AEBS and external Hard disk

Turbo-G

Turbo-G

Turbo-G

Associate
Joined
6 Jan 2009
Posts
1,191
Guys,

I have an Apple Extreme Base Station which provides me with all my wifi needs. However, I am looking at buying a rMBP to compliment my 2010 iMac... therefore I will need a backup solution.

I currently backup to a 2TB WD disk, connected solely to my iMac for Time Machine purposes.

Am I right in thinking I can connect a spare external hard drive via USB to the AEBS downstairs, and use Time Machine to backup my rMBP to the newly network attached hard disk over the air?

Thanks,

Grant
 
Coolio. Now to decide, top spec 13" rMBP or lower 15". Swaying towards the 15" for the quad core CPU and dedicated graphics for only £100 more.
 
I'd strongly advise against using an external drive with an AEBS for Time Machine backups. Many people (including myself) have had major issues, with backups not working and corrupting, backup drives failing to be found (even though the drive is easily accessible in Finder), among others. The issues are known, and it's really not a recommended configuration (this is ignoring the fact that Apple don't support it themselves - that's a different matter). Better solutions would be:
  • Time Capsule - which unfortunately means that your external drive would be left unused. Would be the best solution if you didn't have that external drive.
  • NAS - how well this works depends entirely on that particular NAS, so YMMV. On the plus side, if you're willing to, you could rip the drive out of the enclosure and use it in the NAS. Personally would avoid this route.
  • External drive into iMac - two partitions on the external drive (one for the iMac, one for the MBP), set up sharing on the iMac, and backup through that. If you don't use the laptop for work at all while at home, this technically has no drawbacks. Best solution out of these, not perfect though. Technically, this is what I'm doing, but I'm using a Mac mini that is running as a NAS instead.
As for the 13" rMBP vs the 15" standard, what will you be doing with this machine? Unless you know that you will need the power of the 15", the 13" rMBP makes the most sense, for obvious reasons.
 
Swap the AEBS for a Time Capsule. That way, the TC can backup your MBP and your WD can back up your iMac directly :)
 
lamboman said:
External drive into iMac - two partitions on the external drive (one for the iMac, one for the MBP), set up sharing on the iMac, and backup through that. If you don't use the laptop for work at all while at home, this technically has no drawbacks. Best solution out of these, not perfect though. Technically, this is what I'm doing, but I'm using a Mac mini that is running as a NAS instead.
Click to expand...

You don't even need to partition it. Remote backups use a sparse image, so there's no worry of it going mad and taking over your entire drive :)
 
I don't really want to replace the AEBS with a TC as I haven't had it all that long.

The laptop will predominantly be used for general use, plus aperture and a few other apps, mainly at home but occasionally remotely.

My iMac is never shut down, always left in a 'sleep' state. Presumably my MBP would be able to access the USB attached WD drive via 'sharing' wirelessly to make a Time Machine backup?

Sounds good if so, not sure how this can be any more reliable than attaching a drive to the AEBS though?
 
Turbo-G said:
My iMac is never shut down, always left in a 'sleep' state. Presumably my MBP would be able to access the USB attached WD drive via 'sharing' wirelessly to make a Time Machine backup?
Click to expand...
Yep. I think you can also configure Wake On LAN for the iMac as well.

Turbo-G said:
Sounds good if so, not sure how this can be any more reliable than attaching a drive to the AEBS though?
Click to expand...
Nobody really knows, it just doesn't work very well at all!
 
You already have the drive and the AEBS - you have nothing to use by trying it.

I use an external drive on an extreme and I've never had any trouble with it.

Saying Apple 'don't support it' isn't really true. You can select an airport drive from the Time Machine menu, that sounds pretty supported to me.

There's no hack or workaround, airport drives show up just like USB drives. When it's time for backup, it mounts the drive if it's not already mounted and backs up.
 
PardonTheWait said:
You already have the drive and the AEBS - you have nothing to use by trying it.

I use an external drive on an extreme and I've never had any trouble with it.

Saying Apple 'don't support it' isn't really true. You can select an airport drive from the Time Machine menu, that sounds pretty supported to me.

There's no hack or workaround, airport drives show up just like USB drives. When it's time for backup, it mounts the drive if it's not already mounted and backs up.
Click to expand...

I agree, nothing to loose, but it is worth mentioning that many have huge problems with it. It works for you, great. I've read more stories of it failing than working, and have experienced it failing my backups around on a regular basis (weekly).

As for support, just because you can doesn't mean it's officially supported. It isn't supported by Apple, for whatever reason. Possibly because it has proven to be far more unreliable than expected (I think it used to be supported, but don't quote me on that one).
 
I take it back:

OS X Lion: Disks you can use with Time Machine said:
Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk connected to an AirPort Extreme, or to an iPod, iDisk, or disk formatted for Windows.
Click to expand...

I didn't know it was actually a complete no-go according to Apple. All I can say is that mine has very occasionally not found it but will always find it if you mount it yourself and get it to back up again. Also this hasn't happened in months and months. Mine's dual-band, one of the first generation of those I think (3/4 years old?).

I'm still looking around for a decent NAS, I think I will eventually have to bite the bullet and get a Synology but I'm saving to move out right now so it's off the table. Tried an £80 Iomega 2TB NAS/DLNA server which was utter, utter rubbish and a perfect example of something being too good to be true.
 
PardonTheWait said:
I take it back:

I didn't know it was actually a complete no-go according to Apple. All I can say is that mine has very occasionally not found it but will always find it if you mount it yourself and get it to back up again. Also this hasn't happened in months and months. Mine's dual-band, one of the first generation of those I think (3/4 years old?).

I'm still looking around for a decent NAS, I think I will eventually have to bite the bullet and get a Synology but I'm saving to move out right now so it's off the table. Tried an £80 Iomega 2TB NAS/DLNA server which was utter, utter rubbish and a perfect example of something being too good to be true.
Click to expand...

In all fairness you weren't wrong, as it can actually do it. My AEBS is a current 5th gen, and when running an external drive for backups, it was very patchy.

Worth noting actually, but running an external drive on the Mac mini wasn't much better, IIRC.

As for NASs, long out of touch with those, all I currently know is that QNAP and Synology are the best choices generally!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom