11-29-2011, 11:50 AM

Hi, I am getting an iMac soon that will be running in our small office windows server environment. We have the newest server software, Server 2008, I believe. We already back up all the local computers to the server and cloud but can I use Time Machine to view my backups on the server?
I am the owner so permissions etc aren't an issue.
TIA!

11-29-2011, 08:00 PM

No.

W2K8 server will not interface with Time Machine at all.

11-29-2011, 08:06 PM

I'm not really sure what the question is, but it seems unlikely that Time Machine would be able to view or manipular backups of a different operating system, created by a different application using a different file format without some serious coding. What are you using specifically to backup now, and to what type of format?

11-29-2011, 11:05 PM

I just wanted to use the time machine interface to retrieve any accidentally deleted files but it doesn't seem to be possible. Thanks for the replies.

11-30-2011, 07:36 AM

Windows Servers have had what are called Shadow Copies for a long long time.

I would ensure that Shadow Copies are enabled on the volume that contains the data you'd like protected.

Shadow Copies are similar to Versions on OS X Lion and unlike Time Machine in that they live on the same volume as the data.

When Shadow Copy is enabled on a volume you will see the Previous Versions tab when getting properties of a folder. The previous version will allow you to restore the folder or files to a previous time, say from accidental deletion. The default Shadow Copy schedule is 7:00 AM and 12:00 PM.

As a note to all, this is not enabled by default, but should always be turned on IMHO for all Windows file servers.

11-30-2011, 10:30 AM

Didnt know about the shadow copies, thx!