Time Capsule Not Seen By Disk Utility, Not On Desktop

Question

My 1T TC works like a champ and backs up as expected. Can TC be used as an ordinary external HD in addition to being the location of TM back ups. The TC does not appear on my desktop and is not discovered by Disk Utility.

Answer 1

Rocky,
Be very careful with the xxxxxx.sparsebundle file. That is an image of all of your Time Machine backups. Leave it alone unless you want to delete all of your backups.
If you do want to delete your Time Machine backups, use the gear icon just above the xxxxx.sparsebundle file. Click the .sparsebundle file to highlight it and select Move to Trash. This is only safe way to do this.
There is also an alternate way to delete your backups and wipe the Time Capsule clean if that is what you want to do. Open AirPort Utility, select Manual Setup, click on the Disks icon, then click on the Disks tab just below that and select Erase. This is probably the better option if you want to start over with a clean disk.
Now, if you want to create a folder or folders on the Time Capsule to move files into, use that same gear shaped icon in the preceding paragraph and select New Folder. Once you see the folder, you can rename it as needed. Create more folders in the same way. You can drag files into the folder from the desktop.
I haven't tried any kind of automated backups into the folders and don't know if this might be possible.
If you add folders and keep your Time Machine backups, Time Machine will leave the folders alone even if the TC is full and deleting old backups to make room for new Time Machine backups.
Hope this helps. Just be careful and you will be fine.