How to backup an Airport Disk?

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Level 1

5 points

How to backup an Airport Disk?

Hello,

I have set up an Airport Extreme on my little network to allow the use of an HFS+ formatted external drive as a NAS. That all works fine, permissions and all, but I am having no luck in finding a way to backup the data on the drive.

I know from topics posted here that Time Machine will not do it but I cannot get other backup software to "see" the drive connected via the AE. I have tried Backup, SuperDuper & Carbon Copy Cloner so far.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received. 🙂

MacPro 2008, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Airport Extreme, IceCube Pleiades external

Posted on Jun 9, 2009 1:33 AM

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Answer 1

ricky.motown Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 10, 2009 7:17 PM in response to ricky.motown

Thousands of people using Airport Disks and nobody backing up the data on them? Surely not. 😉

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Answer 2

Jun 22, 2009 2:39 PM in response to ricky.motown

Ricky, unfortunately, I am in the same boat as you. Sorry I can't help, but at least this might bump the question up again. I am also facing the same challenge when it comes to data on an iDisk.

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Answer 3

ricky.motown Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 23, 2009 6:47 PM in response to Scott Owens

Thanks for the reply Scott and sorry to hear you are facing the same problem. I kept looking at backup programs and just downloaded the latest version (2.0.1) of SilverKeeper. It appears to be working - it's running for the first time now - but I will have to wait until I can test it to determine whether it is a real solution or not. Also, there are many people who have found SilverKeeper to be buggy and unreliable in the past, though this is not my experience, so not everyone will want to use it I suspect.

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Answer 4

Jamin100

Level 1

15 points

Jun 24, 2009 7:18 AM in response to ricky.motown

I have only just seen this topic and a few weeks ago i was in the same situation as you.

I've found a solution though.

I use a program called chronosync which will see a drive connected to the AEBS.

I then sync the AEBS drive to another USB drive which can be plugged in either directly to my mac or to the AEBS via a powered hub.

the software then copies everything from one drive to the other. 1st backup takes a while but then the rest are incremental.

Ben

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Answer 5

vegaz

Level 1

30 points

Jun 24, 2009 12:20 PM in response to Jamin100

Jamin100 wrote:
I use a program called chronosync which will see a drive connected to the AEBS.

I second that. I use Chronosync since at least 2 years in this exact scenario, and it works flawlessly, if you configure it correctly. I strongly advise to use the option to ignore hidden files (the ones with the dot at the starting of the name).

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Answer 6

ricky.motown Author

Level 1

5 points

Jun 24, 2009 4:33 PM in response to ricky.motown

Looks like there are at least 2 programs that will work with Airport disks - SilverKeeper, which is free & ChronoSync, which is US$40.

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

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Answer 7

Averylen

Level 1

0 points

Jul 13, 2009 8:16 AM in response to ricky.motown

I just found this thread looking for the solution to the same problem.
I haven't tried it yet, but for what it's worth, someone on Mac Rumors recommended I try Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.

I'm quite miffed that Apple sold me the Airport Extreme in a large part due to how easily it can create a NAS and now it's own Time Machine software won't back it up.

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