10-08-2011, 07:01 PM
The cynic in me thinks calling Apple on this will be fruitless but you never know, give it a try. Or Google something like, "convert network Time Machine to local" or whatever. I'm supposed to be taking a nap before heading out to a wedding tonight or I'd pursue this a little with you today ... I saw your original post but didn't have enough to go on until your second, by the way.
When making the sparsebundle you have to do it in such a way that the Mac's MAC and UUID are taken into account. There's no opportunity to do that with Disk Utility, which can only create normal, non-TM compatible sparsebundle images.
Basically what happens is, when you point TM to use a certain disk or disk image, it matches up info unique to that Mac (using the MAC and UUID) to know whether or not the backup is new or existing to that Mac. Creating the sparsebundle with the info already wedded to it is the trick that lets TM pick right up where it left of, regardless of HD enclosure, network location and so on.
If I can get to writing it up next week I will. Watch this space. In the meantime if you Google how to make your own network TM sparsebundle you'll find the pieces anyway most likely. Another benefit to making your own is that you can limit their growth so that it doesn't just swamp a HD used for other stuff. Good for those of us that really only need a few versions of recent stuff, not months or years of crap they stopped using long ago.
When making the sparsebundle you have to do it in such a way that the Mac's MAC and UUID are taken into account. There's no opportunity to do that with Disk Utility, which can only create normal, non-TM compatible sparsebundle images.
Basically what happens is, when you point TM to use a certain disk or disk image, it matches up info unique to that Mac (using the MAC and UUID) to know whether or not the backup is new or existing to that Mac. Creating the sparsebundle with the info already wedded to it is the trick that lets TM pick right up where it left of, regardless of HD enclosure, network location and so on.
If I can get to writing it up next week I will. Watch this space. In the meantime if you Google how to make your own network TM sparsebundle you'll find the pieces anyway most likely. Another benefit to making your own is that you can limit their growth so that it doesn't just swamp a HD used for other stuff. Good for those of us that really only need a few versions of recent stuff, not months or years of crap they stopped using long ago.