Question: Time Capsule - External Hard Drive?

[sap12690]

So im running out of space on my iMacs hard drive and need more space. I was looking online at the time capsule and have a few questions. If anybody could help me it would be awesome

- Can I use it simply as an external hard drive and not as a back up?

- When connected to my iMac will everything simply run as it did before? For example, i want to continue adding music and movies into my itunes. Will i be able to store that music and movies in the time capsule and still be able to have it in my itunes and stream it to my apple TV?

- The same with my photos, will i be able to store them in iphoto but have them on the time capsule?

Im just worried about throwing everything off when it comes to how well my iMac flows

Thanks in advance

 

[marzer]

So im running out of space on my iMacs hard drive and need more space. I was looking online at the time capsule and have a few questions. If anybody could help me it would be awesome

- Can I use it simply as an external hard drive and not as a back up?

- When connected to my iMac will everything simply run as it did before? For example, i want to continue adding music and movies into my itunes. Will i be able to store that music and movies in the time capsule and still be able to have it in my itunes and stream it to my apple TV?

- The same with my photos, will i be able to store them in iphoto but have them on the time capsule?

Im just worried about throwing everything off when it comes to how well my iMac flows

Thanks in advance

If you are interested in simply having external storage, i'd suggest a standard external hard drive. If you want network attached storage w/o need of backup or routing i'd suggest a standalone NAS.

The only reason to choose a Time Capsule, imo, is if the wifi routing with network backup are your primary desires. Otherwise, there's much cheaper external/network file storage options out there. Like the WD My Book or Live Book series, just as an example.

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Oh and another thing. You can keep your iTunes library on an external device, i do. Just make sure your backup solution can accomodate the additional storage.

 

[Weaselboy]

So im running out of space on my iMacs hard drive and need more space. I was looking online at the time capsule and have a few questions. If anybody could help me it would be awesome

- Can I use it simply as an external hard drive and not as a back up?

- When connected to my iMac will everything simply run as it did before? For example, i want to continue adding music and movies into my itunes. Will i be able to store that music and movies in the time capsule and still be able to have it in my itunes and stream it to my apple TV?

- The same with my photos, will i be able to store them in iphoto but have them on the time capsule?

Im just worried about throwing everything off when it comes to how well my iMac flows

Thanks in advance

A Time Capsule will do all those things. The only catch is for it to stream to the Apple TV iTunes will still need to be running on your iMac. The Apple TV will access the music/photos on the Time Capsule through iTunes on the iMac.

Only thing is this you will be pulling data over the network and it will be much slower than having a cheap external USB driver attached directly to the iMac.

For what you are describing I would just buy a cheap USB external.

 

[sap12690]

A Time Capsule will do all those things. The only catch is for it to stream to the Apple TV iTunes will still need to be running on your iMac. The Apple TV will access the music/photos on the Time Capsule through iTunes on the iMac.

Only thing is this you will be pulling data over the network and it will be much slower than having a cheap external USB driver attached directly to the iMac.

For what you are describing I would just buy a cheap USB external.

So if purchase an external hard drive and just connect it to my iMac I will be able to save music and movies on there while having them still be on my itunes on my iMac and they will still be able to stream to my Apple TV? Someone told me that wasn't possible. Would it be something I have to set up in itunes?

Thanks for your help

 

[Weaselboy]

So if purchase an external hard drive and just connect it to my iMac I will be able to save music and movies on there while having them still be on my itunes on my iMac and they will still be able to stream to my Apple TV? Someone told me that wasn't possible. Would it be something I have to set up in itunes?

Thanks for your help

Sure... just move the iTunes library to the external drive then in this screen in iTunes click Change and point it to the library on the external drive.

Some info here that will guide you through it.

 

[sap12690]

Sure... just move the iTunes library to the external drive then in this screen in iTunes click Change and point it to the library on the external drive.

Some info here that will guide you through it.

oh... i get it. So I either have to have it all on my external or all on my iMac. Is there an option to have music on one and videos on the other?

 

[Weaselboy]

oh... i get it. So I either have to have it all on my external or all on my iMac. Is there an option to have music on one and videos on the other?

Yes, you could make two separate iTunes libraries... one on each drive with whatever you want in it. Then hold the option key as you launch iTunes and you can pick which library you want to use.