A simple solution?
A salesperson at an Apple store asked why I intended to use an external hard drive as backup to Time Capsule. He said Time Capsule was reliable, I wouldn't have any problem. But when I mentioned instances when this might not be the case, allowed that they perhaps not foolproof. And, of course, if for backup, isn't that the idea?
Assuming I didn't know anything about this, which might not be too far from the case, how would one explain the solution?
My limited understanding of a RAID system is that multiple hard drives each record the same data. Which is what I wish, in part, but also to have this done automatically. Thus Time Capsule, although perhaps it cannot be configured to automatically backup anything but itself. If the Time Capsule should die, I want the exact same information on a separate external hard drive, that was automatically backed up as well.
As previously mentioned, if this perhaps not asking too much, I'd like the files unique to this MacBook stored in a separate partition within Time Capsule, and also, of course, on the aforementioned external backup hard drive. Should this MacBook die, it would be nice if I could retrieve what might be 145 GB that was on it . . . without searching through what might be 730 GB of largely unrelated data on Time Capsule.