Should I get Time Capsule?

[applefan289]

I currently have an Airport Extreme, and I save my necessities like iTunes music purchases and some documents on a 2GB USB flash drive. My iTunes music library is getting bigger, and I'm creating more documents that should be backed up. I DO NOT want an external hard drive. I tried one of those, it vibrated too much and the software stunk, so I returned it.

For me, it's between a bigger USB flash drive that can definitely store all the essentials (a 32GB one would hold me for years) or Time Capsule.

Time Capsule is tempting because it does everything automatically using Time Machine, and it's built in to the router (I like having something that's NOT attached to the computer that works with Time Machine)...

A bigger USB drive is also tempting though since I already have the Airport Extreme and I could use the USB drive to store my essentials.

Also, just a question: whenever I add a song to my iTunes library and want to back it up with the USB drive, I always delete the entire iTunes library (the library that's located within the Finder under Music) and drag and drop the whole thing again onto the USB drive. This takes a while, so is there any way to just drag and drop the extra music files to the existing iTunes file on the USB drive?

 

[r0k]

I currently have an Airport Extreme, and I save my necessities like iTunes music purchases and some documents on a 2GB USB flash drive. My iTunes music library is getting bigger, and I'm creating more documents that should be backed up. I DO NOT want an external hard drive. I tried one of those, it vibrated too much and the software stunk, so I returned it.

For me, it's between a bigger USB flash drive that can definitely store all the essentials (a 32GB one would hold me for years) or Time Capsule.

Time Capsule is tempting because it does everything automatically using Time Machine, and it's built in to the router (I like having something that's NOT attached to the computer that works with Time Machine)...

A bigger USB drive is also tempting though since I already have the Airport Extreme and I could use the USB drive to store my essentials.

Also, just a question: whenever I add a song to my iTunes library and want to back it up with the USB drive, I always delete the entire iTunes library (the library that's located within the Finder under Music) and drag and drop the whole thing again onto the USB drive. This takes a while, so is there any way to just drag and drop the extra music files to the existing iTunes file on the USB drive?

Get over your objection to external hard drives. First of all you shouldn't be using any drive that requires any sort of software. Avoid those like the plague. LaCie makes reliable ones as does Western Digital though I like LaCie better. Step one, format the drive Mac OS Journaled using disk utility before you save anything to it.

Time Capsule is a risky place for the only copy of your data. You should have multiple backup strategies running concurrently. I use a firewire 1TB LaCie drive, a 500 GB Time Capsule with an external 2TB Western Digital drive attached to it. This way if the TC dies again, I get to keep my stuff because it's on a USB drive plugged into the TC.

I use an AEBS (Airport Extreme Base Station) for my router. I never quite got comfortable with having my backup sitting on my router. So now my TC wifi is switched off and the wifi in our house comes from the AEBS and is extended by an AE (Airport Express). I don't have any external drives plugged into either of those.

I never let iTunes or iPhoto manage my files. I manage my files and let iTunes and iPhoto keep the metadata and I switch OFF the option to copy files to library. This means I can't go moving things around but it also means that if the iPhoto Library or iTunes Library gets corrupted, I don't lose nothin' but some metadata that only takes a few minutes to create again. I should mention I have 30+ gig of music and 100+ gig of photos. Can you imagine what it would be like if I had to deal with libraries that big? My iTunes library is only about 8 gig and my iPhoto Library is only about 5 gig. They are big enough without having to copy all the files into them. As for manually backing up your iTunes Library by deleting the old one and copying the new one in its place, you do realize OS X does that for you, right? If you simply copy the new one to the drive containing the old one and answer yes to replace you get the job done in one step (though it still takes a long time).

 

[dmm219]

Just FYI...i used the 1st gen TC for 3 years and it worked great. However, I ended up having to buy a new Airport Extreme to get the dual banding.

Since, I have sold my original TC and I've been using the AEBS with an external drive. It works EXACTLY the same and as well as the TC.

So, save yourself $100 or so and get an AEBS and a decent external drive.

 

[Matthew9559]

Time Machine is great. I would switch ASAP. I have time machine for constant backup of my laptop and then also save media and other files to a separate external hdd for a little data redundancy.

 

[Bear]

I currently have an Airport Extreme...

Which model base station? There is more than one model of the AEBS. If yours is new enough, it could support a USB disk attached to it and work just like a Time Capsule. If possible, this option would save you money and time.

The initial Time Machine backup would take a while, but after that, the backups would be much quicker. And you would have the benefit of having your whole system backed up instead of just bits and pieces. Buy the largest reasonably priced USB disk you could afford, (something in the 1 to 2 TB range).

 

[applefan289]

Which model base station? There is more than one model of the AEBS. If yours is new enough, it could support a USB disk attached to it and work just like a Time Capsule. If possible, this option would save you money and time.

The initial Time Machine backup would take a while, but after that, the backups would be much quicker. And you would have the benefit of having your whole system backed up instead of just bits and pieces. Buy the largest reasonably priced USB disk you could afford, (something in the 1 to 2 TB range).

My Airport Extreme was bought in mid-2010, so I assume it is the newest model.

My iMac is 1TB, but I don't think I'll reach that. I think 1TB backup is the way to go since I will never use that much...

 

[Bear]

My Airport Extreme was bought in mid-2010, so I assume it is the newest model.

My iMac is 1TB, but I don't think I'll reach that. I think 1TB backup is the way to go since I will never use that much...

Then you should be fine for attaching a disk. And I only suggest larger than 1TB if thee price difference is only a few dollars (as it sometimes is). Also more space leaves room for additional older versions and such.