Backing up a MacBook

bignev72

bignev72

bignev72

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Hi All,

Previously I used a well know workaround, easily found on the net, to allow me to use time machine to backup my Macbook to a windows share on a PC within my home network.

Each time OSX updates to a new iteration, this breaks and I have to go through the steps again. This hasn't been a huge issue until now. This doesn't seem to work with El Capitan, despite internet reports to the contrary.

I'm thinking of biting the bullet and just buying a Time Capsule to allow me to back the Mac up via my wireless. However these are quite expensive so wanted to see if there are better options available to me?

Does anyone know of some backup software that will allow me to back my files up to a windows share over my home network?
 
Yeah, either a USB hard drive or flash drive depending how much space you need, or if you want a network backup for simplicity then pretty much all the common retail NAS boxes support time machine as well. I'd recommend a NAS box personally, the same functionality as a time machine but cheaper (depending on your HDD choice) and will do a lot more besides.
 
What Phate says.

I'm using an old Netgear ReadyNAS that I picked up cheap and does a decent job for daily backups. In my experience however it's got a tendency to fail an integrity check every few months months for my laptop ... which highlights an issue. The *nix based third party NAS create a sparse image for each Mac. When Time Machine detects an inconsistency it stops backing up and requests permission to delete it and recreate a fresh backup. For that reason I attach an external drive every couple of weeks as they use a standard HFS file system so there's no issue with disk images going wonky and wiping out the entire history. Pretty sure it's not a quirk of the ReadyNAS, I had a similar problem when I used my FreeNAS server where it would corrupt in under a week.
 
Hi Guys,

I don't want to use a USB HDD because it's my wife who normally uses the Macbook. She tends to move around the house with the Mac so the HDD is likely to get unplugged at some point.

I would rather backup wirelessly so I know it's happening and she won't lose all her stuff.

Can someone give me some suggestions of a NAS to use? I presume any NAS will do providing it can be formatted in the required format?

In my mind the NAS/Time Capsule has to be formatted in an Apple format. So it can't be used for both PC and Mac. Or is this not the case? Or am I overthinking things here?
 
I'm sorry, but I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill here :p

How much data are we talking? Does she use the Macbook for work or is it just casual stuff? how often does the data change?

If it's just some documents are photos what about cloud storage?
 
MagicBoy said:
What Phate says.

I'm using an old Netgear ReadyNAS that I picked up cheap and does a decent job for daily backups. In my experience however it's got a tendency to fail an integrity check every few months months for my laptop ... which highlights an issue. The *nix based third party NAS create a sparse image for each Mac. When Time Machine detects an inconsistency it stops backing up and requests permission to delete it and recreate a fresh backup. For that reason I attach an external drive every couple of weeks as they use a standard HFS file system so there's no issue with disk images going wonky and wiping out the entire history. Pretty sure it's not a quirk of the ReadyNAS, I had a similar problem when I used my FreeNAS server where it would corrupt in under a week.
Click to expand...

How do you know it's corrupting?

I've been using my Synology NAS for time machine since last April and no errors and I've used it to reinstall my MacBook Pro a couple of times.
 
MagicBoy said:
Most NAS are *nix so will use a sparse disk image as per my previous post. The painless option is a Time Capsule.
Click to expand...

I don't think this will work as this is the method I had working in previous versions of OSX but doesn't work in El Capitan. You have to make it visible via Terminal for Time Machine to use the image but this no longer works.

Hence why I've started looking at other options. I guess cloud storage is the way too go. It's not really my preferred option but it will work. Will just be more work when the time comes to rebuild and/or restore.
 
bignev72 said:
Hence why I've started looking at other options. I guess cloud storage is the way too go. It's not really my preferred option but it will work. Will just be more work when the time comes to rebuild and/or restore.
Click to expand...

OSX has built in facilities to create a recovery disk, I'm not sure to what extent it does this (as in personal settings, additional apps etc) - but you could look into that and then use cloud storage for documents, photos and other bits?

Have a search on here, a few people have asked about cloud storage with good recommendations including apps which automate it all for you, so need not worry about it in the future :)
 
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