Version 3: Use Time Machine with Windows Home Server
I have continued to work with people on getting Time Machine setup and working with your Windows Home Server. I’m calling these new directions version 3 and it’s easier than the last steps that required an applescript. The reason why the applescript wasn’t working in version 2 is that some people had a Windows partition on their Macs, including myself on my new iMac. Instead of fixing the applescript to check for multiple partitions it is easier to just use Disk Utility. Below are the new directions. I have had multiple people confirm that they are working. For informational purpose you can find Version 1 and Version 2 of my directions. Version 2 has some good comments if you have trouble.
You still need have iTimeMachine enabled.
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the Macintosh HD, then go to “File” -> “New” -> “Blank Disk Image”.
3. A box will come up with a lot of different options. The save as name is important as Time Machine will use that name to see if it’s correct. The save as name should be machinename_macaddress. For example mine is jeremy-iMac_0a0a0a0a0a0a. I’m not giving my MAC address but that’s what the 0a stuff is. You can find the name by going to sharing in system preferences or types hostname -fs in the terminal. The MAC address is for the connection that will be used for Time Machine. My laptops are wireless, my desktop using ethernet.
4. Name = whatever you want. I called mine Time Machine.
5. Size = Over your total data amount. Right now I set mine at 400g. With Disk Utility you can resize this later if you fill the amount.
6. Partition = Single Partition – Apple Partition Map
7. Image Format = sparse bundle disk image
8. Now create the image. Default is to save to your desktop.
9. Transfer that disk image from your desktop to you time machine folder on the WHS.
10. Point time machine to your WHS folder and start the backup.
If you have questions please leave comments. As always I will try to respond as fast as I can. This is still not supported and I give no guarantee on the safety of your data or reliability of your backups. It works for me and I have been backing my Macs up to Windows Home Server for months.
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Comments
When I follow these instructions I still get an error message saying “The Backup Disk Image ________ could not be created (error 45).”
I noticed on your Version 2 post someone mentioned using the MAC address for their Ethernet connection as opposed to their WiFi connection. When I used the Ethernet MAC address it worked like a charm.
Thank you for the instructions. You rock!
Can anyone comment on how safe this is? I noticed on the Itimemachine backup site it says use at own risk and that it still has bugs working over a network connection.
If there is one thing that I get paranoid over it is my backup data. Backing up to WHS would be ideal but I’m not sure how much I trust it.
Thanks
Jed,
This isn’t supported by Microsoft or Apple. So those two companies would say it’s not safe at all. If they could come up with a perfect solution they would probably provide one for us. Even the HP MediaSmart servers have had issues with reliability with Mac backups.
I have been working with this for over two years and I haven’t lost any files. Reliability on the other hand, has been somewhat iffy at times. Generally if my Time Machine backup runs into issues I take the sparse image file, move it to another folder and create a new one. That means I still have all my files. Yeah it’s a pain to create a new sparse image file but I at least know that every hour my files are getting backed up without me having to do anything. If it fails again months down the road it provides me a error message and I can recreate.
The comment on using ethernet MAC instead of wireless MAC worked for me too. Should be in the main instructions?
Thanks for this – really brilliant help….
The tutorial works but when I make my fisk image Disk utility shrink it to like 2-3 gig’s – even though I set it at 700 gigs
why does Disk utility shrink my disk image?
then when the backup on WHS starts it goes well till the disk is full then it closes
any thoughts?
A second comment
on mac pro I have had to use case sensitive – the mac told me to do it
on the mac book pro – just journaled
but both continue to fail at the 3 gig mark
OK Problem solved – of the above 2 issues
I could not get this to work on VAIl
Once I went back to whs it worked nice
THE ISSUE IN VAIL WAS THAT NO MATTER WHAT I set the sparse bundle on it only registered about 2.5 gigs in Time Machine
- so when i went to time machine once the 2.5 or 2.6 was full it shut off
MAYBE THERE IS A FIX Jeremy could come up with so that when the sparse bundle was made it registered the large backup size
I couldn’t get this to work (Time Machine kept failing to connect to the backup disk). Using the Ethernet (en0) versus wireless (en1) MAC address when creating the image fixed things for me as well – I agree this would make sense to include in the main instructions. Thanks all!
Hi,
Sorry, but what does transfer the image mean exactly? How does time machine see this? Do you delete the image file on your desktop?
I really appreciate the time and effort, please make it a little simpler for us slow people.
thanks,
harry
When I try to copy the created disk image (Joshuas-MPB_a0a0a0a0a0) to my WHS home server is prompts for a password. When I enter my password it says that I don’t have permission to read them. I am the admin on the computer and I verified that the image is set to read/write for my user account. Have any advice?
Thanks
Thanks for the guide! I was able to get TimeMachine up an running without too many problems. I did identify a few minor issues that would help others. Here are the details:
If the machine name has spaces in it, so should the disk image name. Don’t replace spaces with dashes.
The MAC address to use in the file name is the Ethernet MAC address, not the wireless MAC address.
The default location of the disk image is not the desktop, it’s the documents folder. Unmount the disk image that shows up on the desktop before copying it from the Documents folder.
Creating a disk image that is 80GB (for example) will not result in an image file that is 80GB to begin with. 80GB is the maximum size, and it will expand in size as backups occur. So don’t worry about the initial image being too big to fit on your existing hard drive.
Hope this helps others with these already great instructions.
After countless attempts, I finally got this working!
Not sure which variations or details were key, but my Intel iMac machine name was lowercase, the ethernet MAC (not wireless MAC) was all uppercase, like “imac_0A2B3C4C5E6F.sparsebundle”.
I set the size to 500 GB, the type was “Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)” ejected the disk image, and moved the sparsebundle file to a folder called “Time Machine” on the WHS box. Permissions were already okay when I created the folder.
iMac was connected via wireless through a router to an ASUS TS Mini, and iTimeMachine was running, selected the Time Machine folder and this time, it just worked.
Excellent guide, glad I didn’t give up on it. Hope some of the above detail helps someone with a set-up similar to mine.
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As always, Thank you.