Hardware

How To Use Time Machine Backups On Windows Home Server

By Matt Buchanan on July 11, 2009 at 8:40 AM

One of the lame things about Time Machine is that backups over the network are only officially supported on Time Capsule. Luckily, even if you don’t have one of HP’s Time Machine-compatible Home Servers, you can make it work.

Brent Freidman lays out exactly how to get Time Machine backups to work with any Windows Home Server machine in a point-by-point method that’s pretty easy, despite some Terminal tinkering to make it work—follow that here.

If you wanna use just a generic NAS, you can do that too. Personally, I followed this guide by Adam Cohen-Rose—though there are others—to get it going on a 4TB WD ShareSpace several months ago, though WD now has a much cheaper consumer version. It’s a hack that also takes a little bit of work, but ditching the USB cable is totally worth it.

If you’re in the market for a NAS (if you don’t have one, you are, even if you don’t know it yet) check out our guide to finding the perfect networked storage.

Definitely a good weekend project, so let us know how it goes or if you have any tips in our fancy new comments if make the the attempt. [CompuGeek via MS Windows Home Server]

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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)

  • mac_kix_windoze
    July 11, 2009 at 6:18 PM
    to save hacking with Terminal if you're not happy doing that, download Flux Capacitor:

    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=384936

    It's just a GUI implementation of the Terminal commands. BUT I used it and it works exactly as billed.

    mac_kix_windoze

  • Brau
    July 11, 2009 at 5:25 PM
    "Definitely a good weekend project"

    Ahh, there's the old Windows catch which makes me wonder why anyone would even want to. I work as a technician on PCs all day and don't want to be a tech when I get home. On a Mac you just plug in a hard drive and Time Machine automatically asks if you want to use it for backups. Click YES and you're done. Gotta love the simplicity but I would like options for custom backup schedules. Restoring a Mac from Time Machine is the flat out easiest rebuild I've ever done.

    Brau

  • Ehrich Blackhound
    July 11, 2009 at 9:40 AM
    @MacBandit: I just set this up myself on my Airport Extreme. Easy as pie, works like a charm. I have the airport and attached HDD in my entertainment center, so when the HDD light starts going, I know my ish is getting backed up.
  • Chris Guthrie
    July 11, 2009 at 9:32 AM
    It been so long other wise I would inform everybody on what I had to differently from the guide to get it to work. Sorry.

    Chris Guthrie

  • Chris Guthrie
    July 11, 2009 at 9:30 AM
    I used the new horizons guide to connect my wife's macbook to our IOMEGA NAS a couple months ago. Took some tweaking, but finally got it to work, and has worked flawless sense... But as said it took me a good 4 hours to get it to finally work.

    Chris Guthrie

  • MacBandit
    July 11, 2009 at 8:59 AM
    @MacBandit: Time Capsule not Time Machine
  • MacBandit
    July 11, 2009 at 8:58 AM
    Actually you don't have to have a Time Machine you can do it with an Airport Extreme with an external USB drive attached to it or even multiple USB drives attached to it for separate computers.
  • marzer
    July 12, 2009 at 1:13 PM
    Check out "http://code.google.com/p/backmyfruitup/"...Great site for setting up and RESTORING directly from a non-Apple NAS. Worked fine with my Buffalo Linkstation.

    marzer

  • drakino
    July 12, 2009 at 11:38 AM
    Just remember, any backup solution is only as good as it's ability to restore files. Windows Home Server (Including HP's), changes a config allowing Time Machine to backup over SMB. When booted off the Leopard DVD to do a full system restore, SMB shares are not assessable. You will have to copy the backup to a USB/Firewire drive to restore, or reload the OS, reapply the same terminal command, then pull back the files you want.

    Even if you use the trick to backup to an AFP share on a NAS, terminal commands will be required when booted off the Leopard DVD to first mount the share.

    Only a Time Capsule, or a ReadyNAS will offer seamless Time Machine usage over a network.

    drakino

  • DirtyDogg
    July 13, 2009 at 11:06 AM

    @Brau: You do realize that this is a hack to get cross platform automatic backups right?

    Yes Time Capsule works best on a Mac, but it does nothing for Windows. Windows Home Server works effortlessly on a Windows PC, but does require this hack to provide the best of both worlds.

    A great tip for those of us who utilize multiple PCs from multiple vendors.

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