Backup to NAS Network attached storage; confused

[monkeymojo]

I just bought a ReadyNAS (http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage/ReadyNASNVPlus/RND4450.aspx) for my small office. I'm wondering if it's possible that I can backup my MacBook Pro to a sparse image on the NAS (4HD, 1.3TB space, RAID-5). Page 18 of the user guide makes me think I can do this no problem. But on Page 19, I see the note box:

Note: It’s very important that the network drive support files larger than 4GB. FAT32-based servers or NAS devices will not work, and fail pretty spectacularly when this limit is reached. Please ensure the network volume is HFS+, NTFS or ext3, all of which support large files.

That indicates to me that my NAS drive won't work for this sort of backup, and that I should just backup my laptop to a FireWire drive or something.

I've read these forums but don't see a definitive answer to this - or any specific reference to that note. Thanks for any insight.

[dnanian]

The caveat is that FAT-32 based NAS devices won't work. The ReadyNAS will work fine.

[monkeymojo]

Oh, I see. I was reading the sentence wrong - or misinterpreting it.

"FAT32-based servers or NAS devices will not work" is the phrase.

To me that meant:
FAT32-based servers will not work.
NAS devices will not work.

When in reality that means:
FAT32-based servers will not work.
FAT32-based NAS devices will not work.

Thanks for clearing that up, that's good news!

[dnanian]

Yes. Not my best sentence...

[monkeymojo]

Now I'm trying to backup a portable USB drive I have to a spareseimage on my new NAS. I've followed the instructions in the user guide, but the spareseimage won't mount after it is created. I'm getting this error:

| 02:03:17 PM | Info |       created: /Volumes/backups/usbdrive_backup.sparseimage
| 02:03:17 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Setting ownership and access modes for '/Volumes/backups/usbdrive_backup.sparseimage'
| 02:03:17 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Mounting usbdrive_backup
| 02:03:17 PM | Error | 2007-09-27 14:03:17.384 hdiutil[13221] CFLog (21): dyld returns 2 when trying to load /Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin

Looks like I'm missing something - should I reinstall SD? I tried connecting to this share via smb and afp, but it wouldn't mount after creation in either case.

[dnanian]

No. You need to delete that plugin, which is not compatible with your Intel Mac.

[monkeymojo]

Will do - I thought it looked odd. Thanks for your quick reply.

[tkatchev69]

I'm looking to get a Linksys NMH300 NAS solution. I understand that I can keep those disks in NTFS format to make the backups in SD. Will the images of my MacBook Pros be truly bootable? I guess I thought the drivers want HFS+ format to boot. Any guidance is appreciated. Thanks.

Dan Finnegan

[dnanian]

No: no NAS volumes are directly bootable, Dan.