MBP and Netgear ReadyNAS NV+

Time Machine will not backup to a NAS. If you wish to backup to a NAS you will have to use backup software that can backup to a networked device. A backup to a NAS will not be bootable. Some files may not be compatible with the NAS' operating system such as Windows or Linux both of which are not compatible with OS X filenames and allowed characters in filenames.

Here's what can be used by TM for backups:

external FireWire or USB 2.0 drive
Time Capsule
drive shared by another Mac running OS X 10.5.x
drive shared by another Mac running OS X 10.5 Server
SAN volume managed by an Apple Xsan cluster

A NAS is OK for data storage but if it uses Windows or Linux there are potential problems. With both operating systems there are file naming problems due to special characters not allowed by Windows and/or Linux such as "/\|?*#:&$" which are all illegal on both OSes. Length of filename is another potential problem and may need to be truncated to 31 characters for compatibility. This was my experience using a D-Link NAS enclosure that used Linux as its OS. Furthermore, after much experimenting I found that using USB was too slow for practical backup. Although Ethernet was an improvement it wasn't too useful until you went to Gigabit Ethernet. However, for that to work successfully you have to convert all your network devices to Gigabit Ethernet. In my case I had to get the new AEBS, replace my two switches with Gigabit models, and replace all my Airport Expresses with the newer models supporting 802.11n. In the end I took the drives out of the NAS enclosure and now use them separately. Firewire 800 is much faster and I'm willing to put up with the need to plug and unplug on occasion.

Ready NAS NV+ does not work properly with Mac (though Netgear still thinks it does). After 4 months and 8 contacts to the "support" they were unable to get it running (or just did nothing):

- files can't be searched via spotlight (could make sense with 2 TB...)
- file services can't be switched of anymore
- "older" Macs 10.4 freeze sometimes when transmitting data

All of those problems had been reported on Netgear support pages - but with no result. *Keep you fingers away from Netgear NAS systems and Mac!*

Regards

Hi Darwin,

I will send it back to Hantz.com and try to get a Hydra 800+ (external raid) and connect to a Mini Mac (as I had it before). That's the most reliable solution ever and you can run whatever you want on that machine. Administration can be done with VNC (Chicken of the VNC).

http://www.macpower.com.tw/products/hddmulti/hydra/hydra_800plus

Fumisan