January 27, 2010 at 11:15Snow Leopard and Time Machine on a network drive (AFP, SMB)
Prepared from materials on www.macosxhints.com
After the release of Snow Leopard, Time Machine “fell off” the long-known ability to work with network drives. As it turned out, the reason for this was the binding of the backup to the UUID of the computer. Here are simple instructions to fix the situation.
First, you need to enable network drive support in the system. Run the following command in the terminal:
Create a backup file (this is a .sparsebundle). Terminal again:
As a result, a file called backup.sparsebundle with a maximum size of 500 gigabytes will be created in your home directory. This does not mean that we will immediately receive a 500G file (the image will grow as the backups are created), it only limits the disk space allocated for backup (the file name and size are arbitrary).
Next, you need to find out the UUID of your computer. To do this, open "System Information" (Programs> Utilities> System Information) and in the "Hardware" section, find the UUID (Hardware UUID).
After that, create a file called com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist and with the following contents:
Only YOUR_UUID needs to be replaced with your real UUID.
You can create such a file in TextEdit. To do this, use plain text (Format> Convert to plain text), save the file name (com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist) and confirm the extension (leave .plist).
The .plist file prepared in this way must be copied to the previously created .sparsebundle file (it is better to do this using the terminal). It is done like this:
If you changed the name “backup” to another, then, of course, you specify it.
(not for connoisseurs of the terminal) If both files (both .plist and .sparsebundle) are in your home folder, then everything will go as it should, if not ... Open the terminal, type cp (Latin), put a space, find in the Finder file “ com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist ”and drag it into the terminal window (its address will be displayed), find the file“ backup.sparsebundle ”(well, or whatever you called it) and drag it into the terminal window, run the command (Enter) .
You can check the result. If everything went as it should, then highlighting your .sparsebundle and choosing the "Show package contents" command from the context menu (right key), you should see your .plist file inside (in principle, you can drag it here right now).
Then it remains to move the finished .sparsebundle to the root of the desired network drive (at least with a terminal, at least with a fader) and connect it to Time Machine.
We connect the network drive (it is the network drive where the .sparsebundle lies, and not the .sparsebundle itself), open Time Machine and, by pressing the "Select drive" button, select the one you need from the list that appears. All.
A couple more tips. To avoid errors, the name of the network drive must be unique. Do not neglect the function of excluding files from the archiving process (there is not much free space when running Time Machine). But the frequency of creating backups is conveniently configured by TimeMachineEditor.
After the release of Snow Leopard, Time Machine “fell off” the long-known ability to work with network drives. As it turned out, the reason for this was the binding of the backup to the UUID of the computer. Here are simple instructions to fix the situation.
First, you need to enable network drive support in the system. Run the following command in the terminal:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
Create a backup file (this is a .sparsebundle). Terminal again:
hdiutil create -size 500G -fs HFS + J -volname 'Time Machine Backups' -type SPARSEBUNDLE backup.sparsebundle
As a result, a file called backup.sparsebundle with a maximum size of 500 gigabytes will be created in your home directory. This does not mean that we will immediately receive a 500G file (the image will grow as the backups are created), it only limits the disk space allocated for backup (the file name and size are arbitrary).
Next, you need to find out the UUID of your computer. To do this, open "System Information" (Programs> Utilities> System Information) and in the "Hardware" section, find the UUID (Hardware UUID).
After that, create a file called com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist and with the following contents:
com.apple.backupd.HostUUID YOUR_UUID
Only YOUR_UUID needs to be replaced with your real UUID.
You can create such a file in TextEdit. To do this, use plain text (Format> Convert to plain text), save the file name (com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist) and confirm the extension (leave .plist).
The .plist file prepared in this way must be copied to the previously created .sparsebundle file (it is better to do this using the terminal). It is done like this:
cp com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist backup.sparsebundle
If you changed the name “backup” to another, then, of course, you specify it.
(not for connoisseurs of the terminal) If both files (both .plist and .sparsebundle) are in your home folder, then everything will go as it should, if not ... Open the terminal, type cp (Latin), put a space, find in the Finder file “ com.apple.TimeMachine.MachineID.plist ”and drag it into the terminal window (its address will be displayed), find the file“ backup.sparsebundle ”(well, or whatever you called it) and drag it into the terminal window, run the command (Enter) .
You can check the result. If everything went as it should, then highlighting your .sparsebundle and choosing the "Show package contents" command from the context menu (right key), you should see your .plist file inside (in principle, you can drag it here right now).
Then it remains to move the finished .sparsebundle to the root of the desired network drive (at least with a terminal, at least with a fader) and connect it to Time Machine.
We connect the network drive (it is the network drive where the .sparsebundle lies, and not the .sparsebundle itself), open Time Machine and, by pressing the "Select drive" button, select the one you need from the list that appears. All.
A couple more tips. To avoid errors, the name of the network drive must be unique. Do not neglect the function of excluding files from the archiving process (there is not much free space when running Time Machine). But the frequency of creating backups is conveniently configured by TimeMachineEditor.