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A Seemingly Simple Question (Time Machine as Storage)

thadchr

thadchr

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 13, 2005
52
1
Wisconsin
I almost feel dumb asking, as it seems like this should be as simple as it gets... however:

I've got a MacBook pro that basically hosts my entire life. Naturally, I wanted to back it up, so I bought a 1TB Apple Time Capsule to sync with Time Machine. I've got that up and working, and though I don't entirely understand the logistics of it, I feel safe knowing that all of my stuff is backed up somewhere.

Now, I have a ton of music and my computer's hard drive isn't massive, and thus, it's finally getting overloaded. All I'm looking to do is store some of my excess files on the Time Capsule so that I can transfer them back to the computer if I ever need them. Basically, I'm trying to use an external hard drive, as, uhhh, an external hard drive. I feel as if I should simply be able to drag any file I want onto to "Time Capsule" disk icon in Finder, but for some reason, things aren't that easy. It would be especially nice if I could access these files through the network (i.e. be able to play any music on the TC through Airtunes), but even that is just an added luxury. Really all I want is to use some of the remaining 800GBs on the TC for storage. :cool:

For what it's worth, I'm in an apartment complex where I share internet with the entire building, so there may be some firewall complexities. (I simply added the Time Capsule to the existing network and set up a password to keep other's from accessing my files.) However, since I'm still able to access the TC, I feel like the firewall can't be the underlying issue.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
the thing is the time capsule and time machine aren't designed to do what you want them to do. Time machine disks fill up over time. it's not as simple as saying you are using 200GB of space on your laptop and therefore need 200GB of space on the time machine drive. Every time TM backs up, it takes not of any changes made since the last backup and stores those, holding onto everything in the event that you accidentally lose track of a file on your computer. in that event, TM will have you covered because it will be stored there. Eventually, the TM drive will fill up. On to your question, maybe you can partition the TM drive, in order to use some of it as normal storage space. I'm not sure, and I wouldn't recommend it. Better yet, why don't you buy an ext. HDD and connect it to the time capsule. That you CAN use in the manner you describe, just as normal ext. HDD storage.
 
As far as the TC eventually filling up, isn't there a way to have older files automatically removed in time? Even over a period of a couple hears, I can't imagine making enough changes on my computer to fill up a full TB.

Buying another external HD isn't out of the question, but I was trying to avoid that... I feel like owning one external HD should be enough, given that I'm only trying to back up a laptop that's 1/4 the size of the hard drive itself.

Finally, partitioning the drive is a definite possibility... but first, why wouldn't you recommend it? I don't want to mess anything up when the whole points of this exercise is to protect my stuff. If anyone doesn't think this is a bad idea though... how would I do it?

Thanks for the responses so far! ;)
 
OllyW said:
Unless something has changed, I don't think you can partition the drive in a Time Capsule?
Click to expand...

Hmmm, well I'm definitely not sure, just following up on a possible solution. So, it seems that the good news is that I'm not a complete idiot, and using the TC as a backup drive isn't as easy as it seems... certainly, the good old drag-and-drop method is a fail. The bad news is, of course, that I still have no solution to my problem. I feel as if there has to be a (fairly simple) method. I shouldn't really have to buy another hard drive should I??:eek:
 
Nothing else? Don't mean to be a nag, but I'd be shocked if this was impossible.

If I do just buy another EHD, I just plug it into the Time Capsule via USB and it should show up on my network??
 
when you have the time capsule drive for time machine back ups then it will not appear as an external in the normal sense. You can wipe the drive and start again but I would ask you why would you want to do this?

Attach the new external drive to your TC via USB and then it will be networked and your 1TB TC will still back it up.

DONOT substitute back ups for storage. Get 500GB external for cheap and then you will have everything you need.

Time Machine is one of the best advancements for back ups and should not be replaced
 
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