Run a NAS as Time Machine on a MacBook Pro

Time Machine can only work with locally-connected drives formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or servers that are set up as Time Machine servers and I'm not aware of any NAS that offers that feature, though some may. If you want to use your NAS for backup, you'll probably need to use another backup solution that can back up to network drives.

Regards.

gogetgil wrote:

Run a Synology DS211 and trying to get Time Machine on my MB Pro (Lion) to work with my NAS as backup. It show work...but...My Macbook Pro doesn't recognize the NAS when opening Time Machine, it doesnt show the NAS as an option. However, in Finder it does see my NAS and I can work with it. Can somebody explain in steps (for my MB Pro and NAS) what I am doing wrong?

I don't use one, but many folks use Synology NASs with Time Machine. However, a number of 3rd-party NASs need to be updated to work witih Lion, so check with Synology to be sure your model is compatible and/or has the latest updates.

It can be a bit tricky setting them up, however, as part of it must be done on the NAS, with the NAS's software, so follow Synology's instructions very carefully.

Actually, NASs are supported, if they meet Apple's criteria.

See Disks that can be used with Time Machine and Time Machine Network Interface Specification.

And as I said, I didn't know of any NAS that meets those criteria but admitted that there may indeed be some. It's good to know that the Synology NAS does.

Regards.