Partition a time capsule?

[GSewall350]

I'm in the market for a time capsule and was wondering if it is possible to partition off a certain amount of space to use as just an external hard drive? The partition size wouldn't be very large (320GB) and I would use the remaining space for time machine backups.

Yeah, I know there's been threads on this before but I couldn't fine a definitive yes or no answer.

Thanks in advance.

 

[skorpien]

No. Not easily. To partition the hard drive of the Time Capsule, you need to physically open it up, remove the drive, connect it to a computer and use Disk Utility.

 

[robbieduncan]

But you can limit the amount of space Time Machine uses by creating the dmg that it will use yourself with a size limit: search on Mac OSX Hints for details...

 

[mstrze]

PLUS, you are keeping that 320GB of space from being backed-up. Unless, of course, for some reason...you are going to be backing up your Time Capsule to another drive.

Are you comfortable with losing this 320GB batch of files should your TC die? Your internal files remain on the main computer's HDD, so the solution is just to buy a new TC and start the back-up process again. Since you don't have that 320GB partition stored anywhere, those files would be gone forever.

You can find external 320GB-500GB drives out there now for $50. $60 more and you can get a TB of storage! Just buy one and use that for your extra stuff...and make sure to back that drive up using Time Machine.

You can hook this up to your Time Capsule if it's a USB drive so it would remain wireless if that is important to you.