Best way to backup an external HD connected to Airport/Time Capsule (not backup TO)

[scootermaster]

So, i'm tinkering with having my iTunes on an external drive, and using Back to My Mac to network mount the files on the drive, and be able to access my iTunes library across the internet.

Weirdly, it seems to work MUCH better/faster via a drive connected to an Airport Extreme vs. the files off the internal SSD of my Macbook Pro (which is connected via 802.11n to the AEBS).

This being the case, I was thinking of purchasing a slim 2 TB drive to hang off my AEBS (or Time Capsule) and storing files on there.

The issue is that these files won't be backed up via Time Machine (because god forbid Apple do EVERYTHING I want it to do). So, I could use ChronoSync or rsync and cron, etc.

Anyone have any suggestions here?

There also is the issue of WHERE to put these files. The best thing I've thought of is partitioning a 3 TB Time Capsule with 1.5 TB for Time Machine (which should be enough to backup the 500 GB SSD of my Macbook Pro) and then 1.5TB as a mirror drive for external media drive. But that's not perfect solution as the mirror partition obviously won't dynamically size itself, and therefore I'd be wasting a ton of storage I could could be using for TM (although this isn't strictly a horrible thing), and obviously if I ever DID fill it up with 2 TB of media, I'd have to re-size the partition to be able to fully back it up.

I feel like I can't be the only person with this issue, right?

Any ideas are appreciated!!

 

[KeithP]

There also is the issue of WHERE to put these files. The best thing I've thought of is partitioning a 3 TB Time Capsule with 1.5 TB for Time Machine (which should be enough to backup the 500 GB SSD of my Macbook Pro) and then 1.5TB as a mirror drive for external media drive. But that's not perfect solution as the mirror partition obviously won't dynamically size itself, and therefore I'd be wasting a ton of storage I could could be using for TM (although this isn't strictly a horrible thing), and obviously if I ever DID fill it up with 2 TB of media, I'd have to re-size the partition to be able to fully back it up.

I feel like I can't be the only person with this issue, right?

Any ideas are appreciated!!

As it happens, I have just recently started to look at trying to solve the same problem myself. I don't own a Time Capsule, so be advised what I am about to say could be wrong...

I don't think you would need to partition the Time Capsule internal drive. In fact, I am not sure it is even possible. You should be able to place the files in question on the same Time Capsule volume that Time Machine is using as a backup destination. I am under the impression that Time Machine doesn't take over the volume, it just creates a sparsebundle that sits on the volume. Other files on the same volume shouldn't be a problem.

For backup purposes, you can then use the Airport Utility to copy the entire Time Capsule drive to an external drive attached to the unit's USB port to make a backup.

-KeithP

 

[scootermaster]

As it happens, I have just recently started to look at trying to solve the same problem myself. I don't own a Time Capsule, so be advised what I am about to say could be wrong...

I don't think you would need to partition the Time Capsule internal drive. In fact, I am not sure it is even possible. You should be able to place the files in question on the same Time Capsule volume that Time Machine is using as a backup destination. I am under the impression that Time Machine doesn't take over the volume, it just creates a sparsebundle that sits on the volume. Other files on the same volume shouldn't be a problem.

For backup purposes, you can then use the Airport Utility to copy the entire Time Capsule drive to an external drive attached to the unit's USB port to make a backup.

-KeithP

Okay, I think I get the first part. You're saying I can just have rsync (or ChronoSync or whatever) copy the files to the Time Capsule/Time Capsule volume, and the sparse bundles of the Time Machine backups will just "grow around" the backups. That's good, although it's not particularly robust, as Time Machine tries to fill up all the space it can, so at some point the Rsync would fail because there isn't enough room for the changes (or, worse, it'd clobber the Time Machine sparse bundles, probably corrupting the entire Time Machine backup).

So, that behavior I get, and that's a possible solution. Thanks!

For backup purposes, you can then use the Airport Utility to copy the entire Time Capsule drive to an external drive attached to the unit's USB port to make a backup.

-KeithP

This part I don't get. The point isn't that I want to copy the entire Time Capsule drive anywhere. (Although perhaps you're saying that I could then just clone the entire TC volume to a THIRD drive someplace?)

Anyway, here's what I'm trying to do, again, in terms of volumes and where they can be backed up:

Internal Macbook SSD -> Backed up via Time Machine to Time Capsule
External USB drive off of Time Capsule -> Backed up via Rsync to...? (Partition on the Time Capsule?)