Best way to increase hard drive space on Time Capsule?

Quick questions for those of you who've increased the storage on your Time Capsules:
1. Did you swap out the internal hard drive or did you add a USB external hard drive?
2. For those that added a USB external hard drive, what are the drawbacks? I've read some threads saying their external hard drive is flaky and they need to power cycle the TC to get their hard drive visible on their Macs.
Here's my situation: I have two Macs backing up to a 500GB TC and I only have 13GB free. I want to increase the hard drive space and am toying with these two options:
1. Swap out the internal hard drive to 1TB and have both Macs back up the new hard drive.
2. Add a 1TB external USB hard drive and have one Mac back up to that drive while the other Mac continues to back up to the internal 500GB drive.
FYI, I'm proficient with building PCs so I have no issues swapping the internal hard drive if that's the best option. It's just that adding an external hard drive is a lot easier.

Based on the how-to articles I've read, it seems like you could remove the rubber pad without destroying it (if one is careful in removing it). That said, I think I'm going to just buy an external HDD and attach it to the TC. dchao99's comment about using an external HDD with his AEBS without issue helps alleviate some of the concerns I had with that option.
I was toying with buying a Drobo to attach to the TC but I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna get an external HDD like a Western Digital MyBook or something similar.

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Whats the best way to keep hard drive space clear

I have a macbook that is getting close to a full hard drive. I have backed up the computer using an extrenal drive but with mostly videos and pictures on the drive it is really close to full.
Can anyone help with suggestions as to how to store things externally on the drive and not on the computer itself?

Simple solution. Store stuff on the external drive not on the computer itself.
Replace the computer's drive with a larger capacity drive.
Get a bigger external drive.
These are not mutually exclusive. Do all of them.

Can I increase the capacity of Time Machine with an external hard drive connected to Time Capsule?

Can I increase the capacity of Time Machine with an external hard drive connected to Time Capsule via the USB port? My current Time Machine has a total capacity of 1TB. I'd like to double or triple its memory. I don't want to use the external hard drive in lieu of the Time Capsule hard drive. I'd like to use it in addition to. Just don't know if/how it's possible.
This is another one of those questions that I've searched the web for answers, and have gotten tricky answers back. So now I'm trying to introduce a clean slate to the mix.
Thank you for your time!

Well, what you mentioning is possible. However, I don't know whether it's supported (as in, "easy to set up."). Time Machine officially supports backing up to a locally attached drive, to a machine running a Time Machine server (i.e. running OS X Server software), and to a Time Capsule. I don't know that it officially supports a drive attached to an AirPort or to a Time Capsule. Though I know some people have gotten it to work.
Best I can say is to try it. Plug the drive into the Time Capsule, ensure it's shared on the network, and then try and set it as a backup target from a machine in the Time Machine backup panel (you'll need to ensure it's mounted first). If it works, you're all set.

Backing up external hard drive (connected to time capsule) using time machi

hi. don't know if this is possible or not - am now using an external hard drive to store all my movies as my macbook pro's hard drive is filling up and i'm running out of space (it's 250gb). have created a separate itunes on the external hard drive and stream these movies to my apple tv. the external hard drive is connected to my time capsule and access it on the macbook pro that way wirelessy. is there a way to now back up my movies on the external hard drive to the time capsule using time machine (that it's already connected to)?

Welcome to the discussions, squire78!
If your external drive is connected directly to your computer, you can have Time Machine backup both your computer and the external drive.
If the external drive is connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule, Time Machine cannot backup this drive.

Need to move (consolidate) my iTunes files (media/library) from my external hard drive (i use time capsule as an ext hd) back to my main iMac where my iTunes is located.

I used my time capsule (1st gen) as an external hard drive to store my iTunes files and my iTunes app is on my main iMac. Now, I've decided to move those iTunes files from my external hard drive (TC) back to my iMac where my iTunes app is located. What is the best way to do this?

Is the Time Capsule the right piece of kit for the job?
Not really, no.
TC is a dumb as board hard disk in an airport extreme router. It has no media servers.. no backup.. it is slow and designed for TM target for laptops. The major one here is lack of backup. Any files you put on the TC can and will be lost at some point.. and to backup you need to have a computer connected to it with an external hard disk.. and a 3rd party backup because TM is too dumb to back up network drives.
TC is designed to spin up slow and spin down quickly at the end of backup. You will have issues when you stream media from it.
ATV needs to connect to itunes server.. not the library. You will still need a computer running. Same for lots of things.. since apple designed their system to be dependent on itunes.
The best idea is a media computer.. a mac mini is ideal. Don't need the latest greatest.. but an actual mac running itunes. Unfortunately it doesn't have large internal drives.. so it is still a bit kludgy in needing a fast external drive.. but at least you have automatic backups.

How to proceed on transferring the content of an external hard drive into the time capsule.

I just bought a new MBP and a 2T time capsule but i don’t know how to proceed on transferring the content of an old external hard drive into the brand new time capsule.
The old external hard drive is a carbon copy of another external HD which was my time machine backup but unfortunately someone stole it from me… so I was thinking about transferring the content from the old external hard drive to the time capsule and then set time capsule as the new time machine backup.
Is there anybody whose can give me a hand and tell what is the best to do?
Thanks
sb

Configure Time Machine preferences. Be sure to remove the external drive from the Exclude list.
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Hi iv got a sky router downstairs and a time capsule up stairs how do i set it up so that it just extends the sky wifi and then the hard drive in the time capsule is accessible from all over the house thanks

hi iv got a sky router downstairs and a time capsule up stairs how do i set it up so that it just extends the sky wifi and then the hard drive in the time capsule is accessible from all over the house thanks

Connect an Ethernet cable from one of the LAN <--> ports on the back of the Sky router to the WAN (circle of dots icon) port on the back of the Time Capsule. This connection must be maintained at all times.
Then, using the setup "wizard" on your iMac illustrated below, configure the Time Capsule to create a wireless network that uses the exact same wireless network name and password that the Sky router is using.
You can get the setup wizard going in several different ways, but the simplest might be to click the WiFi icon at the top of the Mac's screen and then click on Time Capsule under the heading of New AirPort Base Station.
The wizard will open up and analyze the network, then the suggest the correct setup. The example below shows an older AirPort Express that is about to be setup in the same way. You will see a Time Capsule icon on your screen when you run the setup wizard.

I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive. I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB. I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive. 10.6.8

I have a time machine backup file on a USB hard drive. I bought a time capsule / airport extreme, flat 3TB. I wish to transfer the backup file from the usb hard drive to the time capsule hard drive. 10.6.8

Unfortunately, Time Machine backups that are stored on a drive that has been connected directly to a Mac are completely different than Time Machine backups that are stored on a Time Capsule.
Frankly, it is not worth the effort and trouble to try to transfer the old backups to the new Time Capsule.....my opinion....having done this in the past.
It is possible though, but I would not recommend it due to the complexity and downsides involved with this. To give you an idea of how to do this, check out this support article.
http://pondini.org/TM/18.html
Even if you transfer the "old" backups over to the Time Capsule successfully, Time Machine will not simply "add on" to the old backups.
Time Machine will make a new complete backup of your Mac and then add incremental backups from that point.
My advice.....start a new backup on the Time Capsule and move forward. Keep the USB hard drive around for a month, maybe 2 or 3 in case you need to go back to an old backup for some reason. At that time, you will not likely need the old backups at all since you will have a current 2-3 month history of new backups. At that point, you can erase the USB drive and use it for another purpose.

I want to take files from my PC (using a Seagate external hard drive) then plug this Seagate External hard drive into my Mac Book Pro and move the files from the Seagate External Hard drive onto my Time Capsule. I do not want to put these files on my Mac

I want to take files from my PC (using a Seagate external hard drive) then plug this Seagate External hard drive into my Mac Book Pro and move the files from the Seagate External Hard drive onto my Time Capsule. I do not want to put these files on my Mac. How do I do this? Where do I put these files on my Time Capsule? Will it affect the functioning of my Time Capsule?

Mixing files with data is not always great idea.
See info here.
Q3 http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Why not just connect the PC directly to the TC by ethernet and copy the files over?
It is hugely faster and much less mucking around.
In windows load the airport utility for windows.. if you have not already as this will help you access the drive.
There is more info here.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1331

I have an external hard drive from my time capsule that stopped working on me. I am attempting to access the data with a hard drive reader on my MAC. I am able to see the drive in disk utility and under system info USB. But I am unable to access the data.

I have an external hard drive from my time capsule that stopped working on me. I am attempting to access the data with a hard drive reader on my MAC. I am able to see the drive in disk utility and under system info USB. But I am unable to access the data and it does not show on the desktop when connected.

Ok if disk utility was able to verify the drive I doubt there is any problem.. are you trying to open a TM backup??
You need to mount the sparsebundle then check the actual info inside the bundle.
Don't use disk warrior.. if the disk has verified then unless you deliberately deleted files there is nothing that is going to do.
Pondini has a lot of stuff about getting access to the sparsebundle.
http://pondini.org/TM/17.html
But if you have copied info to the TC that is now gone.. and the disk is ok.. I am not sure.. the TC will not have deleted the files itself.

If I connect an external hard drive to the Time Capsule, all it automatically back it up?

If I connect an external hard drive to the Time Capsule, will it automatically back it up? Or do I need to somehow configure it in TIme Machine?

A HDD attached to the Time Capsule (TC) will not automatically back it up, nor can you configure Time Machine to do so. However, you can use the AirPort Utility to archive the contents of your TC's internal HDD to this attached drive.

External hard drive connected to Time Capsule for iTunes.

I have copied my iTunes library to an external hard drive and connected the hard drive to my time capsule. I have an iMac and a MacBook and want to see the same iTunes content on each. I want to use the iMac as the main place to add iTunes content and see the results on the MacBook. I have told both iTunes (the iMac and the MacBook) the location of the hard drive, but I see different content on each. For example, if I add new music to the iMac I can't see it on the MacBook.
I sync iPads, iPhones and iPods via the iMac, but don't think this has any bearing on the problem.
Any suggestions on how to resolve this gratefully appreciated, and thanks in advance.

Welcome to the discussions, squire78!
If your external drive is connected directly to your computer, you can have Time Machine backup both your computer and the external drive.
If the external drive is connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule, Time Machine cannot backup this drive.

I need to add a secondary hard drive to my time capsule. Can something that has been set up for a windows machine work without re-formatting?

I need to add a secondary hard drive to my time capsule. Can something that has been set up for a windows machine work without re-formatting?

In addition to Niel's comments, if you plan to use Time Machine to backup a Mac to the secondary drive.....that application needs a drive that has been specifically formattted for Mac. That would be Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
PCs can also read and write to the Mac formatted drive.

I connected a external hard drive to the Time capsule but I can't get it to connect, I connected a external hard drive to the Time capsule but I can't get it to connect

I connected an external hard drive to the Time Capsule but can't get it to work.

And are you using a powered USB hub? The USB port on the Time Capsule is under powered, so you almost always need to use a powered USB hub, even if the hard drive has its own power supply.

Searching external hard drive attached to Time Capsule

I have a 1 TB Time Capsule which I use for backing up my 2011 MacBook Pro and for providing my WiFi. I also have a 1 TB external hard drive plugged into my Time Capsule which I can access via WiFi. I can go to Finder on my laptop and browse the folders/files on my external hard drive. It appears under Shared in the sidebar of the Finder window. I can open files from it and I can save files to the drive, so it appears to be working fine. I have hundreds of gigs of files on the drive. But when I was recently hunting for a specific file, I noticed that my Spotlight wasn't doing a very good job at finding files on my external hard drive. I tried many different searches - by name, by type, by date - and had no luck. But as I was searching, I realized that I had more files of certain file types than Spotlight was showing me. So I tried searching for files I first confirmed were actually on the external drive. And again Spotlight failed to find them. If I used a partial filename search, it would find some files that matched but not the ones I was looking for.
So, this led me to think the index is corrupt. I'm not sure if this problem is related to my recently upgrading to Lion or not, since I haven't had to search the drive in awhile. I tried to force Spotlight to recreate the index on the drive by using the Privacy panel trick (of the Spotlight Preferences) but that didn't work. I then tried to get Spotlight to recreate its entire index and I think all that did was recreate the index for my internal harddrive.
So, are there things I need to know about attaching an external hard drive to a Time Capsule that I perhaps forgot to do? Should I be able to search the drive with Spotlight? Do I have to somehow force Spotlight to look in external drive when doing a search or is it supposed to search everything it can?
I should mention I have been having a little trouble with my Time Capsule as well. I recently had to erase the drive and set up a whole new backup since the backup was failing - not sure what happened to it, but it seems to be working again now. But I did notice yesterday that my Time Machine hadn't backed up all day but it was not giving me a warning message. It was just sitting there not backing up. I had tried resetting my PRAM and after doing so, my Time Machine was back to backing up. I'm not sure if the PRAM reset helped with that or if it was just the restart of the laptiop.
One more thing - I feel like since upgrading to Lion I have had to restart my laptop more than ever. Things just start acting funny, especially when I am using Safari and I find myself resetting Safari and then restarting my laptop all the time. Odd.

It should be HFS+.. it may work with fat32 but that is a lousy format.
The actual format of the drive is irrelevant to the PC.. the TC offers SMB connection.. so it is a true file sharing device.. the format used to store the files cannot be directly read by windows but is "interpreted, translated" via the firmware of the TC.
BTW this is true of all network storage.. A NAS can store files in whatever format its OS requires.. freebsd like freenas might use XFS.. or linux use EXT2 or REISFS.. it makes no difference as long as it offers that store to the windows (and apple) network as SMB.. then windows can handle it.

Best way to increase hard drive space on Time Capsule?

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