Time Machine/Time Capsule/automatic back-up - anyone got this?

[JustKeepSwimming]

Does anyone have a set-up that automatically backs up your Macbook (or other laptop/pc)?

DH has been talking about it and I'd love a more secure way of saving all the DC photos/films/etc.

Is a Time Capsule the answer?

Or something else?

(I have a Macbook, DH has a work Dell laptop - not sure if his can connect too?)

Time Capsule is no use for the Dell, but is a good option for the MacBook. Having said that, if you're running Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) or 10.6 (Snow Leopard), you can achieve exactly the same thing (more cheaply) with an external hard drive of any kind- as soon as you connect it, you will be asked if you want to use it as a Time Machine backup.

But if you do that, it's best to reformat it first, as it will probably be formatted as FAT32, which is slow.

Thanks - I don't think I have either kind of Leopard though?

If it doesn't work with the Dell I'm not too worried, all the family photos, etc have been on my Mac for ages now.

Though i do have hundreds I want to put on an external drive from the old Dell PC we are getting rid of.

Time Machine is great for Macs. Really useful and easy to use, no worries.

I think my Mac runs on 10.5.8?

That's fine. 10.5.8 is Leopard.

Thanks Prism

Would you recommend a particular Hard Drive?

DH has obv heard of the idea of this remote auto backup and fancies it

It really doesn't matter, these days. The only real choice is between a portable one (which doesn't need its own power supply) and a desktop one (which does). Portable ones are a bit more expensive. Obviously you need to get one that's big enough (bigger than the hard drive in your computer) but it's unlikely you'll even find one that isn't- 320GB or 500GB will do fine and are readily available.

Thanks will have a look around

Here's a suggestion:

www.ebuyer.com/product/160903

although of course if DH is considering getting rid of his Dell and getting a proper computer you could then go for the Time Capsule...

LOL, I wish. and so does he, but his is a work one and they only use crap Dell.

That looks good, not too pricey & small too, but will it work with both Windows & Apple?

Yes it will. If you're going to use it with both then don't reformat it or the PC won't be able to read it any more. Or you could partition it into two bits, one for the Mac and one for the PC (I can explain if you wish).

I have a Time Machine and it's brilliant. Backs up automatically every hour.

Had a nightmare last year when my iMac suddenly packed up and spent about £250 getting a boffin to retrieve my photos and music.

OK so I kind of forgot what you all told me and when the Time Capsule arrived just went ahead and plugged my Macbook into it...

I am now backing up beautifully and have been for weeks. :)

Only thing is, DH is home for a few days and wants to see if he can backup his Dell Laptop (Windows) onto it as well, I had told him that the TC would work with both Apple & Windows and may now have to break it to him that it's useless for his machine :(

Can i rescue the situation now? Can i partition the TC now and see if his laptop can have half of it?

Also his laptop is now saying it has Airport Utility setup and is the 'base station' - it says it can access my laptop and looks like it can until you actually try and find a document and it's just gobbledegook.

Are we forever incompatible?

I would be lying if I said you can't back his Dell up to the TC, but only in the sense that i'd be fibbing if I said you can't read you mail with a laparoscope. The only way you could back up a PC with it to it would be to connect an extra hard drive to it and share that via SMB, but that would be a ludicrously complicated way of doing it- instead just get the extra drive and connect it straight to the Dell. My advice about partitioning applies only to separate hard drives, not to the TC itself.

You are in a world of superior technology that he is unfortunately not able to enter.

LOL Prism - i will save it til tomorrow to break the bad news...

I may see if he can somehow email/usb stick the photos (the main thing really that i want) over to my macbook then they will be backed up automatically.

He isn't too worried about backing up his stuff as it transfers to his work network drive so it's just getting the family stuff off there.

OK. USB stick is the way to go. Otherwise you could turn on file sharing on one of the computers (his can get on the network of the TC as you can see) and then connect to it from the other. If his Dell has Bonjour for Windows (free from Apple) it will help, but the hand-cranked solution is preferable. Personally I like nothing better than connecting two essentially incompatible devices via some arcane protocol, but for times when I actually want to get something done, I have a USB stick on me at all times.

I have another suggestion. How about a NAS server Network Attached Storage) or even a Windows Home Server (WHS)?

What I have is a WHS humming away in the corner of my study. I store all my photos, important docs there. Everyone can access them and they are automatically mirrored onto two disks so if one dies, my files are on the other.

I do it like this so I can share files whether no matter which PC I am on and my iMac works fine with it.

I even have my WHS on the Internet so I can share files with other people.

It's not truly fire & forget like a Time Capsule but i can do way more with it.

Thanks Niceguy but i'm not going to get another 'thing' now, i know my laptop is backed up with the TC and Dh agrees (have broken news to him!) that he doesn't actually need to backup his work laptop as it backs up to his network when at work anyway.

So, Prism - file sharing....i feel like i've fiddled for hours but still got nowhere.

On his laptop i can 'see' my machine, and it lists loads of documents, although they have silly names and you can't open them - well it asks what software to open them with and anything i've tried comes out as gobbledegook.
And i'm not that bothered about that direction.

What i'd love is to be able to see his machine from mine, but i can't :(
Feel like i've turned on anything that says file sharing but still no luck, i don't really know where to start looking!

There are thousands of photos so USB stick - whilst possible - could take ages and i feel should be a last resort.
Any ideas? can you talk me through file sharing step by step?

Or..bluetooth? seem to have it turned on on both machines but they won't discover each other..

Hmm. If you have a USB stick it should definitely be the first resort, as it would be probably quicker. If you really have thousands of photos it would actually be quicker to to do it that way, as the file transfer speed across a wireless network will be slower than USB 2. Obviously you would might have to sub-divide them into folders (which they will be anyway) but I really think it would be less hassle and time. Plus you could be doing it now, rather than waiting for me to tell you how to and then putting that into practice.

However, if you are determined to do it that way; what version of Mac OSX do you have on the Mac, and what version of Windows on the PC? And do you know the username/passwords for both? (you don't need to tell me what they are but if you don't it won't work) And do you have two ethernet cables? It's not essential but if you do you can plug them both into the TC and that will speed up the file transfer.

Thank you!

I could check if DH has a spare usb stick, mine currently has (very precious) family tree stuff that is a whole other technical hitch story (Windows family tree software that iw ant to transfer to Apple...) so don't want to lose what's on there.

I am using 10.5.8 Leopard.

Windows - have to check, think Vista

yes to passwords, etc.

define 'ethernet cable' we have various with various ends, 'those clear plastic squareish telephone ends & USB ends...

Windows - 7 Enterprise

Shame- I know bugger all about Windows 7 and have had little exposure to it, though the process of setting up sharing will be the same technically as earlier versions, just with a different interface. Well, you need to set up sharing on the PC, bearing in mind that when you do so it won't share all the folders automatically- you will have to specifically share the folders you want to see, by going to Properties and making the folder you want (ie the one with the pictures) a share point (at least you do on my XP machine). At this point you can enable network users to change the files within it but you don't need to do that as all you want to do is copy them off.

So, you will have file sharing on on the PC, the pictures folder shared, and it connected to the Time Capsule with an ethernet cable, as will be the Mac.

On the Mac if you open a Finder window you should see the PC appear in the sidebar on the left under "Shared" appearing as its networking name that you gave it when setting up the file sharing. If you click on it once you will see a button that says "Connect As..." to the right. Use that and connect to it as your DH or whoever the admin username of the PC is, with the appropriate password. You will then be asked which share point you want to connect to- choose the pictures folder and you're on.

If for any reason that doesn't work you can go to "Connect to server..." at the bottom of the Go menu in the Finder (armed with the IP address of your PC- for the sake of argument I am going to pretend it is 192.168.1.9) and then type in this:

smb://192.168.1.9

and connect that way, using the username and password as above.

That's it really. I suggest you strategically put a destination folder from you Mac into the sidebar along with Documents, Downloads etc. It's easy- you just drag the folder there from a listing on the right, being careful not to move it to one of the ones that is already there (you get a blue line instead of a blue highlight on one of the icons when it's ready to go) Then it will be very easy to drag stuff from the folder on the PC to the destination folder on the Mac.

Good luck

Thanks so much for taking the time.

I did one load of USB stick as an experiment, well it would take me ages to do all the photos, must be a small stick!!

It's do-able that way if needed but once DH gets off his PC (!) I'm going in....

OK I went to go and follow all your instructions and got stuck at the 'share point' bit.

Then Google & inspiration and i think i'm doing it!!

i just right click on the pictures folder, 'send to' & 'time capsule' and it does it!!

So far have only tested one photo & one doc but they look like they're pouring in!! and in their already-sorted-out folders, yey!

It's all way over my head but thank you so much for all your help!

(just a last question; these photos are on the TC, so will be 'saved' there right?)

Yes. If you've copied them to the TC, not your own hard drive, that's where they will live from now on. If you want to do it again when there are more photos I was going to suggest using Chronosync for the Mac (which will only copy the new photos and not bother with the ones you've already archived) but it sounds like you drove the whole thing from the PC so maybe not.