Sitrep
Hi all,
Just thought I'd report in, let you know about my upgrade story so far
Well
the HD103SI came as mentioned. I know I got the wrong one but since they both seem to be similarly spec'd then I wasn't too worried.
Firstly, I thought I could create a "clone" of the disk by simply running the AirPort Utility archive function onto the new HD, which is what I did. This is not the case so people who have yet to upgrade, take note! The new drive will need to be formatted in the Time Capsule once installed. If you want to continue your TM backups from your old files, you need to do one of two things:
- Copy all the .sparseimage files off the Time Capsule onto a local drive, and then copy them back again once you've replaced the drives. I couldn't do this because I didn't have enough space on any of my drives, and you can't use the new drive because it will need to be reformatted
- Create a proper hard drive clone by using a utility such as SuperDuper! or CarbonCopyCloner. I couldn't do this either, because both drives would need to be connected as local drives on a machine and I didn't have enough SATA bays or any SATA external HD enclosures to put them in.
The problem with copying the .sparseimage files to the *new* drive and then installing it into the Time Capsule, is that the TC needs the drive to be in a different (weird) format. Try connecting an already formatted drive into the TC with files on it, the files won't show up. Try connecting your old TC drive to a machine locally, you'll see two partitions with nothing in them. I have no idea what's going on here, but suffice it to say, it won't work.
So I had to unfortunately start backups from scratch. I was a little disappointed but not worried, because I'd done an off-site archive of the TC about a month ago.
Anyway tracking back a bit, I obviously needed to install the new drive. In theory this is a fairly easy process, but unfortunately for me I found it a little tricky and
at one point I thought I was screwed... Some of the screws were *really* tight, so if there's one piece of advice I'd give it would be to try loosening them all off first before removing any of them. Also, the little screw-feet on the old drive were also extremely tight and at one point I thought I was going to have to buy new ones for the new HD. But a few hours later, I was up and running... Although as stated previously I had to reformat the new HD again from AirPort Utility, which unfortunately negated the 11-hour archive I'd previously done. It would make more sense if Apple made the archive function a cloning utility so that if the TC drive died you could just swap it for one of the clone archives... But I digress.
Doing the backups from scratch naturally took a long time (some I did wirelessly and others via Ethernet). But immediately I noticed the difference in the noise level... No loud spin-up or spin-down hums any more! The TC lives on the top of a sideboard next to where I sit and before I could always tell when a backup was starting or finishing. But now there's no way of telling that without getting within a few inches of the unit. However, one thing about the drive I chose is that sometimes it makes quite noticeable clunking noises as it writes to the drive. It vibrates through the sideboard so it is fairly noticeable, but not nearly as noticeable as the hum was from the original drive.
So now I've had it running for nearly 48 hours, and on the whole it's working well... The speed of backups appears to be just as good as it was before. However, a problem that I have had a few times so far: Time Machine sometimes cannot find the backup volume and fails to backup. But this is usually solved by locating the drive again and selecting "Backup Now". I have no idea why this is so if anyone has a clue, please let me know. At one point earlier today, none of the machines could find the TC drive and I couldn't even connect to it via Sharing. So I switched the TC off and on again and it's been fine ever since. I need to keep a close eye on this, but I'm hoping it's not to do with a dodgy drive!
Anyway I hope some of you may have found this mahoosive posting useful... I'd be really interested to hear in other people's upgrade stories!
:-Joe
