Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!


Click here to return to the '10.5: Set up Time Machine on a NAS in three easy steps' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
10.5: Set up Time Machine on a NAS in three easy steps
Authored by: Analog on Aug 20, '08 07:12:37PM

My laptop drive failed a few weeks after I added the ability to use Time Machine over the network via this tip. While I was able to retrieve the data, I'm glad I was using it as a secondary backup when trying to figure out how to restore from a network backup.

As a result of my experience I do not recommend using Time Machine over the network unless you're positive you have the means and ability to restore your data.


Notes:
If you boot from the installer, open terminal, use the write defaults command, the TM volume will NOT show up. If there is in fact a way to have it show up while booted up off the DVD (and after having run the "write defaults" command,) I'd love to see it!

For future reference here is the path I took to restore from a network TM backup, iirc:
- installed 10.5 on an external drive, booted off that and copied the sparsebundle over, since my server doesn't support sparsebundles (yeah I could have mounted it over the network but I wanted things to be local)
- mounted the sparsebundle and cloned that to a second external drive.
- While waiting for my internal drive to be replaced, I installed a spare 2.5" internal sata drive. I'm mentioning this because I booted off the install dvd, used the Time Machine data from the second external drive to restore all my data to the internal. Then when I got the replacement drive I just swapped the drives and did a straight clone.

YES the path I took could have been more efficient, such as making use of target disk mode and partitions. For my hardware situation it worked well. I am simply trying to make the point that until Apple officially supports this, don't rely on it as a single backup solution. Just pony up for a normal hard drive or use another method. my .02.



[ Reply to This | # ]