Oct
30

Time Machine with a Network Share Howto

CS // 30 Oct 2008 // Comments Off on Time Machine with a Network Share Howto

1) Find out the Network name and Mac address for the computer:

Network Name is here:

System Preferences / Sharing / Computer Name

eg Lawrence’s MacBook

Write it down, we’ll need it in step 2.

Mac Address is here:

System Preferences / Network – Ethernet / Ethernet

mac address – 00:1b:00:99:cd:1a

Write it down, we’ll need it in step 2.

2) Create a Time Machine Empty Backup file in Terminal

Open up Terminal

Spotlight-> Terminal

Change to the root folder.

cd /

We’ll need to paste this into terminal –

hdiutil create -size 300g -fs HFS+J -type SPARSEBUNDLE -volname “COMPUTER NAME” “COMPUTER NAME_MACADDRESS.sparsebundle”

Replace COMPUTER NAME and MACADDRESS with the ones from step 1. The MACADDRESS needs to have bypass surgery to remove its colons.

eg:

My computer details are

Computer Name: Lawrence Sheed’s MacBook

Mac Address: 00:1b:00:99:cd:1a

So my line would look like this:

hdiutil create -size 300g -fs HFS+J -type SPARSEBUNDLE -volname “Lawrence Sheed’s MacBook” “Lawrence Sheed’s MacBook_001b632eb218.sparsebundle”

3) Copy file to the network share in root folder \

Once you have the file created in step 2, copy that file to the Network Share where you want to use Time Machine.

The backup file needs to go to the root folder \ on the share.

4) Configure Time machine to allow use on network shares

(in terminal)

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

4) In Time Machine, point to the drive.

System Preferences / Time Machine

Choose the network drive..

It will now allow you to backup to the network share.

Tested and working in 10.5.5 Leopard.

Thats it!

October 30, 2008 // Apple, Useful Info // Comments Off // Tags: Apple, Mac, Time Machine

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