My Time Capsule is reporting hard drive errors.

Hi all,
My Time Capsule has been reporting hard drive errors. Unfortunately the problem started right outside of its warranty period. I formatted the drive twice, first time was a quick format, second was a single pass 0 write.
My question is: Now what can I do to make this unit reliable again.
I've seen a lot of these reports. This is exactly why I was hesitant to buy the Time Capsule. The sad thing is Apple advertised this as a server grade back-up device. After just over a year of service, I can no longer count on my Apple branded back-ups.
I'd like to see Apple step up to the plate and rectify this issue for those of us who are experiencing the failure. They've extended warranty periods before when it was clear the product had so many field failures. It's the least they can do.

Ring and ask them.. or go into the local store.
Their local store managers have some flexibility.
Especially if an item is just out of warranty.
You cannot buy applecare for a TC. But applecare on any computer will also cover the TC.. and if you want a cheap way into applecare to cover your TC, buy an Apple TV and buy applecare on that.. then Apple will replace your TC, and you can sell off the unopened ATV.
Total cost is pretty much just the applecare on atv which is cheap.
If you want to replace the disk yourself you can do it easily.
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Apple_Time_Capsule

Similar Messages

Please Help - Time Capsule and External hard drive Issues

Recently, I switched from Comcast to AT&T uverse as my internet provider and I started experiencing problems.
(1) I have a 4th generation Apple Time Capsule which I am using as my router.
(2) Connected to the Apple Time Capsule - USB - is an external hard drive (not for backup with Time Machine.)
(3) I have a 2011 Macbook pro which I use to access my file on my time capsule and external hard drive.
(4) I had been using my AT&T portable Hotspot from my cell phone to get internet access on my MacBook pro from remote locations to gain access to my external hard drive which is attached to the time capsule.
(5) On August 2, 2014, I switched from Comcast to AT&T and had the AT&T turn off the router function. (I have been using the router from my apple time capsule)
(6) Under Network I switched to bridge mode.
(7) And since August 2, 2014 my time capsule has not been backup.
THE PROBLEM - I need to be able to use the hotspot function from my cell phone to gain access on the external hard drive using my MacBook Pro which I was able to do before. Now it is showing time capsule under finder but unable to connect.
Do I need to reset my Time Capsule since I have a new service provider. Everything else works fine - meaning able to get internet signal but unable to access my external hard drive and backup my time capsule. Please HELP.

(5) On August 2, 2014, I switched from Comcast to AT&T and had the AT&T turn off the router function. (I have been using the router from my apple time capsule)
(6) Under Network I switched to bridge mode.
(7) And since August 2, 2014 my time capsule has not been backup.
If you got ATT to turn off router function in their modem..
Then 6. is wrong.. You cannot have the Network switched to bridge mode..
You must have it set to dhcp and nat.
That is also why you cannot backup.. the TC is off the network.
Please change back to router mode in the TC.
Ensure the internet tab shows dhcp and you create a wireless network.
Then power down the TC... power down the ATT modem.. wait about 20min (you can try 5min.. but it might not be long enough).
Power up the ATT modem.. wait 2min for things to flash lights in de right blinkin order.. then start the TC.
Open the airport utility and make sure your TC captured the public IP and is now working as the router.
That should fix that end of it.. the hotspot end??
Tell us what happens.

Trying to restore from time capsule to nes hard drive, keeps looking for disks ! Can you help

ccan't restore from time capsule to new hard drive, after changing to new HD, after calculating required space to restore it keeps looking for disks! Have have put original OS X install disk 1 in it won't Eject , any help

The very best way to do this is with ethernet to the existing router. Put the TC in bridge mode manually.
Then plug it in to existing router.. we recommend LAN router to WAN on the TC but even that is not 100% necessary.
If you want to link by wireless, to a non-apple router that is bad.. recommend strongly against it. Join a wireless network is super slow.
If you have a desktop Mac you can plug it directly into the Mac by ethernet.
But we need to know how the Mac is connected to internet.
I have given some info on one layout here.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4817218?tstart=30
If you end up relying on an old TC. And any of the models from Gen1-3.. and increasingly Gen4 have all reached EOL.. they can die suddenly and either take your files with them or be hard to recover. Also a TC is slow cf a USB external drive even, which is more reliable. Considering a 2TB is <$100 I would be careful using an old TC simply because you got it free.

HT201250 How to restore laptop from time capsule after replacing hard drive

How do I reload all my programs and files from a time capsule after changing hard drive? Also Apple store reloaded with Snow Leopard and not Lion. Will that be a problem? Thank you

Plug the external drive into a computer by usb or whatever box you have available..
When you say blank, is it correctly formatted.. we recommend HFS+ which is Mac OS Extended (jorrnaled)
Make sure you use GUID type disk setup not MBR if it came from PC world.
Copy the files via finder from TC to the external drive.

How to restore from Time Capsule to bare hard drive

This is more for information, than a question, but I really hope that it helps someone else out facing the same challenge.
Scenario:
1 complete recent backup on Time Capsule
2 failed hard drive on Mac
3 no startup or OS disk
[My teenage daughter was distraught, as her much loved and much abused MacBook Pro died completely on a college tour; quick diagnosis confirmed that the hard drive was completely toast. And with it, she believed, all of her work this summer on her college applications.
That was the bad news. Now for the good news. Unbeknownst to her, I had configured her machine to automatically backup to the Time Capsule on the home network.
Now the problem. We just moved home. No OS disks. No install disks. And I discovered that she hadn't told me that the optical disk drive was also toast. So no way to get a disk in, in any case.
So I have a backup, and a new hard drive to go into the dead Mac, and (fortunately) a good Mac (actually several). But all of the guides assume that you have some way to get the zombie Mac to boot.]
Solution:
1 figure out spec for new hard drive, find one, buy it and install new hard drive in dead Mac (making it a zombie Mac - it moves but it has no real brains) http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA161/en_US/MacBook_13inch_HardDrive_DIY .pdf and http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2010+Hard+Drive+Repl acement/4305/1
2 mount hard drive as FireWire disk in Target mode by using ⌘T to any good Mac
3 download Carbon Copy Cloner http://www.bombich.com/
4 start the process of cloning, which involves creating a (hidden) Recovery HD partition http://help.bombich.com/kb/advanced-strategies/the-disk-center#recovery_hd
5 do NOT proceed to clone the 'good Mac', ejecting the formerly dead Mac, which was a zombie Mac, and now has a brain again, and shut it down
6 connect the now undead Mac to the Time Capsule
7 boot the now undead Mac, and restore as usual from the Time Capsule http://pondini.org/TM/14.html
[... and thereby obtain many many good father points]

Read Q14-18 in Pondini.. the grand poohbah of Time Machine.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

Using Time Capsule as external hard drive

Hi. I have a Mac Book Pro, and external hard drive, and now, a Time Capsule. Since I don't have a Mac, all photos and music (occasional backups, etc.) have been stored on the one external hard drive. I got the Time Capsule to replace the external hard drive as primary (keeping it as secondary)–in addition to using the Time Machine.
If I'm understanding correctly, I open finder, open Shared>AirPort>Data–and then drag and drop all the files currently on the external hard drive onto this window? Is this correct? Will it COPY, and be accessibe, and not cause problems?
Will it mean, as I hope it means, that my MacBook and iPad will be able to open and use iTunes and iPhoto through this AirPort? (Instead of having to plug-in the external drive.)
I'd love to use the Time Machine as well. But can hold off, continuing to back up only occassionally, since this dual purposing may not to be advised?
Thank you for your guidance.

Will there be a problem running Time Machine in the back ground while using the Time Capsule's internal hard drive manually?
No.
Thus far, instead of using Time Machine in an automated mode, I've turned it on when I want to make a new back-up. Will it be necessary to run Time Machine in manual mode only or can I use its automated feature?
Or–I may be seeing the light–will running the two in tandem allow me to save each new back-up on both devices simultaneously, keeping both drives up to date?
I would suggest that you consider changing your backup strategy. Time Machine was designed to be an automatic "run and forget" operation that performs incremental backups of your Mac's internal hard drive. It will also backup an external hard drive attached directly to your Mac. Running it manually is not very effecient and you stand the chance of not getting a very recent (they run once an hour) backup when you need it.
For Time Machine I would suggest that you continue to use your external hard drive as is and dedicate your new Time Capsule for Time Machine backups. If you still need more external storage, you can always add additional external USB hard drives to the USB port on the Time Capsule.
Even better you will also want to include a second "full-clone" method to your backup strategy. This method will make a full copy of your Mac's internal disk drive that is bootable. Why do this? In case your Mac has a fatal hard disk crash, you can use the clone backup to boot your Mac back up and continue to use it within seconds. Without the clone backup, you would first need to install a new drive, then load a fresh copy of OS X, and then, perform a restore from Time Machine. This can take a while.
To perform these clone backups, I would recommend that you get another external USB hard drive with a capacity at least twice that of your current internal drive. I use Western Digital My Passport drives for this purpose, but any similar drive should do. To create the clone backup I would suggest using either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner.
I would suggest that you create a new clone backup at least once a month or more often if your data is critical to you. Just connect a dedicated clone drive to any available USB port on your Mac and run the clone software to make the clone backup.

Can i use time capsule as another hard drive?

Can I use time capsule as another hard drive?

You can, but it was not really designed for that purpose. Access to files will be quite a bit slower than a drive that is directly attached to your computer.
The Time Capsule's main function is as a back up device using the Time Machine application.
If you are using it already for Time Machine, it is generally not a good idea to mix Time Machine backups and regular files on the same drive as there will be struggle for space when the drive starts to fill up.

Time Capsule as external hard drive

Hi -- Hope I'm not duplicating a thread here, but I couldn't find anything precisely addressing this question.
I recently upgraded to Leopard and bought a Time Capsule to serve as wi-fi base station and backup drive. As I understand it, Time Machine's backups are basically snapshots: whatever's on my computer's hard drive at the moment gets saved on top of previous backups, rather than being integrated with them.
So: If I want to maintain master libraries of songs, photos and documents on the Time Capsule, will I be able to do that? In other words, if I back up my data, then delete some songs or photos from the computer's hard drive to open up space for new files, will the next backup contain the new files but not the ones I deleted? My concern is not having to switch among multiple backup copies to get to all of my files.
Ideally I'd like to use the Time Capsule or another external drive as a master iTunes jukebox -- save my entire music collection there and either play music from there over speakers or use it to swap songs out on my iPod. Is it possible to do this using Time Machine/Time Capsule?

Assume deleted files will eventually be deleted. In fact, if you load and delete a file within 7 days, the TM backup may not exist. TM is NOT for archiving.
To best understand what Time Machine is and how it works, click on the following link and read the primer:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/12/roadto_mac_os_x_leopard_timemachine.html

How to backup MacBook Pro without AirPort Time Capsule or External hard drive

How to backup MacBook Pro without AirPort Time Capsule or External hard drive

This is crude but if you need a work around, just plug the USB drive directly into the iMac.. copy the files to it.. then plug it into the TC.
You also do not need to use the TC as an intermediary between your iMac and MBP.. just turn on sharing in the computer.. so you can directly copy files from one to the other.. Macs have public access directory preconfigured for each user account.
As far as mounting the TC..
In finder use Go, Connect to server.. and type.
AFP://TCname or TCipaddress
Where TCname is the actual name of the TC.. I strongly recommend you follow SMB network rules.. ie if your TC has a name like
Fred Blog's Time Capsule 2445566.
It is too long.. it has spaces and it has non-alphanumeric characters.
Shorten it to FredTC
No spaces no characters that are NOT alphanumeric.
TCIPaddress is simply the standard IP.
You can also use CIFS://TCname which according to the article forces the connection back to SMB1 rather than SMB2 which as usual is broken.
But I would definitely use AFP if possible. I cannot understand the decision to move to SMB as standard.

What is the best configuration with Mac Book air, time capsule and external hard drive?

Hi, I just bought a MacBook Air with the new Time Capsule and I was wondering what is the best set up:
Option 1: use the time capsule as my main drive and back it up onto an external drive plugged at the back of it
or Option 2: use the external drive as the main drive and use the time capsule as the back up? in that case, would the ext drive need to be plugged to the MacBook Air?
Many thanks

Option 2 is far superior.. and actually the only one that works.
That is without killing yourself or having continual issues accessing your files.
You do need to plug the external disk into the MBA.

Trying to use my Time Capsule as a Hard Drive.. Help!!

I have recenly inherited an old Time Capsule from a family member and I've been trying to figure out for two hours how to use it as an external hard drive. I connected it and added it to my existing network as an extention. Then, I turned off its wireless capability, and hit update. After about 5 minutes all it said was that "An error occurred while updating the configuration." Ive done this process over and over. And Ive reset it to factory settings multiple times already. All I need is an easy way to increase my computers storage using this Time Capsule, even if it means using an ethernet cable.

The very best way to do this is with ethernet to the existing router. Put the TC in bridge mode manually.
Then plug it in to existing router.. we recommend LAN router to WAN on the TC but even that is not 100% necessary.
If you want to link by wireless, to a non-apple router that is bad.. recommend strongly against it. Join a wireless network is super slow.
If you have a desktop Mac you can plug it directly into the Mac by ethernet.
But we need to know how the Mac is connected to internet.
I have given some info on one layout here.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4817218?tstart=30
If you end up relying on an old TC. And any of the models from Gen1-3.. and increasingly Gen4 have all reached EOL.. they can die suddenly and either take your files with them or be hard to recover. Also a TC is slow cf a USB external drive even, which is more reliable. Considering a 2TB is <$100 I would be careful using an old TC simply because you got it free.

Backup a dual boot iMac with OSX + Vista to Time capsule and USB hard drive

I have just bought a Time Capsule which is now working as my WiFi Network base station and backs up an iMac and a Macbook. The iMac has both OSX and Vista (using Boot Camp) and I was using a USB Hard Drive that has 2 partitions (HFS+ for the Mac; NTFS for Vista) to back up the iMac. Rather than leave this attached to the iMac just to back up the Vista partition I would like to move it to the Time Capsule's USB port and use it as NAS. The idea being that it becomes a NAS with one partition used to back up the Windows data when I run the iMac with Vista and the other partition to archive the Time Machine backups from both the iMac and Macbook. I tried to connect it as it was but got an error and reading the forum it seems that it won't work unless both partitions are HFS+ or FAT. If I reformat the NTFS partition to HFS+ will I be able to use the built in backup function of Vista to back up the Vista partition to the USB hard drive? I read somewhere else that Time Capsule takes care of the formatting for an external NAS drive and Windows will be able to read and write to it even though it's not NTFS. Any ideas comments appreciated.

This is crude but if you need a work around, just plug the USB drive directly into the iMac.. copy the files to it.. then plug it into the TC.
You also do not need to use the TC as an intermediary between your iMac and MBP.. just turn on sharing in the computer.. so you can directly copy files from one to the other.. Macs have public access directory preconfigured for each user account.
As far as mounting the TC..
In finder use Go, Connect to server.. and type.
AFP://TCname or TCipaddress
Where TCname is the actual name of the TC.. I strongly recommend you follow SMB network rules.. ie if your TC has a name like
Fred Blog's Time Capsule 2445566.
It is too long.. it has spaces and it has non-alphanumeric characters.
Shorten it to FredTC
No spaces no characters that are NOT alphanumeric.
TCIPaddress is simply the standard IP.
You can also use CIFS://TCname which according to the article forces the connection back to SMB1 rather than SMB2 which as usual is broken.
But I would definitely use AFP if possible. I cannot understand the decision to move to SMB as standard.

Time Capsule as a hard drive missing data

I've had a time capsule for a few years now, and have been using it both through Time Machine to back up my computer, and as an external hard drive to store photos and videos. The hard drive on my computer had been reaching capacity, so I sought to move my pictures onto the time capsule (as you would on a hard drive) and then proceed to delete the files from the hard drive on my laptop. I was doing this again last night and went to double check some photos I had stored a few months ago, only to find that I can no longer access them! The strange thing is, the file names of my lost photos are still visible, but I am unable to access them.
Can anyone help solve this? I don't want to continue to move photos onto my time capsule if it will continue to be unreliable for storing data. I may just resort to purchasing a separate hard drive for my file storage, and simply using my time capsule for time machine.
I am using a 2008 macbook and running snow leopard (OSX 10.6.8). I purchased my 1TB time capsule in 2010.

Can anyone help solve this? I don't want to continue to move photos onto my time capsule if it will continue to be unreliable for storing data. I may just resort to purchasing a separate hard drive for my file storage, and simply using my time capsule for time machine.
Conceptually I think there’s a tendency to view the Time Capsule as a kind of fail-safe storehouse for computer data, almost as if it were a traditional time capsule preserving physical objects for future generations, decades or even centuries later. In reality Apple’s Time Capsule relies on a hard disk drive that is pretty much the same as, and likely no better at preserving data than, the disk in your MacBook. Thus if you copy files to the TC and delete them from your MacBook, you're simply moving stuff around. You still only have a single copy of the files, and they’re still stored on a prone-to-failure hard disk drive. And in the process the basic backup function of the Time Capsule has been utterly defeated.
That has never stopped me from doing exactly what you’re doing, but I tend not to store anything on the TC except useless crap that I won’t miss too much when the TC disk fails, corruption or a read/write error occurs when connected to the TC, or the whole thing just burns up due to overheating. I gather you value your images and videos more highly than this, and consequently I think your idea about purchasing an external hard drive is probably sensible. If connected directly to your MacBook, it should provide more reliability and speed, and you can then also use Time Machine to back it up to your TC as well.
Unfortunately, I think the inaccessible zero KB files shown in your “2009” folder are gone, if they were ever really there. I wonder if when you copied them to the TC back on April 2 there was some kind of connection failure or write error that you didn’t notice, which aborted the process, leaving only these empty ghost entries behind in the disk’s index. In any event, it looks like there’s nothing there now.
You also seem to be running very low on disk space and might want to think about a new 2 or 3TB TC.

How to set up a second Time Capsule as a Hard Drive?

Hi, I have a macbook pro and the older version of Time Capsule for back up. I was needing more space in my hard drive, so I went shopping for an external hard drive today. The largest drive they had in store here was a 1TB lacie. As I need more space than that, the salesperson suggested me getting another Time Capsule and use it as a hard drive, so I did. How do I set it up without using it as a back up device? Will my older time capsule back up the files from the new Time Capsule as well?
Thank you!
Gisele

Sorry but you got really bad advice.
The TC is much slower than the slowest USB drive plugged into your computer..
It is totally unsuitable for using to store files. This is regularly asked. I have stored a standard reply.
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
Take it back to the store and order a 3TB external drive with the fastest interface you have available and can afford.
Thunderbolt being hugely fast and hugely expensive.. usb3 is cheap.. same as usb2 now and very fast. Only the latest Macs have it.. then FW800 then USB2.

Help using Time Capsule as external hard drive.

Hello.
I am a long time mac user however I just purchased a new MacBook Pro with a Time Capsule. I was able to get it set up for automatic backup for Time Machine. It works great. However, I'm looking to give away my old PowerMac G5 but wanted to save my 30 GB of Music Files, but I didn't want to transfer it directly to my laptop. I tried moving files directly to the TimeCapsule icon but it gives an error message, not allowing it to transfer over. How can I enable this to happen so I can use the Time Capsule hard drive easier? Thank you!
Andrew Trippi
[email protected]

Bob --
Thank you so much. That explains why it will not transfer because, yes, I was transferring it into the shared icon. However, you wrote about click the icon -- I'm not sure which icon you are referring to. I'm trying to click the icon under the shared menu and nothing happens. Is this icon representing the time capsule somewhere else?
Thanks so much!!
Andy

My Time Capsule is reporting hard drive errors.

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