Should I Partition Time Capsule To Limit Space Consumed By Backups?

I just got a Time Capsule and I want to use it as a file server as well. While it's 3TB and I think that should be fine, my concern is that Time Machine will just keep backing up indefinitely. So over time it would use those 3TB of space. My HD is 250GB and I was thinking of creating a partition of 750GB so there would be plenty of space for TM backups, but it would hit a threshold and not keep eating away at all the space I want to use as a file server. Does all this logic sound right and is this a good idea?

I am only a lowly level 7 but I maybe able to help.
What OS are you running??
Mavericks??
Keep your TC name short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric. Indeed all your network names shoud comply with this.
SMB has tighter rules than AFP and now Mavericks has changed to SMB default network.
You can also use AFP however..
Just type AFP://TCname.local (use the domain as well.. that helps). Or use your IP address which should be static.. as per your remote access thread.
AFP://TCIPaddress (where you substitute the actual IP should keep it on the straight and narrow).
Don't forget to save the password in your keychain when asked for it.
As a BTW..
Some people are finding issues on SMB and using CIFS instead.. apparently there is some issues with SMB implementation on the latest OS.. so using CIFS takes it back to v1 instead of v2. IMHO stick with AFP.

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HT201250 how do I delete files from my time capsule to make space available for backup?

I'm getting a "not enough room to complete backup" type message. I thought timemachine cleaned up its own older backups but seems to need help. How can I manually remove older files?

Thanks Allan,
Help me understand what question you're referring to. I've been through several new macs and am not sure what specifically you're speaking about.
My old mac had a partition on the drive that I do not want on the new mac, so I am concerned about doing a full restore and prefer a file by file or folder by folder. is this possible?

Should I buy Time Capsule?

Hi.
I'm a little lazy when it comes to backing up files, and so I'm seriously considering buying Apple's +Time Capsule+, since it does it all automatically.
But I've read some reviews in Apple Store, and people seem to either hate it or love it.
What's your honest opinion?
Is it worth the money?
-AM*

Whether you should buy a Time Capsule matters on a few things.
* Do you have a laptop that moves around the house a lot or multiple laptops? If yes, then a TC is a good investment. If you have a desktop or just one laptop that usually lives in one spot, then you can use Time Machine with an external hard drive for much cheaper.
* Are you comfortable with or willing to learn about networking? To really put the TC to good use, it helps to have a good baseline of experience setting up home networks. Because it is Apple, it's pretty user friendly for the surface functionality, tho.
* Do you have multiple computers working off of one media collection? If so, run it off of your TC hard drive or an attached hard drive. I love the iTunes synchronization program Syncopation--add music to one iTunes library and the shared drive and it will pop up in the other libraries too without duplicating the file. I also have the Apple TV and the whole ensemble works very well--my friends are quite jealous.
* Do your wireless devices have 802.11 N capabilities? The TC is fast if you have the right cards in your computers and other devices, but if you're still on G and will remain there for awhile, then maybe you should wait.
* How budget conscious are you? How attached are you to Apple? If you're really comfortable with home networking, get a good N router and an NAS drive for cheaper.
* Do you like support boards like this one? My experience has been somewhat iffy with Apple's networking devices -- the firmware updates often seem to knock out a feature or make us come up with a work around. When the whole setup is humming, I'm pretty happy with it.

I want to move my photos from iPhoto to Time Capsule to make space on my computer. What's the best means of doing this?

I want to move my photos from iPhoto to Time Capsule to make space on my computer. What's the best means of doing this?

Please do not do this.
The Time Capsule was designed for your backups.....not as an everyday hard drive. Access to the Time Capsule is slow.
If there is any loss of connection between iPhoto and the iPhoto library when you are reading or writing, the entire iPhoto library is easily corrupted.
The chances of corruption are even more likely if you are using wireless on the computer.
And....even if you decide to risk this....if you move your "original" iPhoto library to the Time Capsule.....how will you make backups of the library?
The only copy of the library will be on the Time Capsule....you have no backups.....when, not if, the Time Capsule has a problem.
Simply stated, I would never do this with any important data that you cannot afford to lose. Please post in the iPhoto support area if you need to confirm this.
iPhoto
If you do want an idea of how to move your iPhoto library correctly, post back and we can help.

HT201250 can a time capsule be used as just a backup for data without being connected to a home network?

This is the explanation for my my question about whether a time capsule can be used as a backup without being connected to a network. I had to disconnect my time capsule when I upgraded my landline to a wireless home phone in order to go to a wireless security system that would work with my 2WIRE router. The time capsule blocked the usage of my camera on my security system, not allowing the camera to connect to the 2WIRE router. Once I disconnected the time capsule, the camera was able to connect wirelessly to the 2WIRE.

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
See > https://discussions.apple.com/message/16717724#16717724
As you can read, you can do what you want. You just have to set up the Time Capsule network in AirPort Utility without connecting it to the router and ignoring the messages, and connect to the Time Capsule network. You will have to switch between the Time Capsule and the other router's networks

How can a company sell a Times Capsule appliance as a solution for backup and die for this manufacturing fault? And with that Apple? nothing, or technical assistance. Of a sledgehammer, open the device and attempt to recover your files by force!???

How can a company sell a Times Capsule appliance as a solution for backup and die for this manufacturing fault? And with that Apple? nothing, or technical assistance in Brasil. Of a sledgehammer, open the device and attempt to recover your files by force!???

Heat up the bottom rubber mat with a hairdryer for 5-10 minutes to loosen the adhesive, then pull the rubber mat away from the bottom metal plate carefully.
Then use a screwdriver to remove the 10-12 screws to open up the case.

Airport Time Capsule gets hung up on virifying backup

Occasionally when I am backing up my MacBook Pro (2011) with latest software to my Time Capsule the verifying backup step gets hung up and does not complete. What do I need to do to keep this from happening? This may happen several times a day.

I stopped the verify back up and then used the "Back Up Now" Time Machine couldn’t complete the backup to “Bill Lantz's AirPort Time Capsule”. It also stated "The backup disk image “/Volumes/Data/William’s MacBook Pro (2).sparsebundle” is already in use.
Does anybody have a suggestion?

Partitioning Time Capsule Error

Hi and tnxs for reading.
In order to keep 500GB of free space to use my 2TB TC as a WiFi remote HD, I did a partition of my sparsebundle Time Machine Backup on Time Capsule by using Utility Disc.
However at the end of the process I got the msg: "this disk in not writable and cannot be partitioned. This disk is too small to be partitioned".
However, the partition is there since by closing utility disc and reopening it, I have a 1.5Tb partition for my Time Machine.
Anything wrong?

I am not really surprised.
Did you notice the comment.
It may not "stick" on Snow Leopard 10.6.3 and 10.6.4, and on some occasions, Mountain Lion. But steps 7-10 should prevent that.
So what OS are you trying to do this from??

Time Capsule out of space for backups - how best to proceed?

I have a 500GB 802.11n (2nd Generation) Time Capsule which I use for Time Machine backups from my late-2008 Aluminium Unibody 250GB MacBook. My problem arose because I have used 229.33 GB of my hard disk on my MacBook, so I have less than 20 GB of free space on my MacBook. My iPhoto Library is 103 GB and yesterday I dragged it to an External Hard Drive (1TB). However, I have not deleted the iPhoto Library from my hard drive yet because I wanted to 'test' whether Time Machine would back up the new location of my iPhoto library to my Time Capsule .... the problem I have now is that Time Machine will not backup at all
I have tried several times to perform a Time Machine backup today, without success. I receive a message that 'Backup requires 246.75 GB but only 170.97 GB are available.
I've checked the TM backups on the Time Capsule and the earliest, latest and ONLY backup is one performed yesterday at 10.18am prior to my moving the iPhoto Library to the EHD. The EHD is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and is partitioned into four equal partitions of 250 GB (the fourth partition is slightly less. The 1st partition has a SuperDuper Bootable Clone of my hard drive (including the iPhoto Library on the Hard Disk). The 2nd partition is the new location for the iPhoto Library. The 3rd and 4th partitions are empty.
Can someone suggest whether I would be safe to somehow (how?) delete the existing TM backup on Time Capsule and simply start with a 'brand new' TM backup tonight? I'm thinking that if I have all 500GB available then TM SHOULD be able to perform a full backup and then I'll be OK with incremental backups for a while.
Also, is it possible/feasible (I know it wouldn't be the safest thing to do) to backup the iPhoto Library on the 2nd partition of my EHD to one of the blank partitions?
i would be grateful for any suggestions as to the best way to proceed
Cheers
Tricia

Cvdk,
This is why it may not be a good idea to store other files on the same disk/partition as the Time Machine backups. consider the following:
Here is Apples’ line on this: “Time Machine works best if you use your backup disk only for Time Machine backups. If you keep files on your backup disk, Time Machine won’t back up those files, and the space available for Time Machine backups will be reduced.” [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/11430.html]
This hasn't stopped some from successfully partitioning Time Machine hard disks and storing data on the other partition. As long as the Time Machine backup has its' own partition, you avoid any potential opportunities for conflict.
However, this is not an option for Time Capsule users as there is no easy way of partitioning the Time Capsules’ internal hard disk without elaborate effort. Granted, the Time Capsule is advertised as being able to perform both as a Time Machine backup destination and as a shared network drive [Apple Store (U.S.) - Time Capsule - 500 GB]
Nevertheless, some have experienced problems with maintaining files/folders occupying the same disk as Time Machine backups. In this case, they use the Time Capsule hard disk solely for Time Machine backups. Then attach an external hard disk to the Time Capsules USB port and store additional files there. This added disk will still be available to all Macs that can access the Time Capsule. (Note though, that any USB disks attached to the USB port of the Time Capsule can not then be backed up to the Time Capsule via Time Machine. Time Machine will only backup your Macs internal hard disk or any external hard disks physically attached to the Mac. Time Machine can not backup one remote device to another remote device.)
Hope this clarifies things.
Cheers!

Partitioning Time Capsule

I'm about to use my Time Capsule (500GB) for the first time with my MacBookPro (200GB). My plan was to use part of the Time Capsule for drag and drop... most likely just for my iTunes Music which is too big for my internal drive, and I want to enjoy being wireless now, so I don't want it on one of my other external (wired) drives.
1.Do I need to set up a partition to use part of the TC for drag and drop?
2.How much of the 500 GB TC should I reserve for Time Machine?
3.Should I expect much "lag" when listening to music stored on the TC?
On a non related issue, what's the "ideal" security set up for the WiFi part of the TC?
Thanks in advance,
Scott

Hey mate!
In (brackets) you will find some explanations. If you already know what i'm talking about I apologise for the extra hassle.
So this is what you need to do.
First set your MAC to never sleep. You can do that in the energy saver tab under system preferences.
1. Make sure you have quite some time to spare. (start this on a sunday maybe?)
2. Connect your TC to your mac with a cat6 Gigabit Ethernet cable.
(it's a fairly cheap cable you can find at any electronics shop. Bear in mind there are different versions of Ethernet cables you want the one for Gigabit coded as cat6 to make sure you get the best speed)
3. Now you wanna create a few disk images on the hard drive of your TC. As I mentioned previously you dont wanna create one big disk image because large files are easily corrupted. So you wanna spread your free space over a few images.
I have to warn you at this point that a large disk image might get easily corrupted which means that you might lose the data in it. It's NOT common but it CAN happen. Go on only if you're willing to take that risk.
(A disk image is a virtual disk. It is a file whose size you define when creating it and it works just like a real disk, that is to say you double click on it, it mounts and you then have access to its contents.)
On with the procedure then:
4. Open Disk Utility (found in the utilities folder inside the applications folder)
5. Go to File--> New --> New Blank Image
6. In the Save As field give your image a name
7. If you see a field named "where" click on the little arrow that shows downwards.
8. Browse to your TC you can find it on the list on the left of the box under shared and choose where to save your image. (anywhere in your TC is fine)
9. In the "Volume Name" field give your volume a name (anything)
10. Choose the size of your image (dont confuse MB with GB)
(About the size: i would recommend images no larger than 100 GB each for the reasons i already mentioned)
11. Under "Volume Format" you wanna choose MAC OS Extended (journaled)
12. Encryption "None"
13. Partitions "Single Partition-Apple Partition Map"
14. Image format "Read/Write disk image"
Hit "create" and you're done!!!
Now Disk Utility will create a 100GB disk image on your TC which means your computer will send a 100GB file to the TC (that will take some time)
You can repeat the procedure for as many images you want and let them be created when you go to sleep.
Repeat as required and you're all set
Hope that helps! Let us know how it works out!
Message was edited by: MacJonny

Can't add a second computer to Time Capsule, not enough space

I have a 500 GB Time Capsule and two macs (IMac and Macbook) that I would like to back up. My IMac is backed up, but every time I try and back up the mac book, it tells me I don't have enough space. I have read about deleting individual back ups on time capsule (I have some going back to August), but I figured there has to be an easier/quicker way. What are my other options? Are there settings I can change were it will allow me to back up the macbook as well without going in and individually deleting files off the time capsule? There is only about 30 GB of info on the macbook and 100 GB of info on the Imac so I should have more than enough storage.

Jackson Hole wrote:
I have a 500 GB Time Capsule and two macs (IMac and Macbook) that I would like to back up. My IMac is backed up, but every time I try and back up the mac book, it tells me I don't have enough space. I have read about deleting individual back ups on time capsule (I have some going back to August), but I figured there has to be an easier/quicker way. What are my other options? Are there settings I can change were it will allow me to back up the macbook as well without going in and individually deleting files off the time capsule? There is only about 30 GB of info on the macbook and 100 GB of info on the Imac so I should have more than enough storage.
Time Machine will, by design, fill up all the empty space available to it before it starts deleting old backups to make room for new ones. That's most likely what's happened to you.
One option is to delete a large number of the oldest backups via the procedure in #12 of the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum. Note that you'll have to manually compact the sparse image to actually get the space back, as detailed in the pink box there.
The other is to erase the entire HD and let TM start over with both Macs (I'd be inclined to do the initial full backups one at a time, via Ethernet).
Use the +*Airport Utility+* app, in your Applications/Utilities folder.
Select +*Base Station > Manual Set-Up+* from the Menubar, then Disks in the tool Bar, then Erase.
If you have other data there that you want to keep, you should be able to delete the sparse bundle via the Finder.

Time Capsule 2TB, use as multi MAC backup and extra HDD partition question

Hi,
I just purchased a 2TB Time Capsule. I have an intel imac and a PPC G4 laptop, both running Leopard. I don't care about having to start a new Time Machine backup and just discard the old individual ones. I just need to know if I am supposed to Partition the Time Capsule HDD to have one Time Machine volume for each computer and another partition to use for a network storage area.
I have not opened the box yet, but read the manual online with a whole bunch of other information, and I don't seem to find the answer to this situation.
Logically it just doesn't seem correct (or neat) to have just one 2TB lump of space and have it used for many variations.
Thank-you in advance.
Mike

Time Machine will automatically create a sparsebundle file on the Time Capsule for each computer that will look something like this:
"nameofcomputerMACaddress.sparsebundle
The Time Capsule will appear in the Finder under the SHARED heading and you can click to open the Time Capsule Folder to reveal the sparsebundle files there.
By clicking the gear shaped icon at the top of the window, you can also "Add New Folder" and rename them as needed. You can create as many folders as you like.

Partition Time Capsule?

Can I partition my Time Capsule so it uses 500 gigs for back ups and I can use the other 500 gigs for storage?

I have to Enter Time Machine to spin up the drive. Then it appears in Disk Utility.
But I still can't figure out how to have itback up to only one partition. It seems to alternate between the two.

Will partitioning Time Capsule effect my backups?

If I have a 1TB drive and partitioned it 500GB for Time Machine and 500GB for drag&drop, can this have a negative effect on my Time Machine backups?

No, other than limiting the amount of data that can be stored in the Time Machine backups.
However, it is a challenging task to partition the drive on a Time Capsule in a traditional way, since you must pull the drive from the Time Capsule......voiding the warranty on the Time Capsule.....to perform the partitioning operation.
You might want to set up a 500 GB disk image on the Time Capsule drive using Disk Utility on your Mac for your drag and drop storage, then leave the drive "as is", since Time Machine must back up directly to the Time Capsule drive.

Partitioned Time Capsule as Media Server for HTPC

I recently made the big switch to Apple - purchasing a Mac Mini, Imac and Time Capsule - and wish to use the Time Capsule to back-up the Imac (in office) via Time Machine and serve media to the Imac and Mac Mini (HTPC). The reason I want to do it this way is because I want to use Front Row to play media via the Mac Mini. I initially had the Mac Mini linked to Itunes media on the IMac (where I currently store all of my music) using Home Share, but every time the Imac went into sleep mode, I would lose access to the media.
I have successfully partitioned the Time Capsule into two virtual drives - one for Time Machine back-ups and one for media to be accessed by the imac and mac mini (no easy feat). I copied all of my media from the Imac to the proper Time Capsule partition. Additionally, I was able to "point" itunes on each computer to the itunes file on the Time Capsule.
The problem is, when one computer is pointed to the Time Capsule, I lose the connection on the other and it diverts back to the old location of the media files. My questions:
1. Is it possible to do what I am trying to do?
2. Is there a better way of creating a permanent connection to Itunes between two computers so that I don't lose the connection when they "sleep"? (I tried using the function where the computers would wake on network access, but it didn't seem to work.
Thanks for you help!

Over my head wrote:
I have successfully partitioned the Time Capsule into two virtual drives - one for Time Machine back-ups and one for media to be accessed by the imac and mac mini (no easy feat).
Were you able to do that without physically removing the drive? If so, how?

Should I Partition Time Capsule To Limit Space Consumed By Backups?

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