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Erasing a Time Capsule

G

GizmoDVD

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 11, 2008
2,599
5,012
SoCal
So I bought one of the newer Time Capsules. Went ahead and hooked it up, and made the new one use the old ones Name and Password. Sadly, I forgot to format the old TC before disconnecting it....

Now how would I go about erasing what's currently on the other TC? When I plug the power in, the Orange light just flashes.
 
Weaselboy

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,136
15,599
California
GizmoDVD said:
So I bought one of the newer Time Capsules. Went ahead and hooked it up, and made the new one use the old ones Name and Password. Sadly, I forgot to format the old TC before disconnecting it....

Now how would I go about erasing what's currently on the other TC? When I plug the power in, the Orange light just flashes.
Click to expand...

Reset it following this then when it restarts you should be able to see it with Airport Utility and you can then erase the drive. The amber light will probably be flashing since it won't be connected to the Internet, but you will still be able to access it with Airport Utility.

I suspect you are unable to access it now because it is using the same network name as the new device.
 
O

opinio

macrumors 65816
Mar 23, 2013
1,171
7
GizmoDVD said:
So I bought one of the newer Time Capsules. Went ahead and hooked it up, and made the new one use the old ones Name and Password. Sadly, I forgot to format the old TC before disconnecting it....

Now how would I go about erasing what's currently on the other TC? When I plug the power in, the Orange light just flashes.
Click to expand...

It is most likely flashing amber because it is still configured as the primary router and it is upset because there is another primary around now. You probably have two NATs and two DHCP servers running possibly as well. Once you do what Weaselboy says and reset it you should be able to set it up as 'extending' the network from your new TC. Then you can erase the internal disk in the AirPort App under the 'Disk' tab.

Note also, there is a diffeence between formatting a TC drive (which is done in the AirPort App). This process erases the internal hard drive. And the other which is resetting a TC. This latter process resets the TC to factory state so you can 're-introduce' it to a new (or old) network.

I can't remember but possibly the internal HDD is also erased when you do a reset on a TC.
 
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