Tag: Apple

Hacking Apple’s Time Machine

On my quest to learn everything I can about the “locked down” world I like to call OSX, I tried to setup Time Machine.  For those of you that don’t know, that’s Apple’s built-in backup utility.

My situation is somewhat unique, but I found many others on the interwebs trying to solve the same issue.  How to backup over wireless, and how to backup to a NTFS formatted drive or a network drive.  So I scoured the web and found many potential solutions, most of them contained incomplete information however.

The guide that finally pointed me in the right direction is located here.  It’s a surprisingly easy process and should be supported by Apple.  Why should you have to physically connect a drive to a laptop to back it up?  That just seems counterproductive to me.  Isn’t the whole point of having a laptop for mobility?

I’ll outline the steps below for those of you who are weary of clicking on links.

Step 1:

  • Open up Terminal (Applications, Utilities)
  • Enable unsupported volumes by entering the following code:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences
TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Step 2:

  • Mount your network drive (Finder, Go, Connect to Server)
  • On your Mac, open Disk Utility. Click “New Image.” Use the following settings:
  • Save As ComputerName_MACAddress (Must be Ethernet MAC Address and not Airport MAC Address)
  • Volume name can be whatever you want.  I named mine “Time Machine Backups”.
  • Change partition to “No Partition Map”
  • Change Image Format to “Sparce Bundle Disk Image”
  • Custom Volume size. Set the maximum you want to use on your remote location.  Don’t worry if you don’t have the room on your Mac.  I set mine to 200gb, the size of the hard drive on my Mac.  The empty file was a little over 300mb.
  • Save and then move this file to your network drive.

Open time machine and select the network drive you moved the sparsebundle file to.  Time Machine should now backup without any issues.

When you perform the first backup, have a wired connection and turn off your wireless.  My first backup was 50 gigs and took over 3 hours with a gigabit LAN.  I can only imagine how much longer it would take over a wireless connection.

This has been the first of what I’m sure will be many achievements in my learning and (in some cases) working around Apple’s master plan.

First Impressions

I finally stepped into the world of Apple.  While I thought it would be a new and exciting experience, I must say I’m somewhat disappointed.

I purchased a Black MacBook off eBay that came with many accessories.  The auction included a laptop bag, 500gb Lacie external hard drive, the original box and restore discs and an Apple keyboard and mouse.

It’s specs aren’t the best, but I don’t need them.  It has a 2.16 ghz Core 2 Duo Intel processor, 2gb of ram and a 200gb hard drive.  I plan on upgrading the ram to 4gb once I learn all I can on OSX and need to start working with VM Ware.

I must say that the design of and abilities of my MacBook amaze me, while some aspects of it downright disappoint me.

The first issue I had was with it’s “slot loading” disc drive.  This computer came with Tiger (10.4) so I purchased Snow Leopard (10.6.3), and my first task was upgrading to this OS.  While I’m still not sure if something is wrong with mine, or if this is a design flaw; my particular machine doesn’t particularly like to load or unload discs.  The only way I can get them to load is by pushing the disc in all the way using a foreign object.  Ejection is similar, as it only ejects about 1/16″ out of the machine.  I asked some of my co-workers about this and they confirmed that these drives are finicky at best.

My second issue is with the seemingly “closed” nature of the Mac OS.  While I’m basically a newbie, it doesn’t seem as friendly to someone who likes to customize everything like myself.  While there are options, they are limited.  Luckily I have vast experience with Linux, the second cousin twice removed to OSX; this makes my learning curve much more shallow than if I had no experience at all.

Let me restate for all the fan boys out there, these are just first impressions.  I haven’t had a chance to dig deep into this machine yet.  I’m diving head first into the mac world and only using a PC when required or when I can’t use it; such as at work or when I’m doing some work for my business.

I transferred my entire music library last night and eagerly anticipate setting up iTunes and seeing how similar the Mac version is compared to the Windows version.  I’m also going to start transferring all of my personal home videos using iMovie and iDVD.  Two programs I actually need to learn for my job at IU.

Since I have went on a technology “spending spree” of sorts, I am imposing on myself a probation from technology purchases.  The only caveat is if something fails and needs replaced.  I think I’ve put enough financial stress on my wife for a year or so in that department regarding this and my recent HTPC purchase.

Solving Error 46 For Good

Ever since I started working with Editor B on the ROX 2 DVD project, I have been using Apple’s QuickTime almost exclusively.  When my daughter and I got an iPod,  I started using iTunes.

Since I am a Windows user, there are some complications with using this software that many people like myself have encountered over the years.  I’m going to outline those problems, and how I fixed them here.

Apple includes an “update utility” with all of their products which will auto install updates for you, while this may sound nice – it’s a devil in disguise.

For some strange reason, while this update utility is supposedly updating your software, the first thing it does is actually remove your old versions.  It then removes all authorized users from the registry keys the programs require to run.   When the installation commences, it tells you various messages saying it cannot access this or that.  It then rolls back it’s actions and you are left without your software.

I was receiving QuickTime Error: 46 – Could Not Load ActiveX Control.  If you google it, you will find hundreds of listings regarding this issue.  99% of them will tell you to install a old Windows NT utility and then download a file named reset.cmd, you run the reset file which resets the security profiles for a few registry keys.  This works for some, but not all – including me.

I spent about 2 hours last night manually resetting all of the keys required, and finally fixed the issue.  While my case may be extreme, the only other option was to format and completely wipe my machine.  Not something I really wanted to do, as I don’t have a lot of free time, and I’m re-doing a video transfer job that went wrong.  I won’t go into much detail, but it’s the reason why I quit using dual layer DVDs.

The other error I was getting was preventing installation of QuickTime and iTunes.  A dialog box would pop up and say:  could not open key:
UNKNOWN\Components\9C4307835821FFF47864EE6DABC09AA9\E603EB826AD5C9F4DB0BBD3A8C6CFFDF.  After doing some exhaustive searching, I found the location of UNKNOWN\Components\.  The location is explained here.  It is located at HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\
Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components.  The first string in your error is listed there, with the second string being a subkey of that.  Change your permissions and you’ll be able to install.  I have seen examples that have different key values, so please don’t use my particular example – yours could be different!

I have modified that reset.cmd file, and now it works for me.  The major flaw with the other version flying around the interwebs, is that it does not force a owner into the keys.  Without an owner, you cannot add users.

Here is that modified file in it’s entirety.  Please copy everything into a notepad and save it as *.cmd file.  It worked for me when nothing else out there would.  I hope this helps anyone out there who is fed up and frustrated, it will also give me a reference should I need to do this again.
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