MAC Backups

[jmwills]

What is the best way to backup a MAC to 2011? I have done my research and the options are not there as for a Windows based machine (within the console). My reasoning tells me that this is becasue of the file format used by Macs.

 

I also read the best way is to use Time Machine and then backup those files to WHS. Seems a little round about way to do this.

 

And no.....I have not gone to the dark side, this is for one of my boys.

[Mr_Smartepants]

I would say either Time Machine or SuperDuper and use the WHS2011 as the target.

[jmwills]

So you point the Time Machine program to a Shared Folder on the Server?

[ikon]

Yuup! With proper permissions of course, but you know that!

[Jason]

I'd opt to avoid WHS as your time machine backup destination. In my experience, that is viable for one-off file restores. However, if you're OS X fails, you best restore from a local USB HDD physically plugged into your Mac. Speaking from experience.

 

While they're nice, these Macguyver solutions to substitute for a physical time machine are weak at best.

[ikon]

While they're nice, these Macguyver solutions to substitute for a physical time machine are weak at best.

 

Can't you just copy the backup from WHS to a USB HDD when needed? That would avoid having to have a USB HD constantly dedicated to Time Machine.

[eagle63]

Hold on, I think this thread is confused. (either that or I'm confused - which is entirely possible) You can't point time machine at a WHS share, at least not if you're running any recent version of OSX. There IS a workaround which consists of running a Linux VM on your WHS so that it can create a share using a file-system that TM will accept. There's a big thread about it over at wegotserved, but last I checked it seemed pretty involved and not exactly foolproof. Or are you guys talking about making a new partition on the Mac and using that for a local TM backup, and then copying that backup to WHS?

 

If you have a desktop Mac (like an iMac) then I would say just get an external USB drive, plug it in to the mac and point TM at that. If you want to point TM at some type of network storage, then I'd consider buying a 2-bay Synology as they support TM quite well. (or an Apple Time Capsule, but they're pretty expensive)

Edited October 15, 2012 by eagle63

[ikon]

thanks eagle63. Maybe my info is out of date. I was under the impression you could point TM to a WHS share, as long as you ensure it has pretty open permissions (i.e. Guest access).

[eagle63]

thanks eagle63. Maybe my info is out of date. I was under the impression you could point TM to a WHS share, as long as you ensure it has pretty open permissions (i.e. Guest access).

 

Yeah, it sure would be awesome of that were the case but alas it's not. (that would be too easy!) It's possible that that might have worked back on Leopard, but anything from Snow Leopard on wouldn't.

 

As an alternative, Crashplan works great on Macs and you can run Crashplan on WHS. So using that you could backup your data to your WHS. (as well as offsite) This is what I do on my Macs and it works great. However, you don't get a true "bare-metal" restore ability with Crashplan like you would with Time Machine - but if you don't care about that then CP is a good choice.

[ikon]