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Time capsule partitioning

Brian33

Brian33

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2008
1,420
352
USA (Virginia)
scw: I'm sorry to tell you that you'll have to come up with a different way to back up the files you put onto the Time Capsule internal drive. To my knowledge, Time Machine can only back up drives that are internal to a Mac or directly attached to a mac (i.e., via Firewire or USB). Time Machine cannot back up network-attached drives (like the TC internal drive or any USB drives attached to it). Of course, TM can use such network-attached drives as a backup destination, just not a source. This is one of the disadvantages of putting data on the spare TC disk space.

However, since you can access the TC drive with Finder, scripts, etc, you can use use some other method to copy the files you put in the TC onto another drive (even the 1TB USB-attached one). I don't have any particular program to recommend since I've only used TM for backup on OS X. Can CCC or SuperDuper be used for this purpose? You could always copy the files "manually," but that's not a very good solution if the files may be changed or added to.
 
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LanceMahe

macrumors newbie
Nov 14, 2010
22
4
partitioning TC

rufftackle said:
I just bought my 2TB Time Capsule yesterday from the Apple Store. Since the hard drive on my MacBook is only 250 GB, I wanted to use the Time Capsule also as an external hard drive to keep possibly (less important) media files on that don't necessarily need to be backed up so that they would not take up space on my hard drive.

I'm not the kind of guy who needs back-ups of back-ups and monthly back-ups, which is what Time Machine is great at. I just need less frequent back ups. Since Time Machine will take up as much space as possible on an external hard drive, it would have filled up my 2TB Time Capsule eventually leaving with me with no extra room to store additional data.

I setup the Time Capsule last night, it was definitely easy an easy process.

When the installation setup wizard asked if I wanted to use the Time Machine for backup, I selected "Not now" and continued the installation to setup the Wi-Fi network.

Then I ran the Time Machine wizard and selected the Time Capsule as the back up storage.

I let Time Machine backup to the Time Capsule overnight.


When I was searching online how to partition the Time Capsule so that it serves as both a backup and an external hard drive, I got tired of reading that "it couldn't be done" and other people saying "you have to take the hard drive out of the casing and hook it up to your Mac by USB," I decided to partake on my own adventure.

How I Partitioned Time Capsule Into an External Hard Drive
1) Start doing a backup in Time Machine so that your Time Capsule appears in Finder and/or on your desktop
2) Open Disk Utility and select your Time Capsule
3) Click on "Partition"
4) Drag the slider to decrease the size of the "Backup of yourcomputerhere" to whatever size you want to dedicate to Time Machine backups
5) Click the + arrow to add a new partition
6) Adjust the size of the partition and give it a name
7) Click "Apply"

It will take a few minutes to re-map the partitions. After that, you will be good to go!

So for all the people saying its not possible or it needs to be connected through USB... I'm guessing you're probably not a Time Capsule owner because this task was so simple!:)
Click to expand...

This method is wishful thinking.
The disk doesn't appear anywhere during a backup.
Would anyone please advise how it can be done??
 
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EddieT

macrumors member
Sep 22, 2006
34
2
Hiroshima, Japan
sinoue said:
CoCoSS - Probably should be a new thread, but your answer is Yes. You can use your time capsule drive for both time machine backups and as a network drive for placing files on it.
Click to expand...

Came across this old thread while looking into the possibility of using the TC internal disk for storage of other files, mostly video files. Played around a bit with this. First tried dragging and dropping at the top level (where you can see the Data folder containing the sparsediskbundles for each mac being backed up). Wouldn't let me do that. So tried dragging and dropping inside the Data file, alongside the sparsediskbundles, and that seems to work fine. I'm looking into this because I'm thinking of buying a TC for my daughter, but 2 TB seems such a waste for her single 256 GB MBA.
 
Brian33

Brian33

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2008
1,420
352
USA (Virginia)
EddieT said:
Came across this old thread while looking into the possibility of using the TC internal disk for storage of other files, mostly video files. Played around a bit with this. First tried dragging and dropping at the top level (where you can see the Data folder containing the sparsediskbundles for each mac being backed up). Wouldn't let me do that. So tried dragging and dropping inside the Data file, alongside the sparsediskbundles, and that seems to work fine. I'm looking into this because I'm thinking of buying a TC for my daughter, but 2 TB seems such a waste for her single 256 GB MBA.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Your setup is somehow different from mine: my TC disks (the internal one and two externals plugged into the TC's USB port) have no "Data" folder. The "mymachinename.sparsebundle" files are stored at the top level (that is, at the root directory of that volume's filesystem). Normally (for me), the only things in the root directory are the .sparsebundle file(s) and a couple of hidden files and directories (i.e., with filenames that start with a period -- you won't see these in Finder by default). I can easily drag and drop files and folders to/from that top level directory with no problem.

Possible reasons for the difference: my user account has admin privileges, I have the TC disks secured "With a disk password" that has already been saved into my user account's keychain, and I have a 1st-gen TC running version 7.6.4 firmware (though I don't think this last is the explanation).

By any chance, have you set up your TC to "Secure Shared Disks:" "With accounts" ? (Use Airport Utility and look at the "Disks" tab.) I've never tried that setting, although I might be interested in using it. Just guessing that using that setting might arrange the TC directory structure differently...

Do you get a message when it won't let you drop into the TC drive's root directory? I'm guessing that it's a Unix-level filesystem permissions issue. (Which can probably be overcome using Terminal commands.)
 
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EddieT

macrumors member
Sep 22, 2006
34
2
Hiroshima, Japan
Hi Brian. Actually, I also have a 1st gen TC, and I believe the file structure is the same as the one you are describing, with no Data folder. Either way, works fine. I do have an external HD connected to my recently purchased TC, but have it set to share with device password. I do get a message when I try to drag and drop alongside the Data folder. Something about "click Authenticate." But there is no "authenticate" to click. At any rate, once I go inside the Data folder, I can drag and drop without issue.
 
H

hiyel

macrumors newbie
Jul 25, 2005
23
2
rufftackle said:
Time Machine Partitioning for External Hard Drive

How I Partitioned Time Capsule Into an External Hard Drive
1) Start doing a backup in Time Machine so that your Time Capsule appears in Finder and/or on your desktop
2) Open Disk Utility and select your Time Capsule
3) Click on "Partition"
4) Drag the slider to decrease the size of the "Backup of yourcomputerhere" to whatever size you want to dedicate to Time Machine backups
5) Click the + arrow to add a new partition
6) Adjust the size of the partition and give it a name
7) Click "Apply"
Click to expand...

This doesn't actually partition the drive in Time Capsule. It partitions the sparse bundle that's created by Time Machine. Hence the newly created partition doesn't show up as a drive until Time Machine starts a backup.

I also just got a 2TB Time Capsule, and was looking for a way to limit the maximum Time Machine backup size. Time Machine creates a sparse bundle image at the root of the Time Capsule drive, and stores the backups in that image. By default this image is the same size as the drive in Time Capsule.

I found that the easiest and cleanest way to limit Time Machine backups was to resize this sparse bundle image. You can do this with Disk Utility>Images>Resize. Then you browse to the sparse bundle file in the root folder, and set the new size you want. You can then use the Time Capsule drive as any network drive. The sparse bundle file won't get larger than the size set.
 
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gadgets110

macrumors newbie
Dec 20, 2019
1
0
hiyel said:
This doesn't actually partition the drive in Time Capsule. It partitions the sparse bundle that's created by Time Machine. Hence the newly created partition doesn't show up as a drive until Time Machine starts a backup.

I also just got a 2TB Time Capsule, and was looking for a way to limit the maximum Time Machine backup size. Time Machine creates a sparse bundle image at the root of the Time Capsule drive, and stores the backups in that image. By default this image is the same size as the drive in Time Capsule.

I found that the easiest and cleanest way to limit Time Machine backups was to resize this sparse bundle image. You can do this with Disk Utility>Images>Resize. Then you browse to the sparse bundle file in the root folder, and set the new size you want. You can then use the Time Capsule drive as any network drive. The sparse bundle file won't get larger than the size set.
Click to expand...



Thanks for your post. Glad I read till the end as I was going to use the procedure above. I've tried to limit the image size instead like you say but I get the error resource temporarily available - selected disk image cannot be resized. Any clue how to fix this?
 
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