Need advice on best approach for Time Machine on Macbook

I have several external disks attached to my iMac, one of which is the Time Machine disk for that computer. I just got a Macbook for my wife and I am trying to figure out the best way to use Time Machine with it. I am thinking the easiest would be to add another external hard disk to my iMac, make it sharable and have the Macbook Time Machine backup over the wireless network to that disk. That way it can back up no matter where it is in the house.
But I am new enough to the Mac that I don't know if that is 1) possible 2) the easiest. I got the sense that I could buy an Airport and attach a hard disk to that but it seemed like a kind of expensive solution.
Any comments/ideas? I am trying to do this as simply as possible without it costing a bunch.

bobmcgraw
Yes, in theory. This is exactly how i have been using time machine... however I have just come up against a major issue with this.
I was backing up my Macbook Air, by using a drive attached to my iMac, and the iMac was sharing the drive. I could happily connect, and configure time machine on the Macbook to use the drive, and away it went.....
Looking at the drive itself, I had a folder for my imac backups... and for the Macbook there was a 'sparsebundle' image.
All seemed well, and Time Machine functioned as expected on the Macbook Air.
The problem occurred when I decided to replace my Macbook Air with a new macbook. Once I had set up the new machine, I thought I could use the time machine backup to restore the new macbook with the old macbook Air's details (in much the same way as I would assume that I could restore back to a new unit if the old machine had failed).
Even with the time machine volume mounted on the new Macbook, the 'sparsebundle' Macbook air was simply not recognised as a backed up machine. Whenever I tried to use the migration assistant to restore back my data, the ONLY time machine backup that it would find on my Time Machine drive was the iMac's one... not the Macbook Air's.
So.... in short... If you chose this option, It is fine for backing up, and restoring as far as it goes... but beware if you ever need to restore the machine in its entirety using migration assistant or the like - as it doesn't seem to work.
Now I have discovered this, I really need to re-think my setup - perhaps share the volume by plugging it into my Airport Extreme Base Station.
The unfortunate situation is that the current backup is absolutely useless in its present form, as one of the things I need to protect myself against is machine failure,and I need to be able to restore a new machine to look like the old one. In this situation I was able to connect BOTH old and new macbooks to the network, and use migration assistant to migrate from one to the other. All was well there, but this would not have been an option if I did not have access to both machines.

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Best approach for Time Machine / Entourage / FileVault / sparse bundle disk

I am looking to set up Time Machine belatedly on my G5 to provide hassle-free backup for me and my family. I use Entourage. I also want to provide a small amount of encrypted storage. I’ve scoured the obvious places which have plenty of ideas, but nothing which pulls it all together.
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6. Perhaps there is another way to get the disk images backed up at logout other than using Time Machine.
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A. What is the best overall approach to providing a low-maintenance reliable backup which deals appropriately with Entourage and provides a small amount of encrypted space?
B. Can Time Machine be made to backup disk images other than FileVault disk images at logout? (for example is there a particular location / filename format for FileVault images which I could emulate with the other disk images to fool Time Machine into backing them up?)
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I don't know if there is a complete solution, but here are some things you could consider.
1. TM does not run automatically at logout unless FileVault is enabled.
2. You can change the backup period using third-party utilities like TimeMachineEditor - VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
3. You can exclude the Microsoft User Data folder from the TM backup and back it up separately using third-party backup software.
4. You can use third-party backup software instead of TM, such as:
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
9. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware)
10. Tri-Backup (Commercial)
11. Apple Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
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Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
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Just bought a 3TB Time Capsule for a small office. Will have 4 users with MacBooks. What would ne the best setup for time machine individual backups and internet sharing in a secure way?

Just bought a 3TB Time Capsule for a small office. Will have 4 users with MacBooks. What would ne the best setup for time machine individual backups and internet sharing in a secure way?

Set up each Mac for Time Machine backups in the normal way. Time Machine will keep each backup separate on the Time Capsule, so users will only be able to see the backups of their own Mac.
Yes....there are convoluted workarounds that might allow one user to see the backups of another.....IF...they know the administrator password of the "other" Mac.
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For example, you might limit the ability to connect to the wireless from say each Weekday from 8 AM to 6 PM.
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Hi theycallmefreddy,
How much of the 500GB HD do you intend to fill? My understanding of how to best maximize the backup efficiency of Time Machine is you want to use a HD that is at least the same capacity as your internal and preferably double the capacity. The larger the HD the more incremental backups it'll store before the drive is filled and "feathering" occurs.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/15137.html

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Message was edited by: Patrick Houlihan

Patrick Houlihan wrote:
If I get the Firewire 800 drive and daisy-chain the iMac > new 1TB drive > old 160GB drive, will the iMac to 1TB drive run at 800, or will the 160GB drive's limitation of Firewire 400 pull the speed of the whole connection down to 400? (If the latter is true, then it would be a waste of money to get Firewire 800.)
I believe it will operate the entire bus at the slowest speed, but can't say for sure.
Finally, the 1TB drive with a 32MB cache costs $20 more than one with a 16MB cache. Is a 32MB cache worth the extra expense for using with Time Machine?
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What is the best external hard drive for macbook pro I think I want firewire for storage and usb for time machine

I have a macbk pro. I think a usb external drive would be fine for time machine but I'd like a fire wire external drive to store files.
Any recommendations on brand? The last recommendations were dated 2006/7
I have been waiting for a 1TB g-drive. Apparently they are special order. I did not think I needed anything larger than 1 TB to backup the 500GB internal drive.
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Don't know about the Best... But I have been using these without any issues...
LaCie quadra D2 for Manual Backup and Clone Backup
LaCie Rikki for USB Time Machine
For Bootable Backups See
SuperDuper http://www.shirt-pocket.com/
CCC http://www.bombich.com/

What size HDD do you need for Time Machine is it the size of iMac HDD?

Ok, looking to buy iMac, to use Time machie do you need the same size HDD that is in your iMac? ie Im looking at getting the 250Gb iMac, so do I need a 250Gb external HDD to use time machine?
I plan to also get a NAS drive so can time machine be used with this or do you need n external HDD attached direct to the iMac all the time to use time machine?
cheers

the loc-man wrote:
so you can pick and choose what backup? eg Music, Pics, Docs, emails etc?
Yes you can choose everything or just parts.
does it compress stuff though to utilize the space better?
No, look here for more detail. http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/timemachine.html
its not like a ghost image?
Not that I know of.
so if the iMac had to be re-installed could you then reconnect the Time machine HDD and restore everything?
You could insert the Leopard disk and instead of doing a new install you could restore directly from the Time Machine Back Up. This depends on if you do a full back up or just parts of your system. Either way it is easy to recover your system using Time Machine.
Also if the external HDD is used for time machine is that all it can be used for? or can you also use it on other computers both Mac and PC?
It is best if you use Time Machine on a partition by itself. Then the other partition can be used for normal stuff.

Need advice on best approach for Time Machine on Macbook

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