Using Time Machine in Corporate Environment

Hi, I have a question regarding time machine in a corporate environment. Instead of purchasing a time capsule, I thought it would be straight forward to share a large drive and have our ten Mac Pro computers share that drive for a time machine. This seemed to work for my test computer.
I then went to install it on one of our Mac Pros. I was able to map the shared drive but Time Machine did not recognize it. This made me take a step back and wonder if this use is even a good way to set it up. I read online where others were sucessfully setting up time machine using shared drives. Do I need to purchase a time capsule to use time machine on these ten computers? If so, will that configuration work over a wired network.
Thanks for any input.
-Stephen

soliveto wrote:
Hi, I have a question regarding time machine in a corporate environment. Instead of purchasing a time capsule, I thought it would be straight forward to share a large drive and have our ten Mac Pro computers share that drive for a time machine. This seemed to work for my test computer.
I then went to install it on one of our Mac Pros. I was able to map the shared drive but Time Machine did not recognize it. This made me take a step back and wonder if this use is even a good way to set it up. I read online where others were sucessfully setting up time machine using shared drives. Do I need to purchase a time capsule to use time machine on these ten computers?
No, not necessarily. You can connect one (or more) drives to one Mac. That Mac would back-up directly, of course; others on the same network can back up to the same drive(s) either via WIFI or Ethernet. See #22 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum. In this case, the Mac being backed-up directly should have it's own partition on the backup drive; the others could each have one, or could all share one.
You could back them all up to a Time Capsule (although with that many Macs, you'd almost certainly have to connect one or more USB drives to it for some of them to back up to). See #Q1 and Q2 in the Using TIME MACHINE with a TIME CAPSULE *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

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Using Time Machine & Superduper as backup solutions

I have a 2 TB firewire drive that I have partitioned into a partition for Time Machine and Superduper. My thought is to have a bootable backup using Superduper and use Time machine for individual user file storage and recovery. I also have Parallels running and the Vista environment under Parallels is about 200 GB. Time machine is always backing up that file if I have Parallels running, so i am excluding Windows Vista.pvm which is that environment. What else can I exclude safely from Time Machine that is just redundent if I am using Superduper.
I am going to schedule Superduper to run at 2:00 AM each day.
Any concerns or suggestions about my approach or are their any alternatives that would be better.

EricGAnderson wrote:
I am sure that I don't need a lot of system files
Yes, you do. First, they don't take up much space (they're only backed-up when they change); second, you can't do a full system restore without them. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #11, especially the pink box.
Superduper may be just as easy a way to restore a file like an app that does not change from month to month.
A "simple" app, yes. A "complex" one (typically one that came with its own installer), no. Those put other files in other places, and/or "helper" apps; if you don't also restore all of them, the app won't work properly.
Again, the space saved is rarely significant.
Message was edited by: Pondini

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Our old macbook was getting a gray screen with flashing ? on bootup. Eventually I restored it using Time Machine then decided to reinstall Snow Leopard since it would not boot. Machine now boots but is slow. Ran repair disc and tried to run repair disc permissions but got a message that it was cancelled by user.
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You may be smelling it because with the new OS the processor is having to work harder causing it to get hotter then it would with the other OS. I can't say there is nothing wrong, but what could be happening is just that, it's getting hotter so the fan is spinning faster and moving more air so you are getting more of the smell then you would before. I would still continue to back it up, and take it to the Apple Store at a Genius Bar and have them look at it to make sure. Was the computer ever in a smoky environment??

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Thanks for the response, Wyodor. I don't know what that is, but I'll have a look. Is it an alternative to iWeb or a way to transfer pre-existing iWeb sites? When you say merge domain files, is that like so multiple copies of the same site show up then you can pick and choose the non-corrupted pages and group them then delete the corrupted ones? I am on Snow Leopard with no plans or need to upgrade anytime soon.
And yes, I will read your links but just wanted to ask those questions. Maybe they'll answer my questions, maybe not.
I was able to discern that within the domain file is a domain folder with all the site folders, each with their own page ".gz" files which expand into ".xml" files. I was trying to figure out if you could simply drag the corrupt pages out that way and replace them with backup copies that are still good. I am having trouble discerning which pages are which as they all have random names like site-page-30F175E3-AE33-4F10-A490-1A096D9B185B.xml and although I expanded and opened each in Text Wrangler, I still couldn't discern which were which for sure, and trial and error proved cumbersome. Also, I did notice some of the later corrupted domain files had one or two more pages than the site itself has, so not sure how they got added or duplicated or what.
Again, I'll look at your links, but do you know about swapping out individual page .xml files this way within the domain file?

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

I'm using Time Machine and a LaCie external drive to backup. I also have a 8 GB LaCie flash drive I want to use for small jobs. If I plug the LaCie flash drive in, is my Mac going to think it is the LaCie external drive and start trying to backup?

no.

How to back up an external hard drive using Time Machine

I have a Macbook. I have iTunes. I have my iTunes folder and contents stored on an external (Lacie) hard drive. I want to be able to back up that external (Lacie) hard drive and my mac using Time Machine to a separate external hard drive. At the moment it is only my mac that is backed up, and not the Lacie. How can I also back up the Lacie so that only the recently added iTunes content is added? Cheers.

You may consider reading the detail in what third-party clone utilities could
do in regard to a backup clone and then use their utility to update that clone.
Once the copy/clone is made (a bootable backup, btw) the same utility can
be used to update the clone. Not certain how it works, and am a bit behind
on making backup bootable clones of my several Macs as it is. I do a whole
backup clone, though a partial or update supposedly is possible.
SuperDuper or CarbonCopy, I don't remember if one of them or both, do this.
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See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

How do you use Time Machine with more then one mac

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I will keep the hard drive connected to the iMac, but want to, as needed, plug my MacBook Pro into the Hard drive to back up.
Is this possible? Do I have first partition the new backup hard drive?
Any help is appreciated... Jim

Ok... I am back again.
I decided to plug my backup drive into the USB port on the Airport extreme.
On my Macbook Pro, which I connect wirelessly, I was able to start Time Machine... Time Machine saw the backup drive and did a backup.. Yes it took a long time Anyway all is cool with that.
My iMac is connected to the Airport Extreme by Ethernet. On the iMac when I started Time Machine, it does not see the backup hard drive. I can see and share the hard drive... works fine. But no luck with TM seeing the hard drive on the iMac.
Questions is will Time Machine work with a computer that is connected to airport extreme by ethernet. If yes how o you set it up and what might be wrong??
I might mention that the reason I have the iMac connected with an ethernet cable and not wirelessly is because the iMac does not stay connected well to the internet and when it is connected has a very slow connection. My MacBook Pro is all the way across the house and has a great connection.
I have guessed the slow connection was because the Airport Extreme sits right next to the iMac and maybe there is some kind of interference.
Thanks.... any help is appreciated.

HT201250 I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was?

I use Time Machine to back up my entire computer with my external hard drive. I am getting a brand new iMac this month and was wondering what is the process of using this back up to restore my new computer exactly how my old computer was? I want to make sure I will still have various important files on my new computer, like my songs in iTunes, my photos in iPhoto, etc, etc. Thanks so much in advance!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
When you turn on the new iMac for the first time, Setup Assistant will ask you to restore a backup, so connect the external disk and follow steps to restore all your files to your new iMac. Your new Mac will have the same settings and programs as your old computer.
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Every time I try to back up my Macbook Pro with an external hard drive using Time Machine, I receive the error of "the disk does not have enough space". I have a 500GB hard drive and only 120GB Macbook. It worked fine before the latest Maverick's

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My guess would be it has created an entirely new backup of your drive when you upgraded to Mavericks.
See Here: http://pondini.org/TM/1.html
And here: http://pondini.org/TM/9.html
Peruse the whole site. There is a lot of information there.

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I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

sydababy wrote:
and then deleting them off of my computer.
BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous. One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
follow here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. suggestions to complete backup please?

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. the same thing happens when just trying to save my pictures from iphoto to a flash drive. suggestions to complete backup please?

Sounds like you'll need to access that drive while it is not booted. You need to replace it anyway, so do that, then one way or another (ext enclusure, et), access it and copy files.
If you keep trying to boot it, you might kill it for good and not get your files, so just swap it out first.

I got a macbook pro 2008 and can not back up using time machine. it eject my external hard drive everytime. does someone has a fix???

i got a macbook pro 2008 and can not back up using time machine. it eject my external hard drive everytime. does anybody has a fix???

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Is your external hard drive formatted with the NTFS file system? It won't work.
It needs to be formatted either with Mac OS Extended or FAT32.
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HT201250 Do I need to partition my external hard drive if I'm using Time Machine and other storage?

I never used Time Machine before. I was storing select files on my external hard drive as well as using my libraries (IPhoto, ITune, IMovies) directly off of the external hard drive. That hard drive is giving me problems, so I bought a new one. I want to set up Time Machine on this one, but I also want to keep my active libraries on it. Do I need to partition the external hard drive?

You can partition the new drive, just don't make one of the partitons a TimeMachine drive, save a TM for a entire drive with more space than the boot drive as it saves "states" thus requires more room than most people expect.
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