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Time Capsule Arrives, Early Notes

syklee26 said:
me still thinks this is waste of money....what is so difficult about plugging your External Drive onto your USB or Firewire? 500gb external USB drives cost around $120 and if 1TB ATA drive prices fall, you can just buy the drive and replace it in the external closure.
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Well, if you have a couple of laptops you can use the same drive for backing up both machines. Why would you want to have a laptop tethered to an external drive and left on 24/7 in case the other laptop wants to backup.

There are reasons for network backups. Just because you don't have a need doesn't mean nobody else does.

I guess if you have no airport extreme then $299 for 500GB is reasonable but noway in earth $499 for 1TB is reasonable.
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Well no kidding, but it's not just a drive, it's a networked drive. Do some price comparisons for network drives and see for yourself how much they cost.
 
~Shard~ said:
And yes, I realize there is the ability to back-up wirelessly, but I'd argue who really needs to do that? If you have a desktop machine, just have an external drive there. If you're mobile, hook one up when you want/need to back-up. Simple.
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I think you are underestimating the potential market for wireless back ups. First of all there are increasing numbers of people with more than one computer in their house, and then there are some people out there with families, too, so it avoids having to lug a back-up disk round to each family member every time. Secondly, if you have your back-up disk sitting next to your computer all the time it's not exactly very secure - if someone nicks your Mac they will also nick your back up drive since it's just sitting there.
 
The whole idea of having an external hard drive connected to your laptop for hourly backups is insane! I can understand the concept may work with desktops, but who in the world hooks up an external drive to the laptop regularly? I tried to use Time Machine the other day with a USB drive, and it demanded to reformat my USB drive. I am not even sure it's possible to let Time Machine only use one partition for backups on a USB drive and use the rest of the drive for file storage, but even if this is possible, no one in their right mind are going to use Time Machine backups on an external drive regularly. Without regular backups, the chances of recovering all information after a failure are slim.

On the other hand, Time Capsule is a good idea but the implementation is completely botched up. Time Capsule should have RAID and have an option to be used both as a NAS and as a backup destination for Time Machine. In fact, Time Machine should be able to do backups on any network share, and not only on Time Capsule.

There is nothing in the Time Capsule manual that suggests that using Time Capsule as a NAS is even an option. Without RAID on Time Capsule, using it as centralized storage can lead to a bigger disaster than having files scattered among varous computers at home. The "server grade" HD in Time Capsule is a bunch of crap. When it fails, who cares if it was "server grade" or not?

How much more difficult would it be to put two 2.5" SATA drives in RAID-1 and allow two volumes -- one for Time Machine backups and the other one for centralized storage?

At this point, the whole concept of Time Machine is flawed. Hopefully, Apple will reconsider the implementation.

On my network, I will continue using a NAS with RAID and will have to use another piece of software for regular backups -- Time Machine is not gonna cut it for me.
 
Right on.

syklee26 said:
i am surprised why nobody has even bothered to file class action suit against Apple for "misrepresentation" of Time Machine over air capabilities through Airport Extreme Base Station.

The timing was very problematic for Apple because current AEBS was released at least 2 months before Leopard came out.
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I love Apple and am generally an apologist for almost every action they take that folks complain about. However, they screwed Airport Extreme Base Station customers on this one (including me), because they were explicit in their advertising that this would work. If Time Machine works to Time Capsule, it should work to a USB-attached AEBS drive.
 
hayesk said:
You don't. If you put a USB drive on any Mac running Leopard, you can backup to it. However, I agree that the restrictions are weak. Time Machine should have been designed to back up to any AFP shared volume.
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I think TM needs direct access to the hardware in order to create those Hard Links in the file system that makes it look like you have a billion copies of the same file and not waste sectors on redundant data. Most other vendors would have just created a database system and then you could have it sit on any read/write-able drive but that doesn't sell Time Capsules.

That being said I own an AEBS and I hope they do manage to find a way to TM to the USB port on it.
 
Any news whether or not it's possible to swap disks inside the timecap?
 
Although bundling the NAS and router seems like a good idea, what's your recourse if the HD fails? Would a crippled HD cripple the router and is it possible to replace the HD?
 
bmk said:
I think you are underestimating the potential market for wireless back ups. First of all there are increasing numbers of people with more than one computer in their house, and then there are some people out there with families, too, so it avoids having to lug a back-up disk round to each family member every time. Secondly, if you have your back-up disk sitting next to your computer all the time it's not exactly very secure - if someone nicks your Mac they will also nick your back up drive since it's just sitting there.
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This is true, good point. Porting a wired external HDD around to back-up multiple computers would be a bit of a hassle.

With respect to your second point, one could argue that for a completely secure back-up solution, the external drive should be stored off-site. ;)
 
hayesk said:
Well, if you have a couple of laptops you can use the same drive for backing up both machines. Why would you want to have a laptop tethered to an external drive and left on 24/7 in case the other laptop wants to backup.

There are reasons for network backups. Just because you don't have a need doesn't mean nobody else does.



Well no kidding, but it's not just a drive, it's a networked drive. Do some price comparisons for network drives and see for yourself how much they cost.
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point is that most people don't have 2 laptops at home. plus, if you are suggesting some businesses might have more than 2 laptops to backup into TC, then 500gb is too small anyway.
 
~Shard~ said:
And yes, I realize there is the ability to back-up wirelessly, but I'd argue who really needs to do that?
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bmk said:
Secondly, if you have your back-up disk sitting next to your computer all the time it's not exactly very secure - if someone nicks your Mac they will also nick your back up drive since it's just sitting there.
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Precisely. I had two Macs in my house and was backing up the main one with Time Machine figuring that I should be pretty safe since I had 3 hard drives with my pics/music. I was burgled and both Macs and the Time Machine drive were nicked.

Luckily, I had an old backup (about 6 weeks old) still around so I didn't lose everything.

I'm seriously considering a Time Capsule simply because the thieves didn't spot my Airport system so I figure having a wireless back up that's always current but less easily spotted might be a smart plan.
 
sirozha said:
How much more difficult would it be to put two 2.5" SATA drives in RAID-1 and allow two volumes -- one for Time Machine backups and the other one for centralized storage?
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So a maximum of 320 GB of storage for more money than the 1TB Time Capsule.
 
Applespider said:
Precisely. I had two Macs in my house and was backing up the main one with Time Machine figuring that I should be pretty safe since I had 3 hard drives with my pics/music. I was burgled and both Macs and the Time Machine drive were nicked.

Luckily, I had an old backup (about 6 weeks old) still around so I didn't lose everything.

I'm seriously considering a Time Capsule simply because the thieves didn't spot my Airport system so I figure having a wireless back up that's always current but less easily spotted might be a smart plan.
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That's unfortunate. Did you have an alarm system?

Also, you could consider securing your Macs, either all the time in the case of a desktop or at least when you are not home in the case of a laptop. I have my iMac tethered with the security cable to my desk, as it's not going anywhere. ;) I do not have a laptop but if I did I would consider always securing it to something before leaving - no different than locking my doors when I leave the house or ensuring the safe with our valuables in it is locked.

You are correct though, thieves would probably be less likely to steal your TC than the machine itself.
 
How does PC access work?

Works with Mac and PC.
Time Capsule with Time Machine in Leopard is the ideal backup solution. But that doesn’t mean Tiger, Windows XP, and Windows Vista users can’t enjoy the benefits of Time Capsule, too. Because it mounts as a wireless hard drive, Tiger and Windows users simply access Time Capsule directly from the wireless network for exchanging and storing files quickly and easily.
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Does this require a specific format, i.e. HFS+ or FAT32, or is it considered a NAS? I couldn't find this spelled out anywhere.

I'm assuming that's what they mean by "wireless hard drive"...???
 
Tampa Tom said:
It is backup system that eats gigabytes of drive space like a black hole. I Turned mine off after 3 weeks and went back to using SuperDuper.
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So here is the scenario....

Day 1: You spend all day writing that movie script, the one that will make you a millionaire

Day 1 (later): You make a backup of your system. now you are happy because you have two copies of the script

Day 2: You go back and make some final corrections to your script but for some reason the "Save" function writes a corrupt file back to the disk. Or maybe you tapped the "DEL" key and did not notice you have 175 pages highlighted.

Day 2(later): You back up your system and overwrite the only good copy of the script (the copy you backed on on day one.) But you are happy because you've not yet discovered that you now have two copies of the corrupted file.

"Super Duper" is not a smart way to do routine backups. It has uses but routine backup is not one of them
 
Diode said:
People are mentioning you can use it as a NAS and as a time machine drive.

I want to know if you can limit the amount of space time machine uses. IE If I were to get the 1TB drive only allow 600GB for time machine backups ....
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Cant you just partition the TC 600G/400G and assign the 600G partition as the backup drive for time machine ???

I hope so, cause thats what I am planning to do when mine arrives early next week !!!
 
so does this mean you still can't hook up a hard drive to the airport extreme router and use it wirelessly.
 
Read the thread and didn't see where this was answered (but admittedly, don't know some of the abbreviations so it could have been):

Can Time Capsule be used for things other than Time Machine backups? For example, could I put files on it and then access it from my laptop?

Also--my roommate wants to start backing up via my Time Capsule (when it arrives), but is moving out in August. Will he be able to extract his backups from Time Capsule onto an external hard drive (or even his internal hard drive) when he leaves?
 
syklee26 said:
point is that most people don't have 2 laptops at home. plus, if you are suggesting some businesses might have more than 2 laptops to backup into TC, then 500gb is too small anyway.
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Really? Because a lot of people (including myself) have at least 2 laptops at home. Anyways, even if you don't have multiple laptops, it is still useful for desktops as well if you don't want to have to buy multiple external hard drives.
 
JW008 said:
Read the thread and didn't see where this was answered

Can Time Capsule be used for things other than Time Machine backups? For example, could I put files on it and then access it from my laptop?
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Read closer next time. :p Read posts #41 & #43 and you'll see the answer to the exact same question is yes. ;)
 
ManchesterTrix said:
So a maximum of 320 GB of storage for more money than the 1TB Time Capsule.
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But, RAID-1 might mean that the data is still around after one of the drives fail. ;)

I should take a picture of our pile of failed "server class" drives - SATA, SCSI, Fibre Channel,.... Top of the line enterprise drives, failing by the box loads.

The biggest hoax from MacWorld was the phrase "server class" drive, as if that were some kind of magical immortal drive.

Look up "server class" - it's virtually a meaningless phrase.

Update: A teardown shows that Apple is using consumer grade disks in the Time Capsule - not server grade - https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/5075744/
 
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