Can't backup to my Time Capsule -- always hangs

So, tonight I bought a Time Capsule to back up my MacBook Air to. I've been using AirPort Base Stations for years, so I'm pretty familiar with troubleshooting them at this point.
Long story short, I've not been able to get a single successful backup to this brand new Time Capsule.
I've eliminated every possible variable -- even turned off wireless completely, and have connected the Air directly to the Time Capsule using the Air's USB ethernet adapter.
The results are always the same: 100-200 MB into the backup, it just hangs, and takes the Finder down with it.
For example, right now the backup progress dialog is sitting at "275.6 MB of 40.48" and has been for probably half an hour. I can't cancel the backup (the cancel button does nothing when clicked). I switched to the Finder to see if the Time Capsule volume was still mounted, and the Finder instantly beachballed. It's hung so badly that I just tried to restart the Air and it's now hung at the spinning restart indicator.
This is my fifth or sixth attempt of the night. I've done a "Reset to Factory Settings" once on the Time Capsule, and have been erasing the Capsule's hard drive before each attempt, via AirPort Utility.
Remember, there's no WiFi involved here. The Air is plugged directly into a LAN port on the Time Capsule. I've turned off AirPort completely on the laptop. Interference is not an issue.
The Air is running 10.5.2 and the Time Capsule is a 1 TB model running firmware 7.3.1.
It seems to be completely broken. Before I deal with the headache of returning/exchanging it, does anyone have any suggestions?

So I thought maybe the "connection interrupted" error could indicate a bad ethernet cable. So, I swapped it out for another, but it hasn't fixed the problem.
It did get much farther into the backup on this attempt -- about 2 GB out of 40 GB. It was past midnight, so I went to bed and left it running. Woke up to "an error occurred writing to the backup disk" or something to that effect. Time Capsule GONE from Airport Utility until I rebooted the TC.
(Still not using the WiFi here. Airport Utility wasn't finding the ETHERNET-CONNECTED Time Capsule.)
At this point, after so many attempts, I'm guessing it has to be a hardware failure in the TC, or the hard drive itself.
I guess I'll take it back to the Apple Store and see if I can get it swapped. If the replacement does it too, then we've got a real problem on our hands.

Similar Messages

  • Can I backup to a time capsule via an airport extreme.

    I have a time capsule although it is at the other side of my house and i dont get great signal. I am looking at getting an airport extreme (would an airport expres to extend my signal. Will i be able to backup to my time capsule via my airport extreme.

    If your Time Capsule was purchased in the last few years, chances are you have a simultaneous dual band Time Capsule.
    In order to extend both bands using wireless only, you would need a new AirPort Extreme, since the AirPort Express would only be able to extend one band from the Time Capsule.
    If you only need to have one band extended, then an AirPort Express would likely work for your application.
    Whether you choose the Extreme or Express, keep in mind that the correct location for an extending device is a point that is approximately half the distance from the Time Capsule and the general area that needs more wireless coverage.
    Apple's instructions to configure the "Extend" setup are here. Although an AirPort Extreme is pictured in the example, the instructions for an AirPort Express would be the same.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4259

  • HT1178 Can you backup to same time Capsule with PC and Mac

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    Plus enough space to back up the PC laptop a couple of times over.
    USB hard drive is fairly slow.. but should be ok for backup over wireless.. just be aware you cannot unplug the USB drive and use it direct unless you format it FAT32 which is very poor format. So first backup is going to be slow.
    - backup iMac directly to HD thru firewire and backup PC to HD hooked up to Airport Extreme
    If you don't already have a TC then this is fine. Firewire local disk is much faster than network backup even over gigabit.
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  • How can I backup up my time capsule itself

    OK, this is odd but somebody has to want to do the same thing.
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    With all the music, photos and videos I am getting close to filling up my internal hard drive.  This also means I am running out of room on my time capsule hard drive.
    I purchased a new 2tb external hard drive. I switched my time machine to put the backup on my new external hard drive.
    Right now I am just using the time capsule for wireless and basically have all 500 gb available on the hard drive for it.
    I was about to copy some music and photos over to the new external hard drive until I realized that is where the backup now is. If the new external hard drive fails, I'll lose the originals and the backups.
    I'd really like to move the music and photos to the 500 gb of the time capsule. Basically I'd have 1 TB for hard drive space (500 gb internal and 500 gb on time capsule).
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  • Can I backup PCs on time capsule?

    we have an office with about 5 people, most have PCs and a few have Macs.  Can Time Capsule be used to backup all the computers?

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    Copied from "http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD032LL/A/Time-Capsule-2TB?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY"
    System Requirements
    For Time Machine backup:
    Mac with Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard
    For set-up and administration:
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    PC with Windows XP (SP3) or Windows Vista (SP2) or Windows 7 (SP1) or later and Ethernet or wireless networking capability
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    Mac with Mac OS X v10.2.7 or later
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  • Time Capsule WiFi hang-up, Freezes

    I have the Airport Time Capsule 2TB, Model A1470 purchased Oct 2013. Whenever backup is configured, Time Capsule WiFi hangs up on both Upload and Download. Testing at speedtest.net repeatedly confirms this. It appears that TC can not do both, backup and provide fast wifi at the same time. I also switched out TC for an old Airport Express and the old Airport was faster and never hangs. If I delete the backup disc on TC and do not configure the TC for backup the problem goes away and the new Time Capsule works great.
    Question: Has anyone experienced this as well? And, before I take this back to Apple are there any know solutions that will allow the backup to work while providing fast WiFi?
    Note: I have connected a Macbook Pro directly to the cable modem and get the Internet speed I’m paying for, so the problem is not with the cable provider.

    Test the TC plugged directly to the modem and your mac pro plugged into the TC by ethernet.. with wireless off.
    Do you get your full internet speed?
    I would test several times over a period of a week. Apple routers are having issues with some cable modems.. the ones usually cited are Motorola SB6121 6141 but there can be others.
    Does the problem occur on ethernet?
    The wireless problem can happen to everyone.. that is because Apple have no QoS so it is unable to differentiate backups which are low priority background stuff, and high prority movie streaming for instance. But for most people the actual TM backup which goes every hour is only copying files for a minute or two. If you have very long backups then check how much data is being backed up each time.
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  • Can I use the new Time Capsule to backup my mid 2010 Macbook Pro? Also can I want to free up my hard disk, can I save my photos and files on the time capsule and later access through wifi?

    Can I use the new Time Capsule to backup my mid 2010 Macbook Pro? Also can I want to free up my hard disk, can I save my photos and files on the time capsule and later access through wifi?

    Can I use the new Time Capsule to backup my mid 2010 Macbook Pro?
    Yes, if you are asking about using Time Machine to backup the Mac.
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    You are not thinking of deleting the photos and files on your Mac, are you?  If you do this, you will have no backups for those files.
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  • Trying to restore after getting a new hard drive.  I can see the backup on the Time Capsule and on the correct date but it is Greyed out.  That is it wont let me open it and restore the machine.  Have tried also Migration Assistant, no luck.

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    from this support article: 
    (click on image to enlarge)

  • Can't backup on my Time Machine installed on Time Capsule

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    Pondini, I'm using the internal HD.
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    Jan 12 22:10:47 antonio-parrachos-macbook mds[37]: (Normal) DiskStore: Creating index for /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb
    Jan 12 22:10:51 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: 2011-01-12 22:10:51.556 FindSystemFiles[279:907] PackageKit: * Missing bundle identifier: /Library/Receipts/Flip4Mac QuickTime Components.pkg
    Jan 12 22:10:51 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: 2011-01-12 22:10:51.595 FindSystemFiles[279:907] PackageKit: * Missing bundle identifier: /Library/Receipts/Flip4Mac Web Plugins.pkg
    Jan 12 22:10:56 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: 2011-01-12 22:10:56.528 FindSystemFiles[279:907] Finding system files...
    Jan 12 22:11:11 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: 2011-01-12 22:11:11.859 FindSystemFiles[279:907] Writing system path cache.
    Jan 12 22:11:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    Jan 12 22:12:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    Jan 12 22:13:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    Jan 12 22:14:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    Jan 12 22:15:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
    Jan 12 22:16:32 antonio-parrachos-macbook com.apple.backupd[247]: Waiting for index to be ready (100)
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