Backup over Network

[macWish]

I am confused by the threads in this forum dealing with backing up over network.
My setup is as follows:

iMac with external firewire drive and miniMac networked via wireless connection through D-Link wireless router.
I would like to back the User Files on the miniMac to one of the partitions on the external firewire drive attached to the iMac.
I read and understand how to create a sparse disk image to which I will make the backup.

But where do I put the sparse disk image to which I will back up with SuperDuper! ? On the miniMac itself (in which case, I can make the back up but then have to copy the disk image over the network). Or, do I put the image on the external firewire drive? If I put it there, I can't see it with SuperDuper.

[dnanian]

You put the sparse image on the Mac mini. You then *mount* the image, and it'll look like a local volume... then you copy to *that*.

[macWish]

If I mount the sparse image on the macMini and use SuperDuper to copy the user files to the sparse image, then to have a backup on another drive, I would have to copy the entire sparse image via the network to the external firewire drive attached to the iMac. In other words, it does not seem possible to use SuperDuper to make backup over the network. Am I misunderstanding something?

Just to make sure I was clear about what I want to do:

My network consists of
1. iMac with external firewire drive
2. iMac attached to router via etherner cable
3. macMini networked to router by wireless connection.

I want to make backup of my wife's user folder on the macMini to the external firewire drive over the network. Can I do this with SUperDuper?

[dnanian]

Yes. Place the Sparse Image on the FireWire drive. On the Mac mini, mount the sparse image, from the network drive. Then, use SuperDuper! to back up onto the sparse image. Unmount the sparse image and then the network drive.

Once done, the backup is on the firewire drive on the "far side" of the network from the mini.

[macWish]

Thanks very much. I'm still very new to networking. But your final instructions solved my dilemma and backup was successful and in the correct location.