Hi all,

Just wondering what my options are or best route you think I should take. I currently have a 500gb Time Capsule that is connected to our office iMac. The problem Is I have an older (08) Pro and a last generation Pro. I would like to be able to back them up as well, at least my newer Pro.
Is it better to add a 3Tb WD to my current 500gb TC or should I just go with a new larger TC? i heard that it can be a pain to set the TC up for more then one computer. Also can the TC be set up as a large HD (to be able to grab and swap files) or can that only be done on the WD.
Just to throw it out there, what about iCloud, would it be the lead hassle to use it for storage and backup.

Thanks
John

DropBox.

That's one big loaded question(s) with multiple solutions. ;)

For you "office Mac" as well as any other Macs and for quick access that you seem to be wanting, as well as protecting any backups etc., I'd seriously suggest that you contact and pay a good Mac tech/consultant as to the best methods for your particular setup.

And I'd be awfully surprised if they suggest using any Time Capsule but it could be incorporated for use.

It sounds like some sort of NAS backup might be a suggested consideration if I read and understood your post correctly. ;)

Online (cloud) backup can be slow and can be expensive for large quantities of data
The Time Capsule (and AEBS) are underpowered for running an external USB drive, can get really slow.

For an office solution, I like the Synology multi drive bay NAS (network attached storage) backups, they have lots of features, are fast, and are TimeMachine and iTunes compatible.

For an office solution, I like the Synology multi drive bay NAS (network attached storage) backups, they have lots of features, are fast, and are TimeMachine and iTunes compatible.

All of the above, plus the Synology is a breeze to set up for multiple computer Time Machine backups.

Changing the topic - but not the spirit of Time Machine's purpose.
I have a 500 GB external drive. I have Time Machine backing things up regularly. I plug it in and away it goes. I did notice on the last one that I have about 15 "dates" of previous back-ups of the MBook on the external drive. Dates back to 2008. Why do I need all these back-ups? I doubt I do. Should probably just delete them unless there was something in 2008 (for example) that I needed and dumped without thinking. Probably in my preferences? Thanks.
/M.

I have no idea if you need all those old TM backups and any of their associated data, but you never know.

If your backup drive has the available room to store them, just leave them for that "just in case day", and as far as TM goes, and assuming that it's still working correctly, if and when the backup hard drive fills up, TM will provide you with an alert notice that it's about to dump the oldest backup stuff to make room for its most recent backup.

DO NOT attempt to delete any old TM backups using the Finder, and if you ever want or need to, only use TM to delete any TM backup stuff, otherwise it can go goofy.

Thanks for this. Glad you mentioned about deleting stuff through Finder. That's just what I was going to do! I'd prefer to avoid 'goofy'.
/M.

Thanks for all the input, I am thinking either Dropbox or Synology, i am just reading and gaining info now to see which would suit me the best.

Thanks
John

further to pm-r's mention of using TM to delete backups...
Once you've entered Time Machine and select the file-folder you want deleted,
there is an icon in the finder toolbar, looks like a gear with a dropdown arrow,
click this and you'll see a selection to "Delete all Backups" of the selected items.

Leave the Time Machine incremental backups alone.

There you go.

Leave the Time Machine incremental backups alone.

There you go.


BTW: It appears that skanji took my advice and your sig SL ad is now surplus.

further to pm-r's mention of using TM to delete backups...
Once you've entered Time Machine and select the file-folder you want deleted,
there is an icon in the finder toolbar, looks like a gear with a dropdown arrow,
click this and you'll see a selection to "Delete all Backups" of the selected items.

Excellent. Thanks, James. I'm certain I don't need multiple back-ups from 2008. Hell, I have no room left on the 500 GB external machine.
/M.

Leave the Time Machine incremental backups alone.
There you go.

I'm guessing you have a good reason. So I think I'll wait to see what that might be.
/M.