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Time Capsule - Change/Remove Hard Disk

costabunny

costabunny

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 15, 2008
2,466
71
Weymouth, UK
I decided that I need to test my Hard Disk migration procedure today.

I am going to put an Apple RAID card in and use 4 x VelociRaptors. I Have my current system booting from a RAID0 setup and as such it will be a pain (in the arse) when it comes to moving the partition to the RAID5 (not much room for disks inside etc).

So I searched my cupboard for a 'spare' SATA drive, but alas all I found was an old Seagate Cheetah (15K SCSI) and some random IDE drives.

Then it struck me - the Time Capsule has a 500GB SATAII disk in it.... mmmm my mind began to turn over.....and my hand reached for the screwdriver.

So I googled for some pics (to help me disassemble the TC). I found this excellent set http://www.flickr.com/photos/24254876@N03/sets/72157604011791554/

The disasembly was simple enough.

1) remove the rubber base.
2) unscrew all the teeny screws.
3) invert the unit (so its on its top case).
4) lift the metal cover off (carefully as it has a fan mounted to it).
5) pull the foam cover from the heat sensor on the drive.
6) unplug the sensor from the clip on the base of the disk.
7) hand over the drive, invert again to make the disk 'fall' gently out of its casing.
8) un-invert and unplug the SATA data and power connectors.
9) re-assemble the unit.

(there is a step 10 for those wanting to put a replacement disk in place - remove the clip for the temperature sensor in readiness to glue it to a new disk)

So now I plugged the Time Capsule back in and weyhey it works fine with no disk (with the obvious omission of backup facilities).

I now have a perfect Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA drive to test the restoring and booting of the backup.

I wasnt going to post this but then figured why not as its useful information to know the TC will still work as an Airport Extreme Base Station without its hard disk. Also It is useful for those that want to replace their hard disk.

I will put one of the barracuda 250GB drives in once I've migrated my boot drive off the software RAID.

I hope this is useful to some of you.
 
Addition:

The Time Capsule is now happy with a 250GB hard disk.

I must make a comment tho - Who in apple designed this? Its awful (the design inside the box I mean).

Heat is a HUGE problem for this and I wonder how long before the disk fails as it seems to be operating at 50+ degrees all the time (and thats bad even for modern disks) .

As thisis billed as a one-stop backup device I think its terrible that the device itself seems to reduce the lifespan of itself due to poorly designed airflow.

There is a fan in there but seems to blow inside. There is no vent or exhaust for the fan and the drive isnt cooled at all.

Come on Apple get with the program and make these devices better on the inside and not just pretty on the outside please?
 
But the drive only spins up when doing a backup, so that should help matters, shouldn't it? And the take-apart you link says there are vents in the bottom of the case, so that's gotta help. My TC always feels a bit warm, but I can feel air coming from the bottom (I have it up on its side).
 
AC Rempt said:
But the drive only spins up when doing a backup, so that should help matters, shouldn't it? And the take-apart you link says there are vents in the bottom of the case, so that's gotta help. My TC always feels a bit warm, but I can feel air coming from the bottom (I have it up on its side).
Click to expand...

I agree there are vents in the bottom - however there is also a large rubber foot covering the whole lot (would be better with 4 little rubber feet instead me thinks).
 
costabunny said:
I agree there are vents in the bottom - however there is also a large rubber foot covering the whole lot (would be better with 4 little rubber feet instead me thinks).
Click to expand...

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but as I have been getting nowhere with searching I figured I'd give this a shot (and hope that you kindly respond). I've been trying to figure out what glue would be the best to use to reattach the heat sensor onto the HDD after swapping it out.

I've purchased a Seagate 1.5TB HDD to increase the storage space, and I've even been able to migrate my current TM backups onto it, but I'm having issues with it stalling my backups (and subsequently failing) as well as not being able to wake up from sleep for automated backups. So I figured if I place it inside the TC it would solve those issues.

However, on your blog I see that you've had bad experiences with the Seagate 1.5TB disks, and I'm wondering if you've managed to solve it or patch the firmware to correct these issues. I've downloaded the firmware update, but it won't allow me to apply them to USB mounted drives (and my current PC doesn't have a SATA enabled mobo, and there seems to be no Mac update utility :(). Thanks in advance for any advice, and welcome to Calgary :)
 
seagate 1.5tb

Late on this but I know that the older firware for the seagate 1.5tb drives was having issues. I know that the new firmware has corrected the problems. I would say look for updates on seagates support page.
 
Time Capsule HDD Upgrade

JonDavisPhoto said:
Late on this but I know that the older firware for the seagate 1.5tb drives was having issues. I know that the new firmware has corrected the problems. I would say look for updates on seagates support page.
Click to expand...

Hi Guys,
Just letting you know that I've just replaced the original WD 500GB HDD in my TC with Samsung's new 2TB Model# HD204UI. Everything seems to be OK. Airport Utility formatted the new drive without a hiccup.
Haven't done a backup to it yet, that could take quite some time -need to backup 1.5 TB from 2 Macs.:)
If I have any dramas , will let you know.
 
TC Hardrive

The power cable on my 1st gen TC failed a awhile ago so I disassembled the hardrive out of it and put it in a new firewire enclosure. Now when i hook it up to the computer it runs dine for about 20 min, then it ejects itself. The drive is still running, power is fine, its odd. I don't have this problem with any of my other hardrives. Any thoughts?
 
Sounds more like an enclosure issue to me. Does your enclosure support USB and if so have you tried connecting the hard drive using that? Have you tried other hard drives in that enclosure to see if they'll get ejected as well? Have you tried other enclosures/docks?
 
Echowash said:
If anyone is interested I did a little picture tutorial of how to swap out the drive on my blog here:

http://blog.morphproductions.com/2010/12/time-capsule-hard-drive-upgrade-1tb-to.html

I put a 2tb drive into my 1tb first gen Time Capsule and it's been working great since January. Anyway, hope this helps all you visual learners. :)
Click to expand...

I'm looking to do the same thing you did...swap my 500GB drive for a larger one. Now that you're a few months in with the new WD drive, do you still like it? Any complaints?
 
TheseGoTo11 said:
I'm looking to do the same thing you did...swap my 500GB drive for a larger one. Now that you're a few months in with the new WD drive, do you still like it? Any complaints?
Click to expand...

Nope, it's been pretty much a year and everything's been working great!
 
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