Should I let my ReadyNAS NV+ run 24-hrs or should I power it on and off? If I do let it run 24-hours would you recommend spinning the disk down to save wear and tear? If so, when should I spin the disks down? This is only a Time Machine backup system, not a file server.
Won't TM wake up the drive if it's spun down? So you run your 24/7?
If you set the spin down (and leave the NAS up 24/7) then any disk access (including TM) will cause them to spin up. Depending on your usage, power saving might be similar to what you are doing now. (Compared to your current mode, the CPU would be running all night - consuming more power - but the drives could spin down during the day - consuming less power). However, you will find that the drives will spin up sometimes for no apparent reason . Usually that happens because of some background task (for instance updating the SMART stats).
If you try it, don't set the spin down timer too short, as you don't want the disks spinning up too many times a day. I use 2 hours with mine.
No, I don't use TM - so I don't know what its scheduling is (or what controls users have over it).
I leave all 3 NAS powered on 24/7, with a disk spin-down timer of 2 hours. Computers are generally sleeping or off when not in use. I use Acronis backup with the 2 desktop PCs (which wake the PC at the appropriate time and backs them up).
Are you using TM? Doesn't TM initiate a backup every hour? Of course if the computer is shut down then no TM. Do you run your NAS 24/7?
Doesn't Time Machine allow you to specify when a backup occurs? I don't have a Mac yet (but intend to soon) so would really like to know this.
I do currently have my ReadyNAS set-up solely to backup files on a few W7 and XP computers, which are set to occur at a specific time every day. So I use the Power On/Off schedules and only have the NV+ running two hours each day, and off 22.
I had no luck trying to get Spindown to work, having experienced way too many instances of "spin-up instantly after spin-down" which IMO is worse for drives than running 24/7. But now I run only 2/7.
You can use 3rd party apps to set a custom schedule. Do note I think that the schedule sets when the backup will start. It may take some hours to complete depending on what has changed.
You can use 3rd party apps to set a custom schedule. Do note I think that the schedule sets when the backup will start. It may take some hours to complete depending on what has changed.
Hmmm "hours to complete" implies TM is backing the whole computer (including OS) which makes sense I guess. I run my ReadyNAS for only actually an hour and a half every day, and my PCs only take a half hour, at most an hour, altogether to complete their backups--but they are only doing File backups.
There must be "file backup" utilities for MacOS also where I could limit the time-to-backup, but that probably means I won't be using TM then.
You can use 3rd party apps to set a custom schedule. Do note I think that the schedule sets when the backup will start. It may take some hours to complete depending on what has changed.
Hmmm "hours to complete" implies TM is backing the whole computer (including OS) which makes sense I guess.
Probably the way to size this is to temporarily turn on the NAS 24/7, set up a schedule using one of the third party apps, and monitor the finish times via the TM logs. Once you have a baseline on when the backups complete, you can then set the power schedule on the NAS more intelligently.
Hmmm "hours to complete" implies TM is backing the whole computer (including OS) which makes sense I guess. I run my ReadyNAS for only actually an hour and a half every day, and my PCs only take a half hour, at most an hour, altogether to complete their backups--but they are only doing File backups.
There must be "file backup" utilities for MacOS also where I could limit the time-to-backup, but that probably means I won't be using TM then.
Ah, one of those is what I'd want then, for sure, thanks for that. And thanks StephenB too for the TM101 link--gosh hourly backups seem like overkill to me; glad to know the aftermarket has addressed this!
You can use 3rd party apps to set a custom schedule. Do note I think that the schedule sets when the backup will start. It may take some hours to complete depending on what has changed.
Hmmm "hours to complete" implies TM is backing the whole computer (including OS) which makes sense I guess. I run my ReadyNAS for only actually an hour and a half every day, and my PCs only take a half hour, at most an hour, altogether to complete their backups--but they are only doing File backups.
There must be "file backup" utilities for MacOS also where I could limit the time-to-backup, but that probably means I won't be using TM then.
Time Machine backups are incremental, it only saves files that have changed since the last backup. Initial backups can take a long time, but subsequent ones are usually very quick. You can specify volumes or directories to exclude from the backup. With Mountain Lion you can designate multiple disks to use and it will round-robin through each one.
