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willed · Mar 24, 2008 , 11:54 AM

Sorry if this is an obvious question, but can you use another Mac's HD to backup to with Time Machine? I'm getting a new laptop but could I use my old one, which has AirPort and an 80GB HD, as a place for easy TM backup? Or will I have to do this 'manually'?

Cheers,

Will

turtle777 · Mar 24, 2008 , 12:06 PM

I think it could work, but you would need to partition the HD.

Partition one would include the OS, partition two would be for TM.
The TM volume can't contain other stuff, AFAIK.

-t

Sourbook · Mar 24, 2008 , 12:11 PM

i never thought to try that. It's brilliant if it works.

turtle777 · Mar 24, 2008 , 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by Sourbook

i never thought to try that. It's brilliant if it works.

TM should work with any networked drive. It has to be "Extended - Journaled" format though.

-t

hookem2oo7 · Mar 24, 2008 , 12:56 PM

I'm using a dual 500 G4 as a server/time machine drive. It has a FW800 card with an external 200GB HD that it and 2 other computer backup to via time machine. Has been working fine since January.

travelinkid1 · Mar 24, 2008 , 01:27 PM

hey dynsight or any body else your office 2008 works ok.if it is what version are you running on your system. is it 10.4.9 or earlier. if it is not what version are you running

turtle777 · Mar 24, 2008 , 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by travelinkid1

hey dynsight or any body else your office 2008 works ok.if it is what version are you running on your system. is it 10.4.9 or earlier. if it is not what version are you running

Wrong thread ?

-t

mduell · Mar 24, 2008 , 01:49 PM

It's a hack unless the old Mac is running Leopard Server, but it can be done.

turtle777 · Mar 24, 2008 , 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

It's a hack unless the old Mac is running Leopard Server, but it can be done.

Yeah, seems like it. Not really a big hack, just a small terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

How to enable Time Machine on unsupported volumes - Engadget

-t

peeb · Mar 24, 2008 , 03:34 PM

If you booted the machine into target disk mode you should be able to just plug it in. I'm pretty sure the TM volume can contain other stuff.

slugslugslug · Mar 24, 2008 , 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

It's a hack unless the old Mac is running Leopard Server, but it can be done.

I'm 99% sure the old Mac just needs to be running Leopard (client), not Leopard Server.

Of course, if it doesn't need to be bootable, the OP'd get a few gigs back by wiping the drive and using Target mode. Although, some Macs run their fans super loud in target mode.

moep · Mar 24, 2008 , 04:37 PM

It even works on Tiger, although it requires a few workarounds.

The problem is that there's a bug (?) in 10.5.2 that prevents TM from creating a fresh sparsebundle on unsupported volumes.

I managed to get around this by manually creating the <hostname>_<MAC-addr>.sparsebundle with diskutil and then connecting the HD with this file to the 10.4.11 machine.
Turns out my impulse-bought Apple TV actually does have a use thanks to this and a 1 TB RAID-1 USB disk connected to it.

turtle777 · Mar 24, 2008 , 04:39 PM

Originally Posted by moep

It even works on Tiger, although it requires a few workarounds.

The problem is that there's a bug (?) in 10.5.2 that prevents TM from creating a fresh sparsebundle on unsupported volumes.

I managed to get around this by manually creating the <hostname>_<MAC-addr>.sparsebundle with diskutil and then connecting the HD with this file to the 10.4.11 machine.
Turns out my impulse-bought Apple TV actually does have a use thanks to this and a 1 TB RAID-1 USB disk connected to it.

Wait, you have that TM drive connected to Apple TV, and can use it with TM ?

-t

moep · Mar 24, 2008 , 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Wait, you have that TM drive connected to Apple TV, and can use it with TM ?

-t

Yeah, but it isn't running the original Apple-TV OS with backrow and whatnot.
I'm just using it as a low-power headless file/web/database server with a regular 10.4.11 installation on it. No more multimedia functions.

turtle777 · Mar 24, 2008 , 04:47 PM

Ahh, I see. So it's a hack, nonetheless.

-t

schalliol · 01:56 PM

It is not a hack! As long as both machines are running Leopard, it is supported.

Apple - Mac OS X Leopard - Features - Time Machine

Time Machine can also back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, Leopard Server, or Xsan storage devices.

That said, I'm having difficulty with reliability of backing up a MBP with a MP.

turtle777 · Mar 27, 2008 , 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by schalliol

It is not a hack! As long as both machines are running Leopard, it is supported.

Yes, it is.

I was responding to moep.

-t

schalliol · Mar 27, 2008 , 07:25 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Yes, it is.

I was responding to moep.

-t

In that case, I was responding to mduell. The point is that it's supported Leopard to Leopard. It sounds like moep was just talking about a workaround for a bug.

tridentinecanon · Mar 28, 2008 , 09:24 AM

Wish I had thought of this.

turtle777 · Mar 28, 2008 , 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by schalliol

In that case, I was responding to mduell. The point is that it's supported Leopard to Leopard. It sounds like moep was just talking about a workaround for a bug.

No, moep was talking about using Apple TV as a headless Mac. That's a hack, not a bug fix.

-t

analogue SPRINKLES · Mar 28, 2008 , 02:21 PM

My friend just easily set up his Linux server as a TM backup and it works great so there must be ways to do it on a mac.