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How to backup Time Capsule itself?

M

matei

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 16, 2006
12
1
Hi all,

How would I actually go about go backing up the Time Capsule itself, to an external drive?

I usually have an "emergency" drive that I place in a secure location, in case I lose my principal backup drive. Now that I use a Time Capsule as my main backup drive, I'm not sure how to go about this.

Thanks!
 
My understanding is that you can connect a USB hard drive to the TC and use the Archive function to back up the entire TC... hope that helps!
 

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yeah i use the archive feature for the external hd.
but i wish i knew a way to automate the archives every 2 weeks or monthly.
 
Online backup of Time Capsule

Am I the only one out there who is looking for Online Backup for my Time Capsule? Time Capsule is perfect (or nearly so), so I don't really want to use a different Online Backup service. I want to use my Time Capsule. But if my TC gets stolen, the hard drive crashes, or there's a natural disaster then my TC backup becomes worthless. Using the Archive feature is all fine and good in theory, but who remembers to do it regularly, and also to store the USB HDD in a different location (doing one makes it almost impractical to do the other)???

I really need an automatic online backup for my Time Capsule.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!
 
Partial solution (couldn't be the smart one, but...)

Hi.

My fear is the same as yours, so i just make TC incremental and full backups from a regular PC with XP Pro and Cobian Backup installed. That's the way i found to do that backup works. In my case, i have that PC aways on because it's integrated with Skype and PABX in the office.

Did you try to put a external drive in your TC and download some freeware backup tool for Mac? I think you obviously did. :)
 
SimplyGrand said:
Am I the only one out there who is looking for Online Backup for my Time Capsule? Time Capsule is perfect (or nearly so), so I don't really want to use a different Online Backup service. I want to use my Time Capsule. But if my TC gets stolen, the hard drive crashes, or there's a natural disaster then my TC backup becomes worthless. Using the Archive feature is all fine and good in theory, but who remembers to do it regularly, and also to store the USB HDD in a different location (doing one makes it almost impractical to do the other)???

I really need an automatic online backup for my Time Capsule.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

There's a company called macminicolo.net that will host a Mac Mini or Time Capsule for you. It's kind of expensive and I don't have any first hand knowledge of how reliable it is, but you might want to check it out at http://www.macminicolo.net/transport/
 
SimplyGrand said:
Am I the only one out there who is looking for Online Backup for my Time Capsule? Time Capsule is perfect (or nearly so), so I don't really want to use a different Online Backup service. I want to use my Time Capsule. But if my TC gets stolen, the hard drive crashes, or there's a natural disaster then my TC backup becomes worthless. Using the Archive feature is all fine and good in theory, but who remembers to do it regularly, and also to store the USB HDD in a different location (doing one makes it almost impractical to do the other)???

I really need an automatic online backup for my Time Capsule.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Generally speaking... making a backup of a backup is not the best idea. There are still too many single points of failure in such a scenario. For example... if your TM backup was to become corrupted, then you would have dual copies of your corrupted data.

What I recommend, and what I do, is to have two totally separate and fully automatic backup solutions. At least one of them should be offsite.

I am currently using TimeMachine/TimeCapsule for my internal backup, and I am using CrashPlan for my cloud based backup.

/Jim
 
flynz4 said:
Generally speaking... making a backup of a backup is not the best idea. There are still too many single points of failure in such a scenario. For example... if your TM backup was to become corrupted, then you would have dual copies of your corrupted data.

What I recommend, and what I do, is to have two totally separate and fully automatic backup solutions. At least one of them should be offsite.

I am currently using TimeMachine/TimeCapsule for my internal backup, and I am using CrashPlan for my cloud based backup.

/Jim
Click to expand...

I am a big Mozy backup (cloud) fan myself but the cloud it is not a perfect solution...
I have my iTunes media stored on the TimeCapsule. It's only 45GB but I am not even thinking about uploading that to the cloud. My internetprovider would love me for it... It would take me about 7 days constant uploading to get that volume up there. Once it's in place it would be ok, but the road to get there is not...

I think that is such cases the only way to proceed it is connect an external hd now and again...
 
I don't "backup" my Time Capsule because I don't have one. Instead, I run Time Machine and SuperDuper on a Drobo. Spreading the data over 4 hard drives should protect you from drive failure. In theory, there could always be a failure of the Drobo enclosure. The protect against that, I use online backup BackBlaze.
 
I store my data on an external drive and then let Time Capsule backup both my internal and external drives. As another backup I use the home sharing feature in iTunes to sync all my purchases to another computer. I don't really have anything outside of iTunes stuff that I need to backup though. Haven't lost a hard drive in over 18 years either. To avoid potential hard drive failure I just buy a new hard drive every 3-5 years and keep the old drives in a box stored in a closet.

You would probably be best off just using SuperDuper or something similar to automate backups to wherever you want to have your additional backups go.

I use Mozy at work, but it's not really a cost effective solution for an iTunes library approaching 1TB.
 
Online Backup a TC

SimplyGrand said:
Am I the only one out there who is looking for Online Backup for my Time Capsule? Time Capsule is perfect (or nearly so), so I don't really want to use a different Online Backup service. I want to use my Time Capsule. But if my TC gets stolen, the hard drive crashes, or there's a natural disaster then my TC backup becomes worthless. Using the Archive feature is all fine and good in theory, but who remembers to do it regularly, and also to store the USB HDD in a different location (doing one makes it almost impractical to do the other)???

I really need an automatic online backup for my Time Capsule.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...


What did you conclude in the end? I have the exact same question...! :0)
Take care and hope you found a suitable solution.
/Søren
 
I am also interested. I had just moved to a mac from a pc. I always ran 2 separate backups independently in case one failed, or was stolen. It is not to be at a remote location or off site, just well hidden!!

Best thing I ever did was sacking the pc :)
 
Sorted! said:
I am also interested. I had just moved to a mac from a pc. I always ran 2 separate backups independently in case one failed, or was stolen. It is not to be at a remote location or off site, just well hidden!!
Click to expand...
I still think that the idea of a separate backup is a good idea. I don't like the idea of backing up the Time Capsule directly, though. With the Time Capsule, each Mac's backup is contained in a file called a sparse image, which can become corrupted. If this file does become corrupted on the Time Capsule, and your separate backup consists simply of backing up what's on the Time Capsule, if you're not paying attention you may end up with two copies of a backup that is corrupt.

IIRC, starting with Mac OS 10.8, the Time Machine feature on a Mac officially supports multiple backup devices. So 24/7 (as long as I'm home), my Macbook Air backups wirelessly to my Time Capsule. For my separate backup, I have a cheap portable USB 3 external that I leave at my desk at work. Since this is an external drive (vs. a wirelessly attached Time Capsule), backups don't use a sparse image. Once a month, I bring it home, plug it in, and Time Machine will automatically update it. Then I take it back to work. I set Time Machine to encrypt these backups, so if anyone at work snags the drive, they won't be able to see anything. Makes me feel a little better know if anything big happens at home (i.e. house burns down), a month of data is the max I will have lost.
 
Solution to having copies of Time Machine

Plug an external HHD to your Time Capsule. On your Mac(s), set a new drive for the backup. Time Machine allows to drives. Select the External HDD in Time Capsule. OS X will take turns on backing up to each drive. And there you go, two safe copies.
 
BTW, Time Machine allows several destinations, not limited to two.. but thats also the way I make two TM backups.
 
Bacalhau said:
Solution to having copies of Time Machine

Plug an external HHD to your Time Capsule. On your Mac(s), set a new drive for the backup. Time Machine allows to drives. Select the External HDD in Time Capsule. OS X will take turns on backing up to each drive. And there you go, two safe copies.
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1490249635][/doublepost]Thank you very much, this is what I was looking for :)
 
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