156 days ago
Turns out Time Machine is not just for accidentally deleted files — it works great for restoring a Mac from bare metal, too. Even over the network.
James Duncan Davidson’s instructions for using the OSX Leopard install DVD to boot and restore from a Time Machine backup work great if you back up to a USB or FireWire drive.
But I use Time Machine over the network, so my backup set wasn’t available. Nedospasov had the secret for mounting the network backup share first.
Here’s the whole process…
» Read more
187 days ago
So the Mac OS X 10.5.3 update broke Time Machine for me.
The update did fix Time Machine backups over the network for many people, but not for me. Lots of folks have tried various things to fix the problem (like standing on their head, reformatting, fingering prayer beads). Here’s what fixed Time Machine over AFP for me.
I had a setup that was backing up perfectly on 10.5.2.
After the 10.5.3 update, Time Machine said “The backup volume could not be mounted” — again and again. Console’s system log showed backupd errors 18 and sometimes 19.
The problem, believe it or not, was permissions and my .mac credentials. Here’s how to fix it.
» Read more
300 days ago
Leopard does not (yet?) backup to a disk attached to an Airport base station, to lots of people’s concern. But OS X version 10.5.1 will backup over the network — to another Mac. It works just fine over wired or wifi networks, so it works for MacBooks.
Initial setup is easy, but there are two non-obvious tricks to getting this to work.
Update 31 May 2008: Since Leopard 10.5.3, Time Machine no longer requires any of this — it mounts backup shares when needed, so you don’t have to do anything. Once you get Time Machine working again, that is. If you’re having troubles since the 10.5.3 update, read A Fix for Time Machine on OSX 10.5.3 over AFP for .mac Users, a how-to that will get you going again.
» Read more
