Time Machine volumes in Mac Pro

[Mark Smith]

On 11.03.2008, at 12:23, Tony Crockford wrote:

>
> On 11 Mar 2008, at 11:12, Mark Smith wrote:
>>
>> (The question I'm pondering is whether to take an additional drive  
>> in the Pro to use for TM, or to spend that money on a Time Capsule.)
>
>
> This implies that you can't back up to a wireless network drive:
> http://www.macworld.com/article/132299/2008/02/airportbackup.html

Right. This is the feature that disappeared during the beta-cycle of  
Leopard. (In my short experience it was unreliable - I had some  
problems with Aperture referenced image files on an "airdisk".  
(Interestingly I could use Lightroom to "fix" image files that were  
choking Finder, Preview and Aperture, but that's another story.))

With the advent of Time Capsule, it looks like Apple has got this  
working reliably and I'm wondering whether disks on Macs tethered by  
Ethernet to an 802.11n Base Station might appear to WLAN clients like  
a TimeCapsule.

I have a suspicion that this might work, since:

(a) I have read reports that one can tether additional disks to a Time  
Capsule and they also appear to WLAN clients as potential TM volumes and

(b) NAS works

(which makes me think that the "problem" *might* have been associated  
with the USB interface)

...but this is speculation and it has to work out of the box: If I  
need a Time Capsule then I have to skip a disk on the Pro. (Though I  
could partly fund one by selling my current router.)

> I am using an internal drive on my Pro for Time machine for the Pro,  
> but can't comment on backing up WiFi connected devices to it as I  
> don't have any.

You could invite a friend with an Apple Portable over to test it  
though. There's a $RefreshmentOfChoice$ in it for you (or for anyone  
else who tests this^[1] and reports back today) (:

Mark.

[1]: Current MacPro w/ 10.5.2 connected via ethernet to 802.11n APBS  
and a mac portable w/ 802.11n and 10.5.2 - does Time Machine see [a]  
volume[s] on the Pro as potential targets ?