Change Computer Name after first TC backup

Question

Change Computer Name after first TC backup

Has anyone tried changing their Computer Name after the first TC backup. The sparse image created on the TC which contains the backup has the computer name as the first part of its name, presumably any change of computer name would have to automatically change the name of that sparse image. I would like to change the name of my iMac from the default but don't want to do this if I have to do a brand new full Time Machine backup afterwards.

MacBook Pro C2D 15", Mac OS X (10.5.2), iMac 24" 2.8GHz

Posted on Mar 9, 2008 12:53 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 9, 2008 10:06 AM in response to Richard Starling

You can erase the disk and start over. Or if you're afraid your hard drive will crash while you're doing that, you can just let it create the new backup and then remove the old one.

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Answer 2

Mar 9, 2008 1:17 PM in response to Justin LaPre

Justin, Thanks but the point is I don't want to create a new backup, I want to know if renaming the computer will rename the Time Machine backup so I can just keep on doing incremental Time Machine updates of the orriginal backup.

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Answer 3

May 10, 2008 5:48 AM in response to Richard Starling

I too am looking for an answer to this question.

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Answer 4

May 12, 2008 4:53 PM in response to Richard Starling

I have changed the computer name (in System Pref: Sharing) of an iMac on our network after the initial backup to TC. There was no problem. This is due to the fact that TC uses the MAC address (also called Ethernet ID) to differentiate machines connected to it.

You can see your machine's MAC address in the advanced area of the Network SysPref under the Ethernet Tab. This number is also in the .sparsebunle idisc image created by TC.

Good luck with the name change.

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