OS X and Windows 7 shares

L

lusher00

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I have been trying to get Time Machine to backup to a Windows 7 shared drive for months now using this method...

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=184462

I got it to work the first time I tried it no problem. But after a few weeks or so I got a message saying there was an error with my backup and the OS would need to create a new one. It was a fairly benign message if I recall correctly so I told it to go ahead. Well it wiped the current image out and failed when trying to create a new one. After three or four attempts I just gave up. This is just a novelty/convenience to me. I keep everything important to me in a single parent directory which I sync with a 32GB flash drive which I also sync with all my other computers. But I would still like to know why it's not working and I think that if I could get it working it would present some new opportunities for me.

So last night I thought I would give it another shot and then pay closer attention to the logs when the image first becomes corrupted. I mounted my Windows 7 shared drive and noticed the script didn't work. When I looked in the /Volumes directory I noticed OS X is no longer creating mount points with the Windows share name. It is now either naming them with the computer name or the IP address followed by a hyphen and a number corresponding to the order in which I mount shares. I don't really care what the OS names them, as long as it's consistent. Did Apple update me recently and change something?

Today's article here...

http://www.macwindows.com/

has left me a little suspicious. Any information on OS X's methods to it's madness would be appreciated. Perhaps someone could point me in the direction of a site with a wealth of knowledge?

Thank you,
Ryan
 
Time Machine only backups to an OS Extended (HFS+) drives. Sorry there is no way around that.

Now if you backing up to a network drive then you shouldn't use Time Machine. Use something like Carbon Copy Cloner (free) that is designed to work over a network.
 
Not true as I stated above. I have gotten it to work along with many other people by creating a sparsebundle. And as I also stated it's not about having a backup, it's about solving a problem which any engineer will tell you is tough to walk away from. I got it to work with Carbon Copy in 5 minutes. Where is the fun in that?

But the real question in my post is how do I get OS X to consistently mount network drives with the same mount point.
 
Manually mount the shares on each Mac sing the Finder's "Connect to Server" (command button+k). Once the share is mounted as Administrator go to System Preferences->Accounts, User account and then login Items and click the + sign to add the mounted share to the Login Items for that User.

Another way is to drag that mounted share to the Dock to make an Alias (that is a shortcut in Windows terms),in the User's account. Then when the use clicks on the share in the dock it will mount.

Now also for 10.6.x read the Apple discussion hint Snow Leopard 10.6.4 not showing Windows 7 Machines on Finder's Shared. Another thing is to open System Preferences->Network pane, Advanced button, WINS tab and add the SMB Domain server IP address, etc. Lastly make sure the Mac is using the same Time server (System Preferences->Date & Time) as the Windows server is using to avoid any Kerberos errors.

I also assume you have read File Sharing With Snow Leopard: Sharing OS X 10.6 Files With Windows 7.

Lastly bookmark the web site Macwindows.com if you are putting a Mac into a Windows Domain.
 
Satcomer,

I am not really having problems with any of the issues resolved in the articles you posted. I am able to mount my Windows shares using all of the above methods, I just can't get them to mount consistently under the same mount point. Sometimes they mount with their Windows names (i.e. /Volumes/macShares). Actually they consistently mounted this way until just recently. Now they are either mounting under their NetBIOS Name (i.e. /Volumes/lusher00-win7, /Volumes/lusher00-win7-1) or under the IP address (i.e. /Volumes/192.168.1.100, /Volumes/192.168.1.100-1). The only way I can get them to mount under macShares is manually mounting them in the terminal using mount -t smbfs. None of the articles address controlling the mount point unless I am missing something. I have found dozens of complaints roaming the internet but no real viable solutions. At least none that have worked for me other than manually mounting them in a shell.
 
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