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astanden
(member) Sun 02-Apr-17 08:38:51

Time Machine alternative

[link to this post]

Hi folks

Apple seem to have stopped development of their Airport/Time Capsule wifi router. Does anyone have an alternative product or system in use (wifi router with Time Machine backup drive) just in case Apple stop selling them in the future?

Kind regards,

Adam

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015) 3.3 GHz Intel Core i7 16GB Ram 2TB Fusion drive
iPad Air 2 64GB
iPhone 6 64GB
BT Infinity 80/20 Unlimited
Huawei Openreach VDSL modem/Apple Time Capsule

caffn8me
(knowledge is power) Sun 02-Apr-17 13:34:42

Re: Time Machine alternative

[re: astanden] [link to this post]

The clever stuff in Time Machine happens on the client and not on the Time Capsule so you can do Time Machine backups to any wi-fi available hard drive. If you have a computer that's always on you can attach and share an external hard drive from it.

At home I have an external hard drive attached to a Mac Mini which backs up the Mac Mini locally and iMac and Macbook via wi-fi.

You could also buy a dedicated NAS unit. I use both QNAP and Synology units as Time Machine destinations. These would give you much more flexibility than a hard drive just hanging off a router.

You can also do a home build NAS server using a Raspberry Pi and OpenMediaVault

Alternatively, you could just go for the simple router with USB port. I haven't tried this option yet as I've not needed to.

Sarah

--
If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment, I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat

Spiders on coffee - Badass spiders on drugs

TinyMongomery
(knowledge is power) Sun 02-Apr-17 15:01:10

Re: Time Machine alternative

[re: caffn8me] [link to this post]

It can be less than straightforward to use just any old network drive with Time Machine, but it can be done. http://code.stephenmorley.org/articles/time-machine-...

==================================
Sovereignty really does mean sovereignty

Zarjaz
(eat-sleep-adslguide) Sun 02-Apr-17 18:05:44

Re: Time Machine alternative

[re: caffn8me] [link to this post]

Alternatively, you could just go for the simple router with USB port. I haven't tried this option yet as I've not needed to.

That's how my iMac does its back up to a Seagate USB connected drive, works a treat.

Zarjaz

seb
(founder) Tue 04-Apr-17 17:23:46

Re: Time Machine alternative

[re: TinyMongomery] [link to this post]

It breaks more often with non-Apple stuff too..

Sebastien Lahtinen
Co-Founder, thinkbroadband.com
[email protected]

personal blog - blog.seb.me.uk
twitter - @sebtweet

The author of the above post is a thinkbroadband staff member. It may not constitute an official statement on behalf of thinkbroadband.

TinyMongomery
(knowledge is power) Tue 04-Apr-17 18:26:05

Re: Time Machine alternative

[re: seb] [link to this post]

I use a USB drive - faster and more reliable.

Edit: if you want belt and braces, use a local drive and a networked one. TM will back up to each of them in turn. Neat.

==================================
Sovereignty really does mean sovereignty

Edited by TinyMongomery (Tue 04-Apr-17 18:28:18)

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