mounted - good. Then I go into disk utility and try to erase the mounted "time machine backups" drive and it didn't like that much - I wish I took a screenshot but I didn't. It basically said I can't do that.
So now I don't know what to do. I'm currently starting a backup set fresh and this time letting it run to completion however I excluded my entire user account so the backup size is only 25 GB. When it finishes then maybe I can move the disk local and go in and see if I can mount the partition and erase the contents and copy over my backup file into the sparsebundle.
So does anyone know why I can't access that sparsebundle the way Pondini says I should be able to? Any suggestions? If my latest attempt doesn't work then I'll just do a full backup and say to heck with my history although that would be unfortunate.

How to move existent Time Machine backups to a NAS?

Hello everybody
I am not sure if I am posting this discussion in the correct community, so please move it to the right one in case you need.
Currently I am using a 1TB external hard drive to store all my time machine backups. This drive also contains other information (movies, photos etc). I bought a Western Digital MyBook World Edition II which is a NAS. I want it to move my Time Machine backups to my NAS. How can I do it? Just copy over the backups folder from the external hard drive to the NAS?
Thank you!
Gilson

That's just crazy slow.
It won't be fast, as the data can't go directly from the old disk to the new one. It must pass through your Mac, so is on the network twice, slowing the effective speed by roughly half. But that's awful.
There could be any number of causes, from bad ports or cables to problems with either drive or controller. I don't have any experience with modern RAID systems, but some of the older ones were extremely slow when there was a problem with one of the drives.
And it may get worse -- if the backups are damaged, the copy will fail and the result won't be useable.
About all I can recommend is the usual: it's always prudent to keep secondary backups. If you don't have any, I'd strongly recommend getting a (plain) external HD and making a "bootable clone" on it ASAP (that will probably slow the copy down somewhat). See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for details and some suggestions.
It wouldn't have to be a 2 TB drive, just the same size as your internal HD (or at least 10% larger than the data on it). You might consider getting a portable drive, so you can take it to a secure off-site location once you get your TM backups working to the new WD box. Then update it periodically.

NAS Harddisk Time Machine Backup

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