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Is Time Capsule for me?

greg0rn

greg0rn

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 16, 2009
32
0
My home setup is rather simple: 21.5" desktop, printer, soon new gen. Ipad. Internet provided through cable.


I'm thinking about Time Capsule for backing up the computer, and also to create home networking for above peripherals. Is TC the right choice? Hoping to hear from users with similar arrangements. Thanks in advance.
 
Get an Airport Extreme and an external USB 2.0 drive.

The Time Capsules have an issue with the drives dying out very early in their life. There are a number of theories behind this, 1) Heat 2) Power Supply not giving the drive enough power, therefore causing drive integrity issues.

I have seen more than my share of failed drives and most Apple Genius' will also suggest what I'm suggesting to you. Plus upgrading in the future would be as hard, simply swap the external for a larger drive.
 
"Is TC the right choice?"

Probably not. See the posting immediately above this one.

They have a VERY high failure rate, primarily due to the "stylish" design of the enclosure which inconveniently left almost no vents for cooling the internal components.

For easy and cheap backup, I suggest:
- A USB/SATA "docking station" (cost is only $20-30)
- One or more "bare" hard drives of your choice
- CarbonCopyCloner (free backup and cloning utility)
(if you need more speed than USB2, consider the "Voyager Quad" dock from Other World Computing)
 
rw3 said:
Get an Airport Extreme and an external USB 2.0 drive.

The Time Capsules have an issue with the drives dying out very early in their life. There are a number of theories behind this, 1) Heat 2) Power Supply not giving the drive enough power, therefore causing drive integrity issues.

I have seen more than my share of failed drives and most Apple Genius' will also suggest what I'm suggesting to you. Plus upgrading in the future would be as hard, simply swap the external for a larger drive.
Click to expand...

It was not drive failures. The early Time Capsules had a cheesy capacitor that failed early (probably due to heat and poor quality). Many users tore into their TC and replaced the capacitor and got it working again. There has since been a hardware revision to the Time Capsule and high failure rates have not been reported with the new version.

OP>> I have a recent model TC and it works perfectly and would be a good solution for you.
 
Weaselboy said:
It was not drive failures. The early Time Capsules had a cheesy capacitor that failed early (probably due to heat and poor quality). Many users tore into their TC and replaced the capacitor and got it working again. There has since been a hardware revision to the Time Capsule and high failure rates have not been reported with the new version.

OP>> I have a recent model TC and it works perfectly and would be a good solution for you.
Click to expand...

OP thanks for this post, I too have the same question.

Weaseboy, to better judge the OP's question, how long have you had your most current TC? And does anyone have a good guess as to the time frame in which the older TCs failed?
 
There's lots of posts here and a few websites devoted specifically to the older TCs dying usually right around 18 months.

I picked up one a few months ago via the refurbished store, and it is covered under my Mac's AppleCare, so I'm covered for the next 3 years. This is enough peace of mind for me to avoid having a Airport + USB disk.
 
sinsin07 said:
OP thanks for this post, I too have the same question.

Weaseboy, to better judge the OP's question, how long have you had your most current TC? And does anyone have a good guess as to the time frame in which the older TCs failed?
Click to expand...

I bought my current TC model MC343LL/A in October 2009.

According to this website the average lifetime of the defective batch 19 months and 20 days. Reportedly it was limited to a range of serial numbers and Apple replaced yours free is within the affected batch.
 
I have a first gen Time Capsule and have had no problems with it running 24/7 for the past 3 years or so.

I recently replaced the hard drive in it for a larger one, just for space. I'm using the old 500gb in a windows machine, no problems.
 
If you can afford it, then get a Time Capsule. It's perhaps the best product I've got from Apple. The design is great, the connection is extremely stable compared to other routers, it simply just works and it do it very well in my opinion (my TM is a late 2009 model).

I don't have any experience with Airport Express but I do have experience from a variety of other wireless routers and they have all been a hassle to deal with in all possible perspective; dropping connections, cable clutter, ugly design etc.
 
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