Time Machine on (2) Mac's using (1) AirDisk

I have two Macs:
- iSight iMac
- MacBook
both connected via ethernet to a home network.
I have a Western Digital (WD) 500gb drive connected to an Airport Extreme (N) as an AirDisk.
I had been using TimeMachine for both machines fine for a few months. Single partition on the WD.
Over the past few weeks, TM has been nothing but trouble. Disks are either not being seen in the TM disk chooser or TM starts back-up and then reports "disk could not be mounted". I've tried all the tricks reported here...Only to have it fail a day of two later. I've run DU and DiskWarrior on the WD drive.
I'm now starting to think that something has changed with the OS Updates and that I need a partition for each TM back-up.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
I am so frustrated I'm really ready for CCC or SuperDuper, whichever one will provide ability to backup over a network...
With so many people reporting issues with TM, I'm wondering if this s/w is ready....
THANKS!

Wow, thanks for that tidbit...
Apparently Apple has flip-flopped on the issue as reported here...
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/04/08/applesays_time_machine_over_airport_disk_is_unsupportedfeature.html
I started using the TM & Airport solution as soon as it was announced in April, as a result of a firm-ware upgrade....and then the flip-flop....
If its not supported, I'm not going to tinker...I've wasted too many cycles on similar efforts...
THANKS AGAIN !!!

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How do I use Time Machine on my Mac to back up files stored on an AirDisk?

I have a Macbook Pro 17-inch, Mid 2009, with a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I use an external HDD connected directly to my Mac via FireWire 800 for Time Machine backups. I have an external HDD connected to my Airport Extreme (Gigabit) router that I use for file storage. My iTunes library and iPhoto library are both stored on this AirDisk. Can I use Time Machine on my Mac to back up the files that I store on my AirDisk? If so, then please describe how to do so. Thank you for your assistance.

Unmount and physcially disconnect the TimeMachine drive and reboot the computer without it being connected.
Reboot the comptuer with the disk inside the machine holding the option or c key down, select the disk to boot from.
Second screen in is the installer, under the Ulitites menu is Disk Utility.
Use Disk Utility to Erase with Security option Zero all Data if your planning to wipe the drive and install 10.6
Don't do the above if your simply reinstalling only OS X 10.6 to cure a problem with it.
How to reinstall just OS X or erase/install OS X
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6

I am trying to upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard. When I insert the disk and install starts, it states "This disk is used for Time Machine backups" and Mac OSX can't be installed. Does anyone know how to correct this (since Tiger doesn't have Time Mach

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http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2986

How to import mailboxes from Time Machine to new Mac

I had Time Machine backing up our old G5. We got a Mac Pro back in November and I never was able to import the mail from the G5 to the Mac Pro so I left it alone and just kept using mail on the old G5. Well, the G5 took a dump last monday. I currently have the Time Machine backup for that computer connected to our Mac Pro (but not using it as backup yet). So, the mail from the G5 should be on the Time Machine backup right? If so, can I import it into Mail on the Mac Pro?
I also pulled one of the hard drives from the G5 and have it in the Mac Pro in the 2nd bay just to make sure that HD wasn't dead. It works fine and I tried importing the .mbox files from that drive but it appears that all the mail on that particular drive are from like 2006. So, again, I need to find out how to import mail from the Time Machine drive. Any thoughts?
10.7.4
Mail 5.2

Back up what data? Mail data? I don't have any yet. I haven't used Apple Mail on this Mac Pro yet.
Edit: Launching Mail and holding Option right afterwards does nothing. Holding down option and then launching Mail does nothing.
Oooooh.... launching time machine while holding down option......
Edit again.... I don't have a Time Machine menu because that disk is not currently set up as time machine for the Mac Pro yet. I don't want to use it as a backup for this computer yet. I just want to be able to pull some of the backed up contents from it until I'm set.

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.

HT201250 how do I disable time machine? I want to use my external drive as additional storage. But it mirrors everything I edit. If I remove a document, it removes it from the external drive as well.

how do I disable time machine? I want to use my external drive as additional storage. But it mirrors everything I edit. If I remove a document, it removes it from the external drive as well.
I purchased a 1 TB WD passport drive, formatted for Mac. I set it up originally (mistakenly) to backup time machine. I went back and set it to "do not backup" It still backs up evey document I edit. If I add a document when the drive is disconnected, it automatically adds it to the external drive the next time connect to the passport drive. If I remove a document the same thing happens.
I need additional storage to free up space on my laptop hard drive. This is not working the way I want it to. Help!

Do not backup your startup volume to another partition on the same drive. If the drive fails you have nothing. Always backup to another drive or volume on another drive.
The I/O error usually means there's a problem with the drive. Clone ASAP, then repartition and reformat the main drive. Then restore the clone. Here's the basic process:
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the external one.
Boot from the external hard drive.
Erase the internal hard drive.
Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Do not quit Disk Utility.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.

HT201250 How can I reinstall Time Machine on my Mac? I just put it on my back up and all its content has disappeared.

Could someone tell me if I can reinstall Time Machine on my mac? My back up has all my photos on it and time machine has deleted them all.

Go to the Time Machine Preferences window and turn the big slider to OFF. You might also select the "None" disk as a destination.
Then erase or reformat the disk. See Using Disk Utility if you're not sure how.

Two separate time machine backups on Mac

I had a Mac from 2006. Bought a new one in 2011. I have a time machine back up from my old mac.. This HD was damaged in 2010 and recently repaired. I bought a new HD and used it with time machine on my new mac. I am looking for something on my old Time Machine... Specifically iTunes playlists.. They are very difficult to find by just searching through the back up folder.. What I want to do is, enter the old time machine on my old HD and export some of the iTunes playlists to my new HD. Then of course go back to my current time machine back up and continue using my computer... Can I do this? and Can I have both Time machine devices connected to the computer at the same time?

You should be able to have both connected.

Automatic Time Machine backups to Mac on local network

Hi,
I've got a headless Mac mini on my network that just runs as a fileserver and doesn't need to be backed up with Time Machine, but it's a convenient place to attach an external USB drive so that my PowerBook and MacBook can back up to it wirelessly.
When I first set up Time Machine on each laptop, the backup disk showed up under 'Change Disk...' in prefs -- I guess the disk was already mounted. The initial backup took forever but worked fine, and subsequent backups have worked fine too. (Everything's running 10.5.2, by the way.)
The problem is that, when the remote drive becomes unmounted (e.g. when I take a laptop to work and back), Time Machine stops backing up automatically until the drive is manually remounted or the "Backup now" option is chosen under the Time Machine menu. When left to its own devices it just sits there forever in "Next backup: When Mac is plugged in" mode, which isn't really what I want -- I was hoping to "set & forget".
So I suppose my question is: can I fix this by actually enabling Time Machine on the Mac mini, rather than just treating the drive as a vanilla network share? I've noticed that the remote drive icon changes when Time Machine is enabled, and maybe there's some other magic going on there too, e.g. to advertise the drive somehow so that Time Machine knows it can automount it at backup time, instead of sitting around waiting for me to do it. I don't want to actually back up any of the Mac mini's files but presumably I can tell Time Machine to ignore (almost) everything on its local drive when performing the backup, just for the sake of having Time Machine turned on.
On the other hand, I don't want to mess around with it if I'm not going to see any improvement, because at least things are working right now. In particular I'm not keen to go through the whole initial backup again, especially for no reason.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Cheers,
-Tom

BilFish II wrote:
I have a similar problem, but didn't quite understand the solution...
time machine/capsule backs up my macbook. Just got an imac, and copied the image to it. Didn't realize it REALLY copied the image to it... so Time Machine decided the new imac was the macbook.
No. Time Machine always knows which Mac is which, via an identifier that's embedded in the hardware on the logic board.
But it did copy the +Computer Name,+ which you can change via +System Preferences > Sharing.+
And it did copy the Time Machine preferences file (with the backup location you specified), so it backed-the new Mac up to the same destination.
Now Time Capsule backs up the imac... but not the macbook anymore.
There is still a 425GB sparsebundle for the old macbook on the Time Capsule...
Depending on how you answered this prompt, there may be two sparse bundles:
|
|
See #B5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for details.
If you said +Create New Backup,+ there should be two sparse bundles, one for each Mac.
If you said +Reuse Backup,+ there should be one, containing the backups from both, and as it says, the MacBook can no longer use the same set of backups.
Question: Is there a way to reattach to that sparsebundle for backing up the macbook or do I have to start all over?
Probably. First confirm whether there's one sparse bundle or two, and roughly how many backups of the iMac you've done.

Time Machine for both Mac and Windows side of BootCamp

Can I use my external hard drive to backup both the Mac side and the windows side of BootCamp? I am using Time Machine for the Mac side, and I know that WinXP doesn't have Time Machine software. Can I use the hard drive when I'm on the Windows side as I would on any Windows machine, and move files under "My Computer"?

Can I use my external hard drive to backup both the Mac side and the windows side of BootCamp?
ONLY if you partition the external and use Winclone for windows-but leave as much space as possible for TM.
I am using Time Machine for the Mac side, and I know that WinXP doesn't have Time Machine software. Can I use the hard drive when I'm on the Windows side as I would on any Windows machine, and move files under "My Computer"?
Yes.
Without special software, the windows partition can't even see your OS X partition.
Good luck!

Having downloaded Mavericks to my IMac I now find Time Machine couldn't back up to the Time Machine HDD. I am using a WD 1TB independent Hard drive

Having downloaded Mavericks to my IMac two weeks ago, I now find Time Machine couldn't back up to the Time Machine HDD. I am using a WD 1TB External Hard drive. I understand that a number of people have lost data since installing Mavericks on their Western Digital external drives. Has anyone any futher info. Or is there a better way of backing up my computer. Thanks. Lee

Check the More Like This section at the right particularly i upgraded my imac hard drive to a 2tb drive. how do i use time machine to get my computer back to normal?

Can I access my Time Machine from another mac?

My current mac (an iBook G4, early 2005) has I think died irreparably. I'm waiting to see if it can be repaired but in the meantime I'd like to know if I can plug my Time Machine into another Mac (either a friend's or a family member's, both have 2006 MacBooks) and be able to access my stuff? I read elsewhere in the forum that this was possible if you were setting up a new mac, but I won't be able to buy a new computer for a while and need quite badly to be able to get at my documents.

yes, it's possible. plug it into the other computer. control-click on TM inthe dock and choose" browse other Time Machine disks".

Hi, I used an external hard drive as a time machine,now I want to use it on a windows PC as a normal hard drive again. How do I "reformat" the time machine to an normal usb-device?

Hi, I used an external hard drive as a time machine,now I want to use it on a windows PC as a normal hard drive again. How do I "reformat" the time machine to an normal usb-device?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+format+hard+drive

Is there any way to get back my data if I had not restored it from time machine before reinstalling Mac OS X on my comp from utility. PS - My OS version has downgraded from Mountain Lion to Mac OS X 10.75 . Pls. help

Is there any way to get back my data if I had not restored it from time machine before reinstalling Mac OS X on my comp from utility. PS - My OS version has downgraded from Mountain Lion to Mac OS X 10.75 . Pls. help

Look at the blue box on this link:
http://pondini.org/TM/19.html
Ciao.

I would like to set up a homegroup with a new Macbook Pro and 2 Windows PCs. The PCs are wired to an Airport Time Machine and the Mac is wireless. All computers have internet through the Airport Time Machine.

I would like to set up a homegroup with a new Macbook Pro and 2 Windows PCs. The PCs are wired to an Airport Time Machine and the Mac is wireless. All computers have internet through the Airport Time Machine.

The method for setting up file sharing is described here:
http://homepage.mac.com/rfwilmut/notes/sharing.html

Time Machine on (2) Mac's using (1) AirDisk

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