TC or AE+HD

[macsig]

Hello guys,
I would like to know which advantages a Time Capsule can provide compared to AirPort Extreme + External Hard Disk (since the later can be quite cheapper).

Thanks and have a good 1!

 

[macsig]

Any idea about what is better and why?


Thanks

 

[pinktank]

well with airport extreme your harddrive is tethered wirelessly

 

[powz]

Well, I can help you with half an answer. DO NOT go the Airport Extreme + HD route -- it's a huge pain. First of all, this solution is not officially supported. Secondly, it is widely reported to be unreliable (include me as one of the reporters). One common problem you will likely see is unexplained disconnections to your HD every few weeks (this is for regular AirDisk features, too, not just Time Machine), in which case you'll have to reset your Airport Extreme (doesn't seem like much, but it can get REALLY annoying very quickly). Your TM disk may or may not mount automatically (sometimes mine mounts automatically, sometimes I have to mount the disk manually). Worse of all, TM backups themselves may crap out. My Time Machine was backing up fine for several months until one day it just stopped mounting. I was unable to access my backups or do further backups. Fixing permissions got it working again for a couple of weeks, after which no amount of permission-fixing could help. Just search the forums and you'll see these kinds of unreliability reports are not unique to me. Just check another recent thread and many others.

I haven't had much experience with Time Capsule so I can't comment on it's reliability, but stay away from the Airport Extreme + HD route for now (my comments are as of Leopard 10.5.4 and Airport Extreme firmware 7.3.2).

 

[macsig]

thanks
I will go with TC

 

[CWallace]

I'd go with Time Machine since it is formally supported by Apple so issues are much more likely to be addressed - and addressed quickly.