External HD Advice

[Tommy_C]

Morning All,

Having had the power supply die last week on my iMac (replaced under applecare) I've realised it's really time I backed up all my stuff.

So, I'm going to start using time machine and backing up all my music/photos etc. - but what's the best HD? I've not got LOADS of stuff, maybe 150GB of photos/music/films etc. max

Bit of research seems to suggest the Western Digital gear is pretty sound, something like their My Book for Mac?

All advice appreciated.

 

[DannyR]

Time machine only backs up to a time capsule I believe. Will need to run third party software to a different HDD as far as I'm aware as have tried with customers Macs

 

[SnapMonkey]

Time machine only backs up to a time capsule I believe. Will need to run third party software to a different HDD as far as I'm aware as have tried with customers Macs

Not true, I'm running a 500GB Iomega off Time Machine with no issues at all.

Any powered HDD should work, must be formatted to Mac OS to work, this can be done in Disk Utility.

 

[DannyR]

Possibly due to trying it with a NAS drive not a USB drive thinking about it!

 

[Revels]

Time machine only backs up to a time capsule I believe. Will need to run third party software to a different HDD as far as I'm aware as have tried with customers Macs

That's completely wrong.

 

[welshname]

Time machine will back up to any HDD.

FML.

 

[Sym0n]

Possibly due to trying it with a NAS drive not a USB drive thinking about it!

Time Machine backs up to my ReadyNAS. As an added bonus you still get all the same error messages that every other Time Machine user gets, happy days.

 

[DannyR]

Hmm I couldn't seem to find anyway of doing it? Was with a Netgear ReadyNAS too. Didn't seem to be an option to choose a drive on network.

Is it available to do throughout OSX?

 

[Sym0n]

ReadyNAS Frontview -> Backup -> Time Machine.

Set the password and amount of available space on the HDD, then enable and apply the setting. That's it done that end. Then on OS X enter Time Machine prefers and search for available drives, the ReadyNAS will show up there so select it. Enter the username (ReadyNAS) and password that you set and you're done.

This is all off the top of my head btw so I may have missed a few steps.

 

[DannyR]

Ahh I see, its also backing up from a Windows PC. I'll do that then next time in there.

Cheers Sy

 

[Sym0n]

I still use it to host all my docs, music and films. So I sill stream from it and carry out regular backups from my other external drive and apart from the regular TM errors and general bullshit it does it al flawlessly. Any problems gimme a shout and I'll try to help.