Author Topic: LinkStation Live Time Machine problem  (Read 14058 times)

wilda

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LinkStation Live Time Machine problem
« on: December 31, 2008, 07:39:26 AM »
   

Hello all,

I've just bougth a LinkStation Live 1To. As I'm a Mac user I want to use the Time Machine option.

After I turn on this option in the administration console the time machine operation failed with the error message "unable to mount the volume".

 

In my finder I can see an airport icon with the linkstation name. When the backup start a file name name is created on the linkstation (a sparsebundle file) but at the end the file is deleted with the error message  "unable to mount the volume"

 

Is there any tutorial to have Time Machine working with the LinkStation ?

 

Thanks

 

Stef 

Message Edited by wilda on 12-31-2008 02:40 PM

potorange

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Re: LinkStation Live Time Machine problem
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2008, 08:43:54 AM »
   

Hi,

 

First, update your software :

 

- LinkStation's firmware to 1.02 (if you have to, make sure to connect your mac with an ethernet cable as the firmware updater didn't work over wifi connection when I tried).

 

- Upgrade your mac to 10.5.6  (fixes some bugs with TimeMachine).

 

Linksation setup :

 

Go to the TimeMachine section on the LiveStation admin page

 

1/ Chose the network share that will host your mac's backup (create one beforehand if necessary)

 

2/ Create the disk image prior to your first backup (this will create a sparsebundle file on the LinkStation)

 

- Enter the host name (macbook-wilda for example)

- Enter the MAC adress of the ethernet adpater (wired network) of your macbook (TimeMachine uses this MAC address even when backup is done over Wifi connection : this way Time Machine is able to backup your mac whichever way it's connected to the network)

- Clic the "apply" button or something.

- Wait a few minutes (the LinkStation does not provide feedback of the process IIRC)

 

3/ You should now be able to backup your mac (do it incrementaly to test the backup process,  ie include only a subset of your mac's folder, or do your first backup over an ethernet cable).

 

This worked for me.

Message Edited by potorange on 12-31-2008 08:48 AM

wilda

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Re: LinkStation Live Time Machine problem
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2008, 10:24:30 AM »
   

First, thanks for your answer :)

I do all what you wrote but unfortunatly it's still doesn't work :(

I think i give back the linkstation to get a "classic" external drive :(

 


Nutribrain

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Re: LinkStation Live Time Machine problem
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2009, 05:44:49 PM »
   

I also had trouble to get Time Machine work. It always gave me an error that the backup couldn't be created by Time Machine. What I did was to rename the automatically created sparsebundle with small written characters for the part of the MAC address. I renamed "BigBadAndBoldMacbookPro_0016CB8DC6EC" to "BigBadAndBoldMacbookPro_0016cb8dc6ec".

Maybe this helps. 


potorange

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Re: LinkStation Live Time Machine problem
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2009, 11:02:58 AM »
   

Did you configure your linkstation's TimeMachine on a dedicated share ?

 

If so, you could try to remove the backup share and recreate a clean one.

If not try to create a dedicated share...

 

Anyway see this post for alternative (and more involved) instructions.

 

Cheers.

 


theamazingkazoo

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Re: LinkStation Live Time Machine problem
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2009, 01:05:03 PM »
   

I think I may have fixed the problem.. After a week of trying shed loads of permitations on creating a share for time machine it finally worked if i created a share called Time_machine

 

THEN SET THE OS ACCESS SUPPORT to NONE.. e.g. windows/apple/ disk back up all unticked. and recycle bin unticked ...

 

Then selected the drive in time machine and entered my account name and MAC address.. SUCCESS! 


mtomalonis

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Re: LinkStation Live Time Machine problem
« Reply #6 on: August 30, 2009, 06:19:13 PM »
   

After many hours of trying different things, I think I finally got TimeMachine to work with my MacBook.  Here's what I did:

Step #1:  From within my MacBook, I went onto the LinkStation Live drive and deleted the"sparsebundle" file that was created from within the web application "NASNavigator2".

Step #2:  For the back-up folder I had created for my MacBook back-up, I de-activated the "Recycle Bin" functionality, from within "NASNavigator2".

Step #3:  I renamed my MacBook so that the name had no spaces or special characters; it is now simply a string of lowercase characters.

Step #4:  From within my MacBook, I manually created a new "sparsebundle" file, from instructions provided by Buffalo technical support.  Instructions were:

 

Before we get started you will need:
* [Mac_computer_name] = Mac computer name (located by clicking on the Apple in the upper left of the screen->About this Mac->Advanced and it should be in the title bar of the window that comes up)
* [Mac_ethernet_MAC_address] = Mac ethernet MAC address (no this is not the IP of your Mac go to System Preferences->Network->Built-in Ethernet->Advanced->Ethernet)
* [Size_in_GB] = How much space do you wish to take up for Time Machine (in Gigabytes)
1. Open up the Terminal (Open up Finder->Applications->Utilities)
2. In the command line type in the following:
hdiutil create -fs HFS+J -size [Size_in_GB]g -volname "Backup of [Mac_computer_name]" [Mac_computer_name]_[Mac_Ethernet_MAC_address].sparsebundle
3. Press enter after that long command and you should have a sparsebundle file created on your desktop or User folder
4. Move the sparsebundle file to a folder on the NAS (say Time Machine for
example) and voila you can now use their NAS for other things than archiving your system setup.

 

I used my MacBook's ethernet port MAC address for this file, not its Airport MAC address.  Using the above steps, I was able to create a workable sparsebundle that has an advantage of the one that NASNavigator2 creates:  I can now limit how much of the storage space TimeMachine will take up.  (If you use the sparsebundle file created by NASNavigator2, TimeMachine will eventually take up the entire storage;  this would be bad for me because I'm using the same drive to back up two computers, the other one being a PC.  Incidentally, this new sparsebundle file gets saved on the MacBook's hard drive, not on the desktop.  I think it is in the Users folder.

 

Step #5:  I connected my MacBook to my home network via an ethernet cable, not wi-fi.

Step #6:  I launched TimeMachine, selected the LinkStation Live drive / back-up folder that I had created, chose "guest" as the log-in, and clicked OK.

 

The timer counted down, and after two minutes, TimeMachine started backing up my MacBook!  It's still in process, and it looks like it may take a few hours for this initial back-up.  Still, I was so excited that I got this far, that I had to share with the rest of you.

 

Two unanswered questions:

a) Will this initial back-up complete successfully?

b) Will the normal update back-us work via wi-fi?  (That is how I'd like them to work.  I don't want to be tethered to an ethernet cable all day.)

 

If any of you have any other suggestions or success stories, please share!