Configuring time capsule to use as a hard drive

Trying to use time capsule as an external hard drive

Dear Bob, the more I look for information about the various usage of time capsule the more I cross your advises, hence I would like to submit my question as well.
Context: I have a MacBook (Late 2008) with 160Gb Hard drive and a 1Tb TC. I have no other computer, hence my need of space on TC is much lower than the total availability.
Need: store some non-frequently used file, such as movies and old pictures.
Potential alternative solutions:
1. burn DVDs (I hate the idea)
2. buy an external HD, such as WD "My Passport Edge for Mac" [500Gb, Serial Transfer Rate 5Gb/s] US$ 110
3. upgrade my internal HD with, for example, WD Blue [320Gb, 5400, Transfer Rates 3Gb/s] US$ 65
OR
4. use my TC as an external HD
Reading your various answers and talking with apple care representative, I understand that partitioning should not be a preffered option since it may create issues (not sure aboat this) and for sure TC would not be coverred by warranty anymore. (please confirm).
Excluding the partitioning procedure, I would be grateful if you, or anybody else, may explain how to use TC as external HD (a bullet point description would be greatly appreciated), and which are the pros and cons.
I hope that having exstensivly explained my need and put it in the context, it will allow you to give me an answer without wasting your time. Please consider I did not understand the "image concept" Many thanks for reading the above anyway. Best regards, mgbb

Similar Messages

  • How to configure Time Capsule for Automatic Backup AND HARD DRIVE USE

    I tried to configure Time Capsule for back up and as a hard drive. I record music and need to copy the music myself onto an external hard drive for speed, so I want the TC to double as an external hard drive, and do the back up. I want to be able to open the TC as a hard drive, to open my songs from it. Can it do both?

    I finally figured it out. I am able to access my TC from the "shared folder." When I click on it, I get the "connection failed message." I failed to notice the login button in the upper right -- user error due to my Windows based education. The button is very subtle. Once I login, I can create folders and add content.
    I didn't see a partition option. Where is that? Just curious.
    Thanks!

  • New Time Capsule: just use as external hard drive without other setup

    I have a brand new 2 Tb Time Capsule, and I need to move data to it manually (not as a backup) as soon as I can  to solve another problem. 
    Can I do this without doing the full blown Time Capsule setup (which I've never done) ?  Just plug it in and wirelessly connect my MBP to it?
    The other problem is 1 Tb external drive (G-Raid Mini)  that suddenly cannot be written to, and I need to offload the data (700 Gb of photos) and reformat it immediately.  There isn't enough room on the MBP and the USB connected 1 Tb  Iomega being used as a time machine, and I don't have any other Mac formatted hard drives.   This problem occurred I think because in order to get around an incompatibility problem with an Express Card CF Card Reader after loading Lion, I was advised to restart the MBP in 32 bit mode.  Next thing I know, my G-Raid with all my photos can't be written to. 
    Thank you in advance for your help.
    HenryTD

    Tesserax:
    Thank you very much for your response. 
    I got brave last night, and plugged in the TC, and ran an Ethernet cable from the Switch that connects via an in the wall Ethernet cable to the main VZ FiOS Router (which also propagates a private wireless network).  I just answered the questions in the setup, which led me to setting up a secured wireless network, and  configuring the router part of the TC as a Bridge.  Then I wirelessly connected the MBP to this new network, and began moving some files.
    Before doing that I had unplugged the cable from the MPB to the Switch (since instinctively I thought that would be a conflict with the wireless connection via the TC bridge to that switch, and the router behind it, but I'm not sure I'm right about that).
    However, I later realized I should have just plugged that cable into the TC, and used that connection to move files (and connect to the Internet), since the wireless connection has been SLOW: about 1 min 40 seconds for each Gb. And it just stops sometimes (I guess because of competition with the traffic from the MBP to the Internet). 
    I'm moving 370 Gb off the Iomega that came from the G-Raid since I needed to clear space on the Iomega because it still has the duty of doing the Time Machine backup.  I did't want that to run out of disk space on it since I had copied some of what was on the G-Raid there before I realized that the MacBk HD plus the Iomega were not going to have enough room to empty the G-Raid Mini. 
    As soon as this operation is finished, I'll change the connection from MPB to TC to wired, and start copying directly from the G-Raid  everything that hasn't already been copied somewhere else directly to the Time Capsule storage.  Instinct says I shouldn't disturb the present coping process, much as I'd like to speed things up.
    As to your suggestion that I just plug the G-Raid into the TC, it's connection to the MBP is FW800.  It also has a USB 2.0 port, and an E-SATA port.  Wouldn't FW800 to MPB and MBP to TC via Ethernet be faster than a direct USB 2.0 connection? 
    How do I control what happens between the TC and drives plugged into it from the MBP (a novice kind of question, but I find it confusing that the TC is both a router, and an attached storage device)?  Do I see it from the MBP as if it were directly attached to the MBP?
    Do you (or any other forum member reading this) have any suggestions or comments about the above?  Do you think my observations are correct?
    Thanks in advance for any comments or help.
    HenryTD

  • Speeding up Time Capsule when used as external hard drive

    I use a Time Capsule as an external "server" that two macs use, both connected via ethernet. We have a second Time Capsule (connected wirelessly) that is used for Time Machine back-ups.
    Recently (since upgrading to Mavericks — coincidence?) accessing the files has been getting slow — click on a folder and I have to wait up to a minute (I timed it) to see its contents. This is on iMac (27-inch Mid 2010) running OS X Mavericks (10.9.2). Our newer Mac does display the contents of folders a little quicker, so perhaps it is the Mac, not Time Capsule.
    The Time Capsule has 180gb free — could it be too full?
    Is there any way of speeding the access to the files up on this Mac, or should I "downgrade" the Mac to Mountain Lion / Lion.
    (on a side note OS Mail is desperatly sluggish since upgrading to Mavericks, so perhaps I will have to downgrade...)

    You are showing the TC as Gen1 in your profile. Are both TC gen1?
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    And the TC was never designed to do what you are using it for.. the spin down for instance is very rapid. On a normal NAS you can control spin down to a more satisfactory balance between speed and power saving.
    Sometimes the OS is just slow.
    Manually mount the TC drive in the OS.
    So in Finder go, connect to server.
    Type in the address,
    AFP://TCname.local
    or if the TC maintains a constant IP.
    AFP://TCIPaddress
    (Where TCname is the network name of the TC.. or TCIPaddress is its standard IP address. )
    Make sure ipv6 is set to link-local in the wireless and ethernet setup of the Mac. But make sure wireless is turned off if you use ethernet. Just having wireless turned on has caused slow transfer in my testing.
    I suggest you then do a test copying a single large file (1GB aprox) to the TC.. discount the spin up time.. as drives get old and sticky they take longer and longer to spin up. And see what kind of real transfer speeds you get.. use activity monitor. I would hope you get at least 30-40MByte/s. Less than that something is behaving poorly.. try copying the same file to your other computer. Make sure the ethernet connection is showing gigabit to both.
    Mavericks seems to have made a few backward steps and sticking to Lion/Mountain Lion a bit longer may be worthwhile.

  • Can you use the apple time capsule as just a wireless hard drive without using it as a router

    Can i use the apple time capsule as just a wireless hard drive without using  a router

    You can, but this type of configuration is not recommended or supported by Apple.
    Two cautions if you want to try this:
    1)  The Time Capsule has to be configured to "Join" your existing wireless network in this type of setup...and to do that, you must know the exact type of wireless security that your network is using.
    2)  Backups are going to take twice as long. The wireless signal must travel from your computer to the wireless router and then from the wireless router back to the Time Capsule.  Two "hops"......even if the computer is located close to the Time Capsule.
    If you want to try this, we can tell you how....but with no guarantees on your results....since this is not officially supported.

  • I want to use my Time Capsule as a central 'hub/hard-drive' in order to keep all my working files in one place. I then plan to use my laptops/desktops as peripheral devices for editing and creation of these files. Is it possible? Create a personal cloud?

    I want to use my Time Capsule as a central 'hub/hard-drive' in order to keep all my working files in one place. I then plan to use my laptops/desktops as peripheral devices for editing and creation of these files. Is it possible? To create a personal cloud?
    Can someone advise as to whether i can do the following:
                                Future Internet connection -------------------TIME CAPSULE (containing all files) -------------- Backed up on the WD 2T Hard-drive I have
                                      (not connected yet)                                         I                                                          (*connected to timecapsule physically)
                                                                                                            I
                    I                                         I                                                I                                                              I                                                I
          Macbook Pro                             iMac                                       HP (PC)                                             OLD Macbook Pro                         iPhone
    (used for remote working)       (Used for home working)     (used for heavy CAD and rendering)    (not being used for anything at the moment)        (& iPods)
    I am looking to have all my files in one place as i am hopelessly disorganised. I know the online clouds are a good solution (used Dropbox at work and uni for 3 years) however i am wanting to create my own 'dropbox/icloud' at home. So whenever i get back home with my laptop, any work i have been working on whilst out that day is updated to the timecapsule, and then ultimately as i turn on the other devices, they update to those newer versions of the files. Please tell me that the 3TB time capsule i have can do this, otherwise it feels rather overpriced as a wireless storage device?
    Another note (to those in the know) If i am to be working on large files (REVIT/SOLIDWORKS/KEYSHOT/CREO/AUTOCAD) - is the timecapsule connection good enough to support editing and updating these files?
    I know i may be asking a question that many have before, but as a bit of a technical novice I wanted a clear-cut answer to my specific circumstances. Your help is greatly appreciated.
    (*can i use this WD hard-drive that is connected to the Time Capsule as a back up? so that the time machine back-ups/any back ups are also backed up onto this one? can the WD be a backup for the TC?)
    Kind Regards
    Joe

    The diagram was supposed to look more like this......
    Internet ---------TIME CAPSULE(containing all files) --------WD 2T Harddrive
                                                I
         I                           I                          I                            I                                   I
    Macbook Pro         iMac                 HP (PC)            OLD Macbook Pro           iPhone
    Sorry!
    Regards
    Joe

  • Can i use the time capsule as just an external hard drive for music or does it have to be used soley as a backe up?? im thinking for music and photos

    Can I use the time capsule as just an external hard drive for music or does it have to be used soley as a back up?  I'm thinking for music and photos

    Nickles96 wrote:
    Hello friends.. I have a similar question, in that I would like to purchase the 2TB TC for use as a NAS device, in addition to taking advantage of the Air Port extreme.. Then I could dump my Linksys router.
    I was originally looking at a Synology NAS solution, but the TC seems like it can meet my needs.
    I have a Synology NAS as well as the Time Capsule.  If you look at the 3.2 beta program, the Synology actually attempts to replicate TC functionality in that you can use it with Time Machine on your Mac.
    I must say, Airport on the TC is definitely a nice feature!
    Nickles96 wrote:
    In addition to the obvious feature of the backup, can I indeed also use the TC as a NAS drive to access from remote locations (example from the office)?
    I'm surprised more people aren't using the TC as a dedicated NAS deviced.. I've searched high and low on forums around the web, and don't seem to see many people trying to use it as I've outlined.
    I can't see why this wouldn't fufill my needs, and take the place of a separate NAS solution (like the Synology, or iOmega, Seagate, etc....)
    Has anyone used this TC as such?
    Yes, you can do this and it's something I've been trying to do, but I'm currently having issues.  I have another thread stating I consistently get "connection failed" messages.  I'm basically storing my music/photo/video files on the TC and keeping my Mac hard drive fairly lean.  In terms of NAS functionality, the TC is very basic.  Synology/QNAP and others have a lot more features so don't rule them out.

  • Can I simply just use my Time Capsule as a normal External Hard drive? A wireless external hard drive?

    Can I simply just use my Time Capsule as a normal External Hard drive? A wireless external hard drive?

    I am not sure what you mean by normal external but yes, it is a network hard disk drive.. and you can use wireless.. the only trouble then is, if there is no ethernet connection and internet is by wireless to a different router, then you cannot do both at once.

  • Can I use Time Capsule 1TB as an external hard drive tos tore my music library(but with cable connection,not WI-FI)

    Can I use my Time Capsule 1TB as an external hard drive to store my music library but with a cable connection(Ethernet or USB) and not Wi-Fi.

    Yes, with the following warnings.
    1. A 1TB TC is a Gen3 or earlier and can die at a moments notice.. So backup is essential.
    2. A Gen1 or 2 is slow.. even over ethernet they were processor bound and so transfer speeds are not great.. a USB2 plugged into the computer will be faster. Gen3 is about 50% better as the processor was upgraded by 50% speed.
    3. TC has no built in backup.. TM cannot backup network drives.
    4. TC is designed to spin up slowly and spin down quickly.. you will have issues with itunes constantly losing the library.
    5. You cannot use USB to the TC.. it is a network drive. If you want to use USB directly on the computer buy a USB drive.. but buy as fast a drive as your Mac supports.. Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2
    USB3 is cheap and very good.. but the port is only from 2012 so check your Mac specs.
    Thunderbolt whilst being super fantastic and around since 2011, has a bank account clearing price although there are Thunderbolt to esata converters.. for around $160. esata falls between usb3 and fw800.
    FW800 from WD is no better than USB2 but other brands it can be twice the speed of usb2.
    USB2 is the worst. But still faster than a TC.

  • Can Time Capsule support an additional external hard drive?

    A friend of mine is using Airport Extreme and has both his printer and external hard drive hooked through it accessing both wirelessly. The Apple site says this works great with Extreme but does not say you can do the same thing with Time Capsule. I called our local store and she wasn't sure. Both Extreme and Time Capsule have one USB port so no matter what, you have to split the USB(I know this works with Extreme). All my music is on an additional hard drive and it would be great if I could access it wirelessly. If anyone has done this with time capsule please let me know. I want to purchase it but if not I will go with Extreme.

    Can Time Capsule support an additional external hard drive?
    Yes.
    (41832)

  • Does Time Capsule works as a External Hard Drive?

    Does Time Capsule works as a External Hard Drive?

    The Time Capsule works as a network drive.
    An external drive connects to your Mac using either the USB or FireWire ports.
    If your real question is to ask whether you can store other data on the Time Capsule drive....you can.

  • I have a macbook air and need additional storage should i consider a time capsule or a simple external hard drive?

    I have a macbook air and need additional storage should i consider a time capsule or a simple external hard drive?

    If you move live files (files you don't want to lose) to an external drive, you need to back them up.  Any files not backed up are at risk of loss.  Hard drives and SSDs can fail at any time.  It is hard to backup a Time Capsule so a TC should be used only as a backup device.
    Do you have a Time Machine backup now?  If so, and if it is large enough, you can backup your internal and external disk to it using Time Machine.  If not, you all need to purchase an external drive or TC as your backup device.  (I recommend an external hard drive for backup instead of a TC.)  Ideally the backup drive should be twice the size of what you are backing up but 50% larger will work so if you have an external 1 TB disk and an internal 250 GB SSD then a 2 TB backup disk will work well.
    By default, Time Machine will not backup the external disk.  You need to remove it from the exclusions list:
    To have Time Machine backup your system disk and your external offload disk up onto your Time Machine disk:
     > System Preferences > Time Machine > Options… > Remove the offload HD name from the exclusions list.

  • Will time capsule also back up external hard drives?

    will time capsule also back up external hard drives?

    Yes. If you're using Time Machine, open its preferences and ensure the drives aren't excluded; Time Machine can't back up drives in some formats, such as FAT32.
    (71818)

  • How do i set my time capsule as a wireless external hard drive?

    it is currently doing regular automatic back-ups of our system, but we want to set it as our hard drive as well.

    If Time Machine backups are occurring correctly, then you already have the Time Capsule set up as a hard drive on your network.
    Although not necessarily recommended, that means that you can manually drag/drop or copy/paste data directly to the Time Capsule disk.
    Are you asking how to do this, or how to locate the drive?  Please clarify.

  • Is it possible to sync time capsule data to a external hard drive

    Is it possible to sync time capsule data to a external hard drive connected to time capsule via usb. (as an precaution just incase time capsule fails)
    Thanks

    Yes, if the USB drive has been previously formatted correctly in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
    Open AirPort Utility - Click Manual Setup
    Click the Disks icon
    Click the Disks tab below the icon
    Click Archive
    Allow plenty of time for the copy process to occur. You will not be able to make Time Machine backups from your Mac until the Archive process has completed.

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