Time Machine with AirPort Extreme?

OlivierMyre wrote:
I partitioned {the external HDD} 500/500 with the first 500 for Time Machine, and I made the first backup manually (plugged in my MBP).

Now I want to start backups again but it won't save, it begins, with the good disk, etc. but stops at beginning saying that the disk is not good, or whatever and asks me to choose another...

the Apple papers specify that I CAN configure my AP Extreme but I never found how??

dr average wrote:
At an Apple Store in my neighborhood, the sales people and the tech people all suggested that instead of buying Time Capsule, in which one problem knocks out two devices, I buy APExtreme and a separate (WD) hard disk for backing up.

So I did so.

I have not been able to get it to work with Time Machine, and now I know why. Is it possible to make it work responsibly without Time Machine but a different backup utility, or is that "dangerous," "iffy," etc too? If it is possible, do you have a recommendation?

dr average wrote:
Thank you. The piece about Time Machine and APExtreme was one of the things I had seen, along with your own postings, that made me realize the Apple sales folks had misled me. BTW, that was the second time they misled me. The first time, a salesperson sold me APExpress with a self-powered USB hard disk. When I failed to set it up I went back, and the next salesperson exchanged it for an APExtreme and a plug-powered hard disk.

Follow-up question, then. We have a bunch of Mac laptops, no desktops. So the choice is exchange both for a Time Capsule, with the potential that a problem in one component takes down the other, or keep Extreme and the hard disk, connect the hd to a laptop, and backup all the computers that way?

Sorry, another question: what about using an ethernet network hard disk with Airport Extreme? Does this work, or does it have the same problems as USB?

dr average wrote:
a salesperson sold me APExpress with a self-powered USB hard disk.

Hello. I've just started successfully running Time Machine wireless backups (via the latest Airport Extreme) from two MacBook Pros to my 2 TB LaCie external hard drive (with separate partitions for each computer and have a third partition for shared files). Actually, since I’m running the LaCie in RAID, I’ve got 1 TB available, but have the data on two disks within the unit (I also have a spare disk should one fail).

Since I store a large iTunes and an Aperture library on my MacBook Pro, I used an Ethernet connection to save time on the first backup. Additionally, to plan for bad events, I'm going to backup the LaCie monthly to a portable 1 TB hard drive (that I have on order) and then take it to another location (I don’t want to use “cloud-based” backups because they take too long).

I think this represents a good approach that balances convenience (wireless backups will happen when the computers are not running on batteries, as opposed to not happening if I have to manually plug-in each one to the external drive) and security (even the shared files that are not being backed-up by Time Machine are backed-up to a degree on RAID and fully on the portable drive). Since I can’t attest to the robustness of Time Machine/Airport Extreme backups, as I’ve only started doing it, the portable drive is my backup - to the backup! What do you think?

Aceydozz wrote:

Hello. I've just started successfully running Time Machine wireless backups (via the latest Airport Extreme

You're playing with fire. It's not supported by Apple for a reason: it's unreliable. There are many, many posts here saying that worked for some number of days, weeks, or months, but then suddenly the backups were corrupted. Having two copies via a RAID will not help.

I'm going to backup the LaCie monthly to a portable 1 TB hard drive

That's not a particularly good idea. See #27 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions for an explanation and some suggestions.

Thanks for posting a reply, Pondini. I changed the wireless backups to wired (via Firewire). Presumably, this will ensure reliability of the backups going forward, but I wonder how much of a pain it will be when a) the disk doesn't mount when the MacBook Pros are plugged-in to the power but not to the external hard drive, and b) to maintain a manually wired backup schedule. Better than having corrupted backups I guess!

Also, I hadn't planned on using Time Machine to do the backups to the portable external drive (despite using the word "backup"). I was thinking I'd make a monthly copy using Disk Utility. A lot could change on a monthly basis, so I was thinking I'd just copy the LaCie to the portable (maybe overnight using wired connections!). If I ever need the data from the portable or to restore the MacBook Pros, I could lose up to a month's-worth of data, but could probably live with that.

I wonder how much of a pain it will be when a) the disk doesn't mount when the MacBook Pros are plugged-in to the power but not to the external hard drive

Shouldn't be a problem. Time Machine will just do a backup when the disk is available. It will send a reminder message after 10 days without a backup.

I was thinking I'd make a monthly copy using Disk Utility.

CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper will be much faster; they can just copy what's changed, instead of the whole thing. Because of the way they work, that's much slower than a Time Machine "incremental" backup, but much faster than a full copy with Disk Utility.

Pondini - thanks again for staying with me on this. Seems like Time Machine will handle the firewire backups from my MacBook Pros to the LaCie just fine then - even if my backup schedule becomes sporadic (since my wife has her MacBook Pro, it's slightly more remote than mine sometimes). Despite hearing horror stories about the length of time it takes for the first backup to "cloud-based" services (an employee at a local computer store said he had a computer running one for two weeks that still hadn't finished!), I took a look at CarbonCopyCloner's website - lots of variables to consider! I might just try the monthly copy using Disk Utility. Depending on the connections, I can't see it taking more than one night. I understand incremental backup, but if tracking monthly changes takes the same time as just copying the disk it's a wash. As I say, thanks for your input - you've made me re-think what I thought to be a cool approach, but it's all about getting the right result!