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When booted with external power supply the led is perfectly green, then disconnect from the external PS and connect to the internal one works. It seems to be the power on...

Interesting. Yeah, I guess your TC power supply isn't giving enough for that drive's startup needs. That's disappointing. It sounds like you could rig up an external power supply for it, although that would be pretty ugly.
 
Interesting. Yeah, I guess your TC power supply isn't giving enough for that drive's startup needs. That's disappointing. It sounds like you could rig up an external power supply for it, although that would be pretty ugly.

I would try to change the original power supply caps...
 
Solved! I changed all 4 capacitors in the power supply and now works!

Awesome! It's very cool that you had the ability to fix it like that. I can take things apart and put 'em back together again (good mechanically), and I have a basic understanding of electrical circuits, but as far as actually soldering things -- well, I've not much experience at that! I'm glad you got yours working again.
 
I everybody!

I tried to put 3Tb WD green into my a1254 timecapsule but... It won't power on! I replaced with the original 500Gb Seagate and it boots! Maybe a power iussue (not enought power to spin on the drive...) Any advice? I'm getting crazy!!!!

Hello!

Now you fixed your power supply and the new HDD is working fine, have you noticed if it spins up - spins down correctly?
My 1st gen TC (A1254) just died (after 7 years!). I'm fixing the power supply by replacing the caps and I have improved ventilation system (fan orientation and always running at half speed + holes on the alu plate) but I'm also wondering to replace the original HDD (1TB Hitachi) with a new one and I don't know which one to buy.

Thanks for helping ;)
 
after replacing the caps i had no problem with 3 tb wd green. Better speed an noiseless.

Hello!

Now you fixed your power supply and the new HDD is working fine, have you noticed if it spins up - spins down correctly?
My 1st gen TC (A1254) just died (after 7 years!). I'm fixing the power supply by replacing the caps and I have improved ventilation system (fan orientation and always running at half speed + holes on the alu plate) but I'm also wondering to replace the original HDD (1TB Hitachi) with a new one and I don't know which one to buy.

Thanks for helping ;)
 
As a hybrid SSD/HDD, I think you're better off putting it in a USB3 (or thunderbolt) enclosure. In my view, the Time Capsule is not about speed - it's about storage and convenience. So, the SSD (even a hybrid) would be best used elsewhere. Note that the 2013 TC's USB ports are 2.0, not 3.0.

I put a Seagate 6TB in a 2013 Time Capsule almost two years ago and it's been reliably backing up 4 macs via Time Machine with no issues. I had the drive in my first gen TC for several months, and then put it in a refurbished 2013 TC (wanted an 'ac' wi-fi connection) and was able to keep the Time Machine backup sparsebundles without having to start new backups.
 
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I'm with @regtor ... that drive is total overkill for a backup drive and it won't make your backups any faster. If you can, I would return it and just get a standard hard drive.

These two posters know what they're talking about and I'm not disagreeing with them, but if you can't return the drive (or an alternative drive isn't much cheaper), it should work just fine. As they've pointed out, just don't expect it to be fast.

Instead, expect it to be slow, whether you install it inside the TC or plug it into the TC as an external USB drive. From what I've read, it seems the backup speeds are limited by the processing power of the TC cpu itself (or maybe its network interface), and not by the HDD or its interface (SATA or USB 2). But for Time Machine backup use, it doesn't matter. So, yeah, if you can return it and save some money getting a WD green or something, great; if not, there's no harm in using this drive for the TC.

Whether you want to put a 3 TB HDD inside or as an external might depend upon:

do you want to buy/get an external enclosure? (USB 2 is fine, but a USB 3 enclosure might be more useful if re-purposed in the future)
do you care about having another physical device and another power brick and plug?
do you want to bother opening up the TC, possibly breaking something? (it's pretty easy, but there's always something that could go wrong)
is it useful to have both the internal 2 TB and an external 3 TB connected to your TC?
 
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