Purchasing 500GB Time Capsule from friend...

[Habitus]

Hey all,

I'm getting a 500GB Time Capsule from a friend at work (he is purchasing the new 2TB TC) for $50.

What is the consensus? Does anyone have helpful tips and tricks?

I have a 1TB external drive, is it possible to add the drive to the TC via the USB and extend the capacity, or does it appear as a different drive? Can you configure Time Machine with the external drive and use it wirelessly?

I have a 13" 2.26 GHz MBP

Thanks for the help

-Habitus

 

[geoffreak]

Great deal for you.

Whether you can attach a USB drive depends on the model of TC. Some of the older models might not support USB drives.

If it does support USB drives, any USB drive formatted in HFS+ will work. It will appear as a separate drive to the TC's internal drive.

 

[skorpien]

geoffreak, I think you're thinking of the AEBS. The first gen TC (which I own) has the ability to share HDDs and printers.

Habitus, geoffreak is correct with his second point. It will have to be formatted HFS+ and it will appear as a separate drive. To add, it can't increase the capacity of the internal drive, and it will be able to be used as a Time Machine backup volume (target disk). Also, it's fairly easy to upgrade the internal drive to a larger capacity drive, but that requires you to open it up and manually swap the drives. I'd usually include a warning about voiding warranties, but seeing as you're buying it second hand chances are good that the warranty is no longer in effect.

 

[Habitus]

Thanks for the update! I'm glad I can use my hard drive and add it to the TC. This is definitely exciting.

I can add a Hub and connect both a external drive and a printer, right?

As for upgrading the TC internal drive, are the drives similar to notebook 2.5" internal drives?

Thanks guys!

Habitus

 

[geoffreak]

Yes, you can add a USB hub.

The TC uses a 3.5" internal drive.