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HackinTimeCapsule

S

sjwaste

Diamond Member
Ok, so maybe I just made up that term.

Is there a recipe out there for making something that OSX will believe is a Time Capsule device? Even at the Refurb store, $250 is an awful lot for a 500gb Time Capsule, but at the same time I'd really like to have Time Machine back up over the network with my MacBook.

Has this been done? Is it reliable?
 
Yes it's been done, no it's not reliable. You can hack Time Machine to use another computer as a network backup, but personally I wouldn't trust my backup system to a hacked backup connection.

Also, network backup to a Time Capsule is slooooooooooow, and even more slow if you're doing it over wireless. Save yourself the hassle and get a direct-connect backup drive. Western Digital has a 2.5" 500gb USB hard drive that runs off a single USB cable for $120 shipped:

http://www.buy.com/prod/wester...loc/101/209225090.html
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
Yes it's been done, no it's not reliable. You can hack Time Machine to use another computer as a network backup, but personally I wouldn't trust my backup system to a hacked backup connection.

Also, network backup to a Time Capsule is slooooooooooow, and even more slow if you're doing it over wireless. Save yourself the hassle and get a direct-connect backup drive. Western Digital has a 2.5" 500gb USB hard drive that runs off a single USB cable for $120 shipped:

http://www.buy.com/prod/wester...loc/101/209225090.html
Click to expand...

I have a USB external. It's still slow as balls for a backup, but maybe I'm just spoiled because I was using esata for my hackintosh. That's how it ought to work.

Considering esata is just a physical extension of an internal sata header, I just don't see why they're not adding these to their current products.
 
Originally posted by: sjwaste
Originally posted by: Kaido
Yes it's been done, no it's not reliable. You can hack Time Machine to use another computer as a network backup, but personally I wouldn't trust my backup system to a hacked backup connection.

Also, network backup to a Time Capsule is slooooooooooow, and even more slow if you're doing it over wireless. Save yourself the hassle and get a direct-connect backup drive. Western Digital has a 2.5" 500gb USB hard drive that runs off a single USB cable for $120 shipped:

http://www.buy.com/prod/wester...loc/101/209225090.html
Click to expand...

I have a USB external. It's still slow as balls for a backup, but maybe I'm just spoiled because I was using esata for my hackintosh. That's how it ought to work.

Considering esata is just a physical extension of an internal sata header, I just don't see why they're not adding these to their current products.
Click to expand...

Because that would make sense...
 
Originally posted by: Fallen Kell
Originally posted by: sjwaste
Originally posted by: Kaido
Yes it's been done, no it's not reliable. You can hack Time Machine to use another computer as a network backup, but personally I wouldn't trust my backup system to a hacked backup connection.

Also, network backup to a Time Capsule is slooooooooooow, and even more slow if you're doing it over wireless. Save yourself the hassle and get a direct-connect backup drive. Western Digital has a 2.5" 500gb USB hard drive that runs off a single USB cable for $120 shipped:

http://www.buy.com/prod/wester...loc/101/209225090.html
Click to expand...

I have a USB external. It's still slow as balls for a backup, but maybe I'm just spoiled because I was using esata for my hackintosh. That's how it ought to work.

Considering esata is just a physical extension of an internal sata header, I just don't see why they're not adding these to their current products.
Click to expand...

Because that would make sense...
Click to expand...

This.
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
Originally posted by: Fallen Kell
Originally posted by: sjwaste
Originally posted by: Kaido
Yes it's been done, no it's not reliable. You can hack Time Machine to use another computer as a network backup, but personally I wouldn't trust my backup system to a hacked backup connection.

Also, network backup to a Time Capsule is slooooooooooow, and even more slow if you're doing it over wireless. Save yourself the hassle and get a direct-connect backup drive. Western Digital has a 2.5" 500gb USB hard drive that runs off a single USB cable for $120 shipped:

http://www.buy.com/prod/wester...loc/101/209225090.html
Click to expand...

I have a USB external. It's still slow as balls for a backup, but maybe I'm just spoiled because I was using esata for my hackintosh. That's how it ought to work.

Considering esata is just a physical extension of an internal sata header, I just don't see why they're not adding these to their current products.
Click to expand...

Because that would make sense...
Click to expand...

This.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, I'll keep dreaming 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
Yes it's been done, no it's not reliable. You can hack Time Machine to use another computer as a network backup, but personally I wouldn't trust my backup system to a hacked backup connection.

Also, network backup to a Time Capsule is slooooooooooow, and even more slow if you're doing it over wireless. Save yourself the hassle and get a direct-connect backup drive. Western Digital has a 2.5" 500gb USB hard drive that runs off a single USB cable for $120 shipped:

http://www.buy.com/prod/wester...loc/101/209225090.html
Click to expand...

Sure backing up to a Time Capsule is a bit slow, but the manner in which Time Machine operates negates that problem. After the initial slow backup, you're incrementally backing up every hour. It happens in the background and you never even notice it happening. Speed is not a detriment. I have an airport extreme with a usb hard drive connected to it for use as a Time Machine volume, and occasionally have times when it needs to move 2+GB within the hour span from backup to backup. It happens seamlessly in a very reasonable time period.

Admittedly, it took nearly 24 hours for the initial backup, but beyond that all was well. It takes much less time when connected over ethernet, I have used it exclusively over 5GHz 802.11n.
 
Originally posted by: Kaido
Yes it's been done, no it's not reliable. You can hack Time Machine to use another computer as a network backup, but personally I wouldn't trust my backup system to a hacked backup connection.

Also, network backup to a Time Capsule is slooooooooooow, and even more slow if you're doing it over wireless. Save yourself the hassle and get a direct-connect backup drive. Western Digital has a 2.5" 500gb USB hard drive that runs off a single USB cable for $120 shipped:

http://www.buy.com/prod/wester...loc/101/209225090.html
Click to expand...

I d/l'ed a program called iTimeMachine so that I could use TimeMachine with my WHS box, but that didn't work. There was a help page on the ReadyNAS website that describes a way of one more set of steps that are needed.

However, as you stated, I didn't want to trust my backup to a hacked system. So, I'll be using a USB ext. HD that is powered by the USB port.
 
So I was thinking of getting myself a macbook in several months to add to my hackintosh tower and my wife's macbook. I was thinking of drastically expanding the hard drive space in my hackintosh to use as a media server and time machine backup server for our macbooks. I'd use 802.11n wireless and gigabit LAN (wireless for the laptops, gigabit for the hack), and then set the macbooks to use the server as a time machine backup. Ideally, whenever the macbooks are in the house, they use the server as a backup.

Is this a dumb idea?
 
Originally posted by: fyleow
I've been using my Ubuntu server as a time machine backup for over 6 months. Not a single problem and restores work correctly. My file server does around 100 MB/s read and write which is faster than an external drive solution. There's a great tutorial on how to get it working here:

http://www.kremalicious.com/20...d-time-machine-volume/
Click to expand...

Nice, posted it here:

http://pcwizcomputer.com/weaksauce12/?p=902

And wrapped up the commands into some simple apps here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ywj2xnwmnw2/TimeHack.zip
 
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