Getting TimeMachine to use an external drive on another Mac
I was trying to do this a couple of days ago and couldn’t find anything concrete on the Internet regarding my particular setup for how I wanted to use TimeMachine.
I have an iMac which is my main PC and an always on Mac Mini which is being used to play and store media connected to my TV. The Mini has a 2TB external drive and a partition on that drive of 500GB intended for TimeMachine for my iMac.
Problem was that I couldn’t get TimeMachine on my iMac to find the partition. This is how I got the setup to work:
- Enable File Sharing on the Mini from System Preferences->Sharing.
- Connect to the Mini using Finder on the iMac so you can browse all drives.
- In Terminal on the iMac, enter this command without the quotes: “defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupporetworkVolumes 1”
- Open TimeMachine on the iMac. It should now find the external partitions on the Mini to use.
- Bear in mind that over a wireless G network, the initial backup can take a REALLY long time. I recommend doing this over Ethernet cable if possible.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any data loss or damage to your computers as a result of these instructions.
