Can I use my 2TB as an external drive?

I have a 2TB Time Capsule and am using it to back up my iMac. I would like to use another external hard drive to backup my computer and use the time capsule for my physical storage. My startup disk is almost full and has limited what I can do on my iMac. Please advise?

Not sure what you mean by
use the time capsule for my physical storage.
The TC is now and forevermore a network drive. It is slow.. it is impossible to use as a boot drive. It is not that reliable. Over wireless it will be horrible. It is absolutely not to be used for live files you are working on.
TC is primarily a backup location for TM.
Use external drive for your iMac.. the fastest possible.
Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2
All of them even USB2 are faster than TC over network even gigabit.. and hugely faster than by wireless.
Here are the other reasons I normally list.
Store files on the TC.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24380694#24380694
This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
It cannot be partitioned. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
Major issues.
1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no controls.
4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
5. iTunes will constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is too slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
Read pondini for some work arounds.
Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

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Please excuse the silly question. New to mac, from PC.
I have a 200g external hard drive that has my itunes library, photos and other assorted files on it.
If I use time machine on this drive will it delete everything that is there, or can I use it in conjunction with the other files that are there?

You can use a Time Machine drive to save other files on it but I think time machine formats the drive when you first activate it so you will have to temporarily move your files while that happens. You best bet would be to partition the drive into a time machine portion and another for your files.
Steve

Rescued iTunes library on external HD. Loaner comp has inadequate HD space to transfer back in. Can I use my library from the external drive? How?

My 5 year old Windows Desktop died but I rescued my iTunes library from the internal to an external drive. The loaner computer I have now is adequate to run iTunes but has a puny internal HD and I cannot transfer my library on to it. I've researched and tried many times solutions to use the external HD as my library location but cannot get it to work. Can anyone help or point me to a step by step guide?
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I need an external drive to back-up my MacBook Air. In addition, my iTunes library of music, TV shows & movies is pretty enormous and I'd like to move it from my MacBook to an external drive to free up space on the laptop.
I will need to access my iTunes library from my Apple TV and the MacBook. I also have an iPad which will need to sync with the external drive.
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Is the Time Capsule the right piece of kit for the job?
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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.
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Can I use a 2tb external drive with Time Machine to backup what I have on my Mac Mini?
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Would an external 2tb My Passport Drive by Western Digital work for the backup?
It seems like it would not work because the total storage on the Mac Mini is 2304 gigabytes (SSD + HDD).
And the external Western Digital drive is only 2048 in gigabytes versus 2304 gigabytes the Mac Mini has.

No. A Time Machine backup drive should have at least twice the capacity of the drive it backs up. You would need at least a 4 TB backup drive for Time Machine.
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Suggested Backup Software
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2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
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Can i use time capsule as a external hard drive

can i use time capsule as a external hard drive

Not plugged in by USB if that is what you were thinking.
You can store files on the TC but you should NOT.
Store files on the TC.
This is asked several times a day.. obviously people are struggling with their latest SSD being too small.
The TC is not suitable for network file server.. but many people having no choice press it into service as such.
Major issues.
1. No backup.. no way Time Machine can backup a network drive. No place to backup to.. So all your files will be at risk. And you will need to buy a third party like CCC to do backup.
2. The TC cannot be partitioned and mixing TM backups and data is not great. It was and is and ever shall be a backup device for Time Machine.
3. The drive is slow to spin up and quick to spin down.. there is no control. In fact the TC is so lacking in controls for even the router side.. that you cannot do more than the most basic of setups.
The following are controls on the hard disk side.
Reformat it. You can name the share. You can do a full archive of the whole disk. This will go at a speed of aprox. 30-50GB/Hr so calculate how long an archive of a full 2TB will take.
4. iPhoto in particular can easily corrupt its entire library with wireless networking causing a disconnection to one photo. Even if you do this;;; do not move your photo library... you have been warned!!
Even apple btw say don’t do it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168 Although mostly about FAT32 it adds network drives.
5. iTunes can constantly lose connection to the library. The disk is slow to respond.. itunes on the computer will constantly spit out errors. Even in the midst of streaming the TC can spin down the disk due to caching.
6. Do not use any live files on the TC no matter what else you do.. if you edit files in whatever program the file must be on the local hard disk.
7. The only suitable location for most libraries is a computer. You can plug in an external hard disk.
Read pondini for some work arounds.
Q3 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html

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<Email Edited by Host>

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I am trying to get an answer to whether or not I can successfully use Time Machine with an external HDD connected to an airport extreme? Some forums say yes, some say no.

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You may be going on a recollection, that I share, that at one time Apple stated this would be possible:
In fact, Apple’s Time Machine Web page touted this very capability as recently as last Tuesday, as you can see from Google’s October 16 cache of the page
Effortless meets wireless. With a hard disk connected to your AirPort Extreme Base Station, all the Macs in your house can use Time Machine to back up wirelessly. Simply select your AirPort Disk as the backup disk for each computer and the whole family can enjoy the benefits of Time Machine.
But if you look at the current Time Machine page on Apple’s Web site, that text is nowhere to be found.
That was a long time ago, it has never been officially implemented, and at present they specifically say it cannot be done.
In summary, it may work, but probably won't, and even if it does it may not be reliable.
Reference:
Disks that can be used with Time Machine
Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk connected to an AirPort Extreme, or...
and
Mac OS X v10.5: Time Machine doesn't back up to AirPort Extreme AirPort Disks

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