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Time Capsule - can you partition the drive?

patogarza said:
hey Georgio, I have a question, I don´t understand the sparse image thing.

With what I did, I thought I limited the space Time Capsule was going to use up, so I had the other part of the drive available for whatever. Is this not the case??
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For your situation it may be the case - if you are using the TC to backup just one Mac. I am using it for 3 Macs, partitioning just one of the 3 sparse images will probably have some impact on the backup of the other 2 Macs.

And that may be the reason that the Disk Utility partition task didn't terminate for me - fortunately, there were no bad consequences when I interrupted it after waiting about 15 minutes. How long did that task take for you?

Georgio
 
you're right, i'm only backing up one mac.

I partitioned before my first backup, I don't remember how long the task took, I do remember I got the thinking icon instead of the pointer (the spinning color wheel), but not for such a time as to make me nervous, it probably took less than 5 minutes.
 
how to hold the door open when partitioning?

i have followed Partogarza's instructions, but can't get the drive to stick around after TM completes a backup. I tried starting the repartitioning once before TM was done with a backup, the partioning didn't complete the drive closed and i had a messed up drive... i ended up having to erase the drive and restart. i have copied a folder up to the TC drive, but it ends up in the TM partition so even if i have it open in Finder it closes and disappears as soon as the TM backup is competed. any suggestions?
 
partitioning progress?

made some progress (well sort of). following directions above, i turned time machine backups off. entered time machine fromthe dock. this spun up and i could modify the TC drives. i used disk utilities to partition the drive as outlined above. it worked sort of. i now have a TMbackup partition and a TMdisk partition. both visible in finder under Devices, the TC network name is visible under shared. turned TM backups back on. forced a backup, seem to work, but when it completed both the TMbackup partition and the new TMdisk partition closed down as soon as the back up was completed. Firing up Time Machine causes the TMbackup partition and the TMdisk to reappear under devices. 1: how can i keep the TMdisk visibile, 2: how can i make sure the new partition is shared to other Macs and PCs on my network, so far it isn't visible beyond the machine it was create from. thx
 
So after reading all these posts... the answer to: Can you partition a Time Capsule drive is still, 'NO'? Right?

Anyone successfully open the case and set a few partitions and reinserted it with no issues? I'm done playing all these games and am just ready to do this. Please let me know.
 
xraydoc said:
There's no need to return it - if you really need a partition on it, use Disk Utility to create a disk image of, say, 300GB on the Time Capsule's drive. Then mount that disk image on your desktop. You'll have full read/write access to the 300GB within that disk image and Time Machine will respect that space; it'll simply use the rest for backup.
This will work quite well and obviates the need for partitioning the Time Capsule.
The one caveat is that the separate disk image wont be available to Windows machines (can't mount Apple .DMG disk images).
Click to expand...

Will this disk image allow other mac's to access the disk image? What about AppleTV.. if the movie or music is within that disk image?
 
How to partition Time Capsule

I worked this last weekend partition my Time Capsule hard drive. It's kind of a pain in the butt, but it works. To partition the drive, you have to physically remove it. To do this, turn the time capsule over, peel off the the rubber bottom (held on by glue) and remove the screws that hold the bottom housing on. You don't need to remove any screws that have gray rubber around them, these screws hold the hard drive in place. When taking the bottom housing off, be careful not to damage the cable connected to the fan. Once the bottom housing has been removed, simply pull out the hard drive and disconnect the power supply and the the SATA cable.

To then access your hard drive, you need to be able to connect it to your computer. You can buy an SATA to USB cable for about $30. I own another external hard drive, so I removed the hard drive from that and put in the TC hard drive.

After accessing the TC hard drive, you will see 3 partitions. Don't mess with the 2 small partitions. You can add partitions to the main (large) partition in Disk Utilities.

Like I said before, this is kind of a pain, but now that it's done, I'm very happy. I now have a Time Capsule with 6 separate partitions that I can access via Finder.

One more thing, when you mount the hard drive (not in the time capsule) you will notice a folder in the partition call "ShareDocs" (something like that). Add a folder with the same name to every partition you have. Other wise you won't be able to see files you add to the partition before putting it back in the time capsule.

Hope this helps.
Here is an article similar to this: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/06/answers_to_time_capsule_reader_questions.html
 
Why would one want un-backed-up partitions on a backup drive?

If your TC dies, you still have your original files on your Mac...except for that extra partition...those files are gone forever.

I'm just trying to wrap my head around the necessity. Thanks...
 
mstrze said:
Why would one want un-backed-up partitions on a backup drive?

If your TC dies, you still have your original files on your Mac...except for that extra partition...those files are gone forever.

I'm just trying to wrap my head around the necessity. Thanks...
Click to expand...

For me, there are somethings that I just don't absolutely have to have if there is a catastrophic failure. For example, my music. I still have all the CD's that I ripped them from. Inconvenient to rip it all, but I do not "lose" anything. Same with movies, I have all my DVD's. Again, this is just me.
 
convert2mac said:
I actually have not bought the Time Capsule. I was asking these questions to determine before I buy it if it will be able to do these things. And it seems the short answer is no for partitioning.
Can someone tell me the short answer to the problem with Time Machine before Time Capsule? Everyone I talk to seems to have a slightly different opinion.
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What I did was purchased an Airport Extreme instead of a Time Capsule. After purchasing the airport extreme, which I got for $180, I connected a 2TB Lacie external hard drive, which I got from Mac Mall for $100. I connected the Lacie to my computer and partitioned before I connected it to my AirPort Extreme.
 
Darreners said:
What I did was purchased an Airport Extreme instead of a Time Capsule. After purchasing the airport extreme, which I got for $180, I connected a 2TB Lacie external hard drive, which I got from Mac Mall for $100. I connected the Lacie to my computer and partitioned before I connected it to my AirPort Extreme.
Click to expand...

And I guess to come full circle, that is very close to what I did. I just bought 2 different 1TB drives. One for backups, the other for my misc files. (since I can't backup the "misc" external drive. Has worked out great so far.
 
JNB said:
No, you never need to backup your drive. Until you suffer a catastrophic failure and realize that years of personally valuable work is lost forever and you should have all along. It doesn't even have to be total; all it takes is one critical file and life gets real miserable real quick.
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Being a recent convert from Microsoft, I seem to continue to have mixed feelings about the frequency with which Time Machine backs up data.

Do we really think that it's important to keep constantly backing up at that rate of frequency?
 
mstrze said:
Why would one want un-backed-up partitions on a backup drive?
Click to expand...
I wondered about that myself at first, too.

I'm going to be doing something like that because it's a big house, we need backups (an iMac and two MacBook), and would like to have some files and pictures generally available on the network for everybody to have.

I've just ordered a Time Capsule that we will start using for backups, and I will connect a USB drive to the Time Capsule to use for the file sharing, and we'll see how that works. A lot of USB connections do not seem to provide the power that is necessary for an external hard drive, however, which makes me wonder why so many routers have USB ports. I guess people are just sticking a flash drive in there.

I'm hoping from comments I've read around MacRumours that the USB port on the Time Capsule has enough power for a full sized USB drive. I'm going to try to use the drive that was removed from my MacBook Pro when I put in an SSD. It's just the stock drive put into a housing with a USB connection. It works fine on the MacBooks with Time Machine, and works fine on the iMac with Time Machine, but it has resisted all efforts so far to be discovered on any router to which it was connected...evidently because the USB port on the routes just don't generally supply that kind of power.
 
George Knighton said:
Being a recent convert from Microsoft, I seem to continue to have mixed feelings about the frequency with which Time Machine backs up data.

Do we really think that it's important to keep constantly backing up at that rate of frequency?
Click to expand...

Well..

1) It happens in the background, so it's not even noticed 99% of the time.

2) It's hourly.

3) The amount of data backed up is only the amount of data changed on your hard drive since the last backup...many hours during the day, this will be 0KB (like at night)....it may be several GB if you are downloading video or converting DVDs....generally it's small and takes less than a minute.

4) Your answer to your question will be a resounding yes, the first time your hard drive crashes and you lose an important file you saved earlier in the day.:eek:
 
George Knighton said:
A lot of USB connections do not seem to provide the power that is necessary for an external hard drive, however, which makes me wonder why so many routers have USB ports. I guess people are just sticking a flash drive in there.
Click to expand...

I have a powered HDD plugged in to my AEBS USB port via a USB router (since I also have a printer connected.) I would not depend on USB power to drive your drive....just buy a powered external (or enclosure in your case) and plug it in.
 
Last edited:
For whatever it is worth to anybody, the Time Capsule *does* have enough power to operate the USB drive that I was unable to use on other routers.

I bought a current generation 1 TB Time Capsule from the refurb store.

The USB drive is a 500 GB drive pulled out of a Macbook Pro when I got an SSD, and just put into a metal USB enclosure.
 
Change TimeMachines Schedule

George Knighton said:
Being a recent convert from Microsoft, I seem to continue to have mixed feelings about the frequency with which Time Machine backs up data.

Do we really think that it's important to keep constantly backing up at that rate of frequency?
Click to expand...
That depends on you and what you do with your Mac.
You can alter the frequency of your TimeMachines backup schedules.

My favorite is TimeMachineEditor:http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/

You my also like TimeMachineScheduler:http://www.klieme.com/TimeMachineScheduler.html
 
TimeCapsule as save location -- how to get style dialog to include TimeCapsule?

xraydoc said:
Its really very simple.

• Open Disk Utility (in your Utilities folder)
• Go to File -> New blank disk image
• A "Save..." style dialog will pop up. Choose your Time Capsule as the save location and give the disk image a name ("Data on Time Capsule" or whatever you want)
• Choose a volume size (there are several presets but in your case you'd choose Custom and pick your size. Leave Volume Format to default (MacOS Extended Journaled). Choose if you want it encrypted or not (you'll have to enter a password to access it, but it'll be safe from prying eyes). Leave Partition at its default and Image Format as read/write.
• Click Create and it'll make a disk image on your Time Capsule of what ever size you've chosen (say, 200GB). This will use 200GB on your Time Capsule, but that space will be safe from being used up by Time Machine backups.

To read/write data to this disk image, open the Time Capsule drive in the Finder just like any other drive and double click on the disk image icon with the name you've chosen. It'll mount on your desktop like any other drive of 200GB in size (or whatever size you've specified); you may then copy/save/create/delete/etc. any data you choose on it.

As far as your Mac will be concerned, it'll be just another network-based disk volume. It'll all work rather well, and will prevent Time Machine from using up the whole Time Capsule device if that's what you want.
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TimeCapsule as save location -- how does one get the style dialog to include TimeCapsule as a selectable location?
 
You can also just buy an inexpensive external USB drive. Anyone will do. Plug it in, open TM, point it to the drive, and if it tells you it is not formatted correctly it will ask if you want it formatted. Click yes. You now have a drive with your important stuff on it that you can take with you easily.

I purchased a 1TB Verbatim drive for $80 about 8 months ago. Works perfect, plus I also keep music and movies on it.
 
xraydoc said:
Its really very simple.

• Open Disk Utility (in your Utilities folder)
• Go to File -> New blank disk image
• A "Save..." style dialog will pop up. Choose your Time Capsule as the save location and give the disk image a name ("Data on Time Capsule" or whatever you want)
• Choose a volume size (there are several presets but in your case you'd choose Custom and pick your size. Leave Volume Format to default (MacOS Extended Journaled). Choose if you want it encrypted or not (you'll have to enter a password to access it, but it'll be safe from prying eyes). Leave Partition at its default and Image Format as read/write.
• Click Create and it'll make a disk image on your Time Capsule of what ever size you've chosen (say, 200GB). This will use 200GB on your Time Capsule, but that space will be safe from being used up by Time Machine backups.

To read/write data to this disk image, open the Time Capsule drive in the Finder just like any other drive and double click on the disk image icon with the name you've chosen. It'll mount on your desktop like any other drive of 200GB in size (or whatever size you've specified); you may then copy/save/create/delete/etc. any data you choose on it.

As far as your Mac will be concerned, it'll be just another network-based disk volume. It'll all work rather well, and will prevent Time Machine from using up the whole Time Capsule device if that's what you want.
Click to expand...

I started this a few days ago, and it's crawling. I'm using the new Time Capsule/MacBook Air with 802.11AC, and it's moving, but at about 25%/day. Is this normal?
 
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