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A cheaper alternative to Time Capsule?

LeandrodaFL

LeandrodaFL

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 6, 2011
973
1
I need a hdd to backup my notebook. I would like to go cord free, so the Time capsule is certainly a great match for me. However, Im a little sad it costs so much. The 2TB is $300

My macbook is 64GB storage, and I use around 25GB. I dont need all that extra space. A cheaper with less GB option would fit better. Is there another product similar to Time Capsule? theres gotta be at least 1 product on the windows side, they copy everything.
 
I just bought the 3TB version of this for $80 less than the 2TB Time Capsule. So far I have one of my MacBooks backing up to it with Time Machine. I initially got an error message, but a firmware update has it up and running.
 
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LeandrodaFL said:
Is there another product similar to Time Capsule? theres gotta be at least 1 product on the windows side, they copy everything.
Click to expand...

Not to start a flame war, but the attitude on this forum that Apple is perfect and invents everything is seriously getting to me. A time capsule is just a generic NAS with some software so it works with Time Machine. In the Windows world, you've been able to connect a NAS for years before Time capsule came out to do the same thing.

I'm not sure what is directly compatible with Time Machine, but I believe with1) a TM hack, and 2) a router that can use a USB drive as a HDD, you can just backup to the USB drive, connected to your router. Bonus: No moving parts at all!
 
I'll get a USB drive and conect directly to the macbook, a Im not pleased with current offerings.

Apple is not perfect, they dont have end/home keys in the keyboard and Lion sucks, but they did created a lot of nice stuff
 
You can use basically any external HDD connected to your computer or WiFi router as a 'time machine' as long as your computer can see the hard drive.
You can even use a 2nd partition on the same hard drive inside your computer if you wanted.
Just open your Time Machine prefs and click select disk and point it to any hard drive other than your main drive.

A Time capsule is just a router with an internal HDD. Nothing fancy.


Doesn't have a home or end key but if you can use shortcuts:

Control-A Move to beginning of line/paragraph
Control-E Move to end of line/paragraph

and more
 

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mmomega said:
You can use basically any external HDD connected to your computer or WiFi router as a 'time machine' as long as your computer can see the hard drive.
You can even use a 2nd partition on the same hard drive inside your computer if you wanted.
Just open your Time Machine prefs and click select disk and point it to any hard drive other than your main drive.

A Time capsule is just a router with an internal HDD. Nothing fancy.


Doesn't have a home or end key but if you can use shortcuts:

Control-A Move to beginning of line/paragraph
Control-E Move to end of line/paragraph

and more
Click to expand...

thanks for the help. Ill settle with a usb drive from freecom
 
mmomega said:
Doesn't have a home or end key but if you can use shortcuts:

Control-A Move to beginning of line/paragraph
Control-E Move to end of line/paragraph

and more
Click to expand...

I find that command-left arrow (home) and command-right arrow (end) work best for me. It's more intuitive.

But being a software developer using Windows for years, it's quite different to get used to.

While we're on the subject, I also hate that there's no equivalent for the Windows "delete" key. I have to use function-delete to do that.

So far those are my only gripes with my Macbook Air though. Now if only I could get a Time Machine somewhere...
 
A Synology NAS like the DS110j can be had for $160 new or less used. Drop in a SATA drive and you get a Time Machine & much much more.
 
mmomega said:
You can use basically any external HDD connected to your computer or WiFi router as a 'time machine' as long as your computer can see the hard drive.
You can even use a 2nd partition on the same hard drive inside your computer if you wanted.
Just open your Time Machine prefs and click select disk and point it to any hard drive other than your main drive.

A Time capsule is just a router with an internal HDD. Nothing fancy.
Click to expand...

Bear in mind the network disk must support AFP, otherwise when Time Machine attempts to back up to the disk it will fail, even though you can select a non-AFP supported destination from the list of available disks.
 
disagree

mmomega said:
You can use basically any external HDD connected to your computer or WiFi router as a 'time machine' as long as your computer can see the hard drive.
You can even use a 2nd partition on the same hard drive inside your computer if you wanted.
Just open your Time Machine prefs and click select disk and point it to any hard drive other than your main drive.

A Time capsule is just a router with an internal HDD. Nothing fancy.


Doesn't have a home or end key but if you can use shortcuts:

Control-A Move to beginning of line/paragraph
Control-E Move to end of line/paragraph

and more
Click to expand...

No, not every drive that the computer sees will work with time machine out of box. NAS can be seen by the computer, but will not be recognized by time machine, unless you do a unreliable hack that is not too easy either.

However, any drive physically connected to the mac omputer will surely be recognised by time machine. Only network attached storages are the issue. Apple disables by default for time machine to identify any network attached storage other than time capsule; though it is capable of. obviously a move by apple to move their time capsule sales which are obviously overpriced for what they offer.
 
sidn said:
No, not every drive that the computer sees will work with time machine out of box. NAS can be seen by the computer, but will not be recognized by time machine, unless you do a unreliable hack that is not too easy either.

However, any drive physically connected to the mac omputer will surely be recognised by time machine. Only network attached storages are the issue. Apple disables by default for time machine to identify any network attached storage other than time capsule; though it is capable of. obviously a move by apple to move their time capsule sales which are obviously overpriced for what they offer.
Click to expand...

I haven't had a problem with using my NAS, like in the picture I posted above in post #6, the MyBookWorld I used then was a 2TB NAS plugged in by ethernet into the AEBS.
It was quite reliable at backing up with no hacks (unless WD firmware/software allows it to be used as so) albeit it is probably one of the slowest NAS drives I've ever used.
 
LeandrodaFL said:
I'll get a USB drive and conect directly to the macbook, a Im not pleased with current offerings.

Apple is not perfect, they dont have end/home keys in the keyboard and Lion sucks, but they did created a lot of nice stuff
Click to expand...

Mac may not have a designated end/home key, but you can still perform this function by doing the following:

HOME = Command + Left Arrow
END = Command + Right Arrow
 
I was thinking of getting the 2tb timecapsule so that my wife's pro is always updated in case the kid spills something on it and she looses all her photo's.........my main issue is that its not raid so that if it died, we also loose the backup. Is there a way to backup the timecapsule via another hd? What have y'all done?
 
gadgetmonster said:
I was thinking of getting the 2tb timecapsule so that my wife's pro is always updated in case the kid spills something on it and she looses all her photo's.........my main issue is that its not raid so that if it died, we also loose the backup. Is there a way to backup the timecapsule via another hd? What have y'all done?
Click to expand...

The only problem I see is if you had some major catastrophe that killed your Time Machine and her laptop at the same time.
Anything that would destroy both simultaneously would also destroy any other backups you have unless they were off-site.

but, CCC will do Time Machine backups to another external if that's what you were looking for.
Cloning a Time Machine Backup

Hope that helps.
 
You could also look at something like a QNAP 219P.
Use mine to back up 2 MACS, stores and serves all my media, very pleased with mine....
 
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