I just ordered a Time Capsule - will I regret it?

[dubhe]

I just ordered a Time Capsule 500 GB, I figure I have a year to fill it, then my warranty will have expired so I can replace the drive myself with a bigger one, and who knows what will be available by then.

I also today returned my Lacie BigDisc to dabs.com, what a pain that was, they only have online chat for customer service. I bought a recon unit, didn't realise it came with no cables, drivers or anything. But, as this was apparently described on the website (by a symbol) I was not entitled to return it free of charge, they charged £7.95 + VAT for the pleasure.

Think I have done the right thing, a little more expensive but Time Capsule should work with my Apple computers at home right, or have I made another mistake???

All I want to do is have around 200 GB for backups and the rest for my movie library so I can share them with my wife. Also I want to stream the movies to my laptop so I don't have to plug in cables.

 

[iParis]

Don't worry, you didn't make a mistake.
And there is no reason why it shouldn't work with your Apple computer at home unless it's from like the Apple II series or something like that.
I really want one, let me know how you like it.

 

[Batt]

Got one (500GB), works great, no regrets.

 

[gnasher729]

All I want to do is have around 200 GB for backups and the rest for my movie library so I can share them with my wife. Also I want to stream the movies to my laptop so I don't have to plug in cables.

I think a few weeks ago we had a poster who found out the hard way that photos that are only stored on the backup drive and nowhere else are not backed up. His external drive (used for backups and to store photos) crashed, and the photos were gone. On the other hand, if I remember correctly, this happened when his external drive fell off a table

Just put your Time Capsule in a safe place, where it won't get damaged, and _important_ where burglars won't find it even if they steal your computer.

 

[drummerlondonw3]

Don't worry, you didn't make a mistake.
And there is no reason why it shouldn't work with your Apple computer at home unless it's from like the Apple II series or something like that.
I really want one, let me know how you like it.

For the OP you made a great choice.

For iParis take the plunge iits defo worth it!

I had some problems setting mine up, but tech support helped me through it really well. For reference my cable modem wasn't refreshing its IP externally so the TC could not connect to the internet. I am not an expert but that's the basics.

Its a truly great product. Yes it might not be the cheapest but I think combined with a 'mac life' its great. These sort of convergence products simply dont exist in the PC world.

You won't regret it. Also if you buy it with your computer and purchase applecare it also applies to the TC (and any displays) so mine is good for 3 yrs guaranteed!!! - pls dont get into a flame on applecare here please I am aware of its +ive and -ives

d

 

[IJ Reilly]

Don't sweat this purchase -- it's one of the best I ever made, especially since I was already in need of a new router. You'll probably find that you need to restart it every so often, but that's an issue with most routers. Also, you can connect a USB drive to a Time Capsule and use that to back up your backups.

 

[chrono1081]

I cannot comment on the time capsule because I do not have one ... yet... but I will say Time Machine saved my ass today. I had a project I was working on for three months (a webpage tutorial on videogame programming)...well...I misplaced it who knows when and it was nowhere to be found.


Luckly for me I've been using time machine and found the last known instance of it back in June. I restored the file straight to my desktop and continued working on it. The reason I mention my story is because there are gaps in my backups. I dont have a time machine therefore have to plug in via my esata cable and express card when I want to do backups. Todays events had me considering a time machine as well.

 

[hogfaninga]

I love my TC. It works as advertised for me. I'm glad to see others are having success with it as well.

 

[nathans89]

I bought the 1TB version, only peeve I have with it is that it takes a few seconds to spin up, i.e if im watching a movie from it, pause it an go away for like 15mins then it will stutter stop then carry on...
thats very minor tho

much simpler than having a media server...

transfer rates range from 700kBps to 7.2MBps which it decides upon apparently... used 2/3rds of it already (had it about 2 months)

you have not made a mistake... although you should've bought it off ebay and saved yourself a packet...

 

[JeffTL]

I use mine as a router, wireless access point, file server (for Time Machine and otherwise), and print server, and haven't had any issues yet.

 

[yukio]

All I want to do is have around 200 GB for backups and the rest for my movie library so I can share them with my wife. Also I want to stream the movies to my laptop so I don't have to plug in cables.

One nice thing - if you have 802.11n-based Macs - make sure you consider running your Time Capsule at the 5ghz band.

Faster and much less interference from other networks.

 

[drummerlondonw3]

One nice thing - if you have 802.11n-based Macs - make sure you consider running your Time Capsule at the 5ghz band.

Faster and much less interference from other networks.

i would absolutely second that, I get over double speeds on 5ghz vs others

d

 

[Le Big Mac]

I think a few weeks ago we had a poster who found out the hard way that photos that are only stored on the backup drive and nowhere else are not backed up. His external drive (used for backups and to store photos) crashed, and the photos were gone. On the other hand, if I remember correctly, this happened when his external drive fell off a table

Just put your Time Capsule in a safe place, where it won't get damaged, and _important_ where burglars won't find it even if they steal your computer.

That's not a time capsule problem, that's a time machine problem, which is the TM disk can't itself be backed up (unless partitioned) by TM. Unless OP decides to use TC as an external NAS drive, and as the sole place for storing media, this problem will not arise.

 

[dubhe]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8310/4.5.0.55 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/179)

Well thanks all for your commenrts. Just had an email confirming dispatch, roll on Monday!

 

[alphaod]

Well I know everyone has had positive experiences with the TC, I just want to point out 2 of mine:
1) Works like advertised and good for a lot of network storage and stuff.
However I returned it because:
2) The back ups are so so so slow! Told me it needed 6 DAYS to back up 300GB over gigabit.

Just wanted to give you the heads up on that, unless someone tells me that issue has been resolved.

 

[ayeying]

I have the regular Airport extreme router connected with 3 external hard drives. I stream all my TV shows and Movies via wireless and it works great.

I use Time Machine over wireless and the first backup of 100 gb took about 5 hours (wireless-n) and about 1 hour on my dad's iMac backing up 30 gb via ethernet.

 

[neiltc13]

It's not as rosy as all of these comments would lead you to believe. I've had several problems with mine, all of which relate to the computer being "unable to complete backup" or saying "backup delayed". I have no idea why it does it but on two occasions since buying mine I've had to completely format the thing because it wasn't working properly.

The router inside works great though.

 

[marclapierre13]

I bought the 1TB version, only peeve I have with it is that it takes a few seconds to spin up, i.e if im watching a movie from it, pause it an go away for like 15mins then it will stutter stop then carry on...
thats very minor tho

much simpler than having a media server...

transfer rates range from 700kBps to 7.2MBps which it decides upon apparently... used 2/3rds of it already (had it about 2 months)

you have not made a mistake... although you should've bought it off ebay and saved yourself a packet...

I agree..we have the 1TB Timecapsul at our house, and the only problem with it is the spinup...Sometimes if I am playing a game off of the T.C., or watching a movie, it will stutter, for about 10 seconds or so. Its very irritating. This is the only problem with the T.C. though, we havent experienced any other