First Backup Taking 48hrs +

Question

I received my Time Capsule in the mail on Tuesday and immediately started backing up. Its Thursday afternoon and it is only 50% complete. I feel like it shouldn't be taking this long to complete the initial backup. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

That first backup is a doozy. I strongly recommend that you connect a CAT6 ethernet cable to your machine and use that connection for the initial backup. Using that method, it should be able to back up faster than 10GB per hour.
It's also worth noting that if you're using wireless for the initial backup, everything else on your network connection will suffer as well. It's not that your Time Capsule hates you or that Apple designed a crappy product, it's the limitation of 802.11n. Even though 802.11n is cutting edge wireless technology, it's significantly slower than gigabit ethernet with a wired connection.
Normally you would never be affected, because 802.11n is faster than most people's internet connections. If your machine (or other machines) are suffering while your initial backup is running, it's because your Time Capsule is overwhelmed. If you plug in the ethernet cable, you not only take advantage of the much faster connection, but the other machines in your house/office can still use the wireless connection.
Hope that helps!