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Expanding Time Capsule

mermaid2010

mermaid2010

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 4, 2010
35
0
Cornwall, UK
I have had my 1TB for two years now and I am needing more storage on it, I really do not want to buy another one although a 3TB would be lovely. I have read you can plug in a USB HD into the TC.
This sound simple enough, but what is the strict procedure and how does the Time Machine carry on after you have done this.
Am I to wipe the TC clean, how does the new available space integrate into the TC?

thanking you for any help as I am not too confident with anything out the ordinary.
 
If you are intending to expand the storage of the internal drive of the Time Capsule, that is not possible without physically opening it up and exchanging the hard drive with a larger capacity drive.

When you connect a USB HDD to the Time Capsule, it will be seen as a different hard drive entirely. You can select it as a target for Time Machine backups but you will have to recreate your backups. That said, I have had success with copying my sparsebundle file to another volume and continuing my backup through Time Machine, so you may be able to copy your current backup to the new drive and continue from there (although I'm not entirely sure this will work flawlessly).

Another option would be to keep your old backups on the internal drive and start a fresh backup on the USB HDD. You'll still be able to access your old files by manually mounting the sparsebundle file from your old Time Capsule hard drive.
 
If you're only using the TC for backups, you don't have to worry. Time Machine will automatically delete the oldest backups in order for the new ones to fit.
 
skorpien said:
If you are intending to expand the storage of the internal drive of the Time Capsule, that is not possible without physically opening it up and exchanging the hard drive with a larger capacity drive.

When you connect a USB HDD to the Time Capsule, it will be seen as a different hard drive entirely. You can select it as a target for Time Machine backups but you will have to recreate your backups. That said, I have had success with copying my sparsebundle file to another volume and continuing my backup through Time Machine, so you may be able to copy your current backup to the new drive and continue from there (although I'm not entirely sure this will work flawlessly).

Another option would be to keep your old backups on the internal drive and start a fresh backup on the USB HDD. You'll still be able to access your old files by manually mounting the sparsebundle file from your old Time Capsule hard drive.
Click to expand...
Thank you, most helpful......although the bit on sparsebundles is beyond me. I see if I get a 3TB EHD and plug it in I can direct the Time Machine to it, seems the simplest option,many thanks!

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hafr said:
If you're only using the TC for backups, you don't have to worry. Time Machine will automatically delete the oldest backups in order for the new ones to fit.
Click to expand...
I realise that thank you but, my BACKUP is shortly going to exceed the TC!
 
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