Comments on: HP MediaSmart Now Does Time Machine, Well… not all of it. But, I can fix it.

By: Christopher Price

Christopher Price — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:06:47 +0000

I haven’t tested it on a MediaSmart server, but this is the Apple-conceptualized workaround.

On a normal Mac, Time Machine builds Time Machine backups in a folder. However, when on a non-HFS+ drive, Time Machine builds a sparse disk image, and puts the Time Machine backup inside of it.

Luckily, the Mac OS X Installer detects the sparse disk images when at the root level of a drive, and mounts them accordingly. As such, by copying the sparse disk image from the MediaSmart, to a Mac hard drive (say, a USB hard drive for the sake of this discussion), then it should work.

Bottom line is that it will work, so long as the MediaSmart does the Time Machine backup properly in the first place. Considering HP is promoting this feature so much, I don’t doubt that it does backup properly.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:08:41 +0000

Have you tried the workaround you listed (copying to a mac formatted drive)?

I would be interested to know if anyone has done it successfully.

By: MediaSmart Server and the Mac « MS Windows Home Server

MediaSmart Server and the Mac « MS Windows Home Server — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:06:08 +0000

[...] But there are workarounds and Chris tells us what they are in his post HP MediaSmart Now Does Time Machine, Well… not all of it. But, I can fix it. [...]