Time Capsule for Backup and Storage

[Barney63]

I have a 2TB Gen 2 TC (A1302) coming from the USA (I'm in the UK).
When it arrives I want to use it for my Time Machine backup and also to store MP3s and Videos on it.
Is that possible?

Barney

 

[Apple fanboy]

Yes by creating a patrician. However that means your videos won't really be backed up (unless you have a copy elsewhere) as two copies on the same hard drive wil still get you no where when it fails.

 

[Barney63]

I'm not too worried about not having a backup of the videos as I have the original DVDs, I also have another backup of my music.

Barney

 

[Altemose]

I'm not too worried about not having a backup of the videos as I have the original DVDs, I also have another backup of my music.

Barney

I am not sure you can partition the Time Capsule. Simply copy data to the drive as Time Machine will use a Sparse Bundle. This is a file on the drive that can be ignored.

 

[Barney63]

I am not sure you can partition the Time Capsule. Simply copy data to the drive as Time Machine will use a Sparse Bundle. This is a file on the drive that can be ignored.

Sorry I don't understand that.

Barney

 

[Altemose]

Sorry I don't understand that.

Barney

Sorry I wasn't clear in explaining. When Time Machine backs up to a networked drive, in your case a Time Capsule, it creates a single file called a Sparse Disk Image Bundle.

This bundle contains the backups to your computer. Every computer gets one that backs up to the Time Capsule. Say you have a MacBook Air named "Barney's MacBook" and you configured Time Machine to backup to your new Time Capsule.

It will create one file on the Time Capsule drive called "Barney's MacBook". That is it. You can simply treat the Time Capsule hard drive as a hard drive. The backup file will show up as anyone of your files. There is no need to separate the drive out into sections called "partitions". See my screenshot.

 

[matrix07]

You can simply treat the Time Capsule hard drive as a hard drive. The backup file will show up as anyone of your files. There is no need to separate the drive out into sections called "partitions". See my screenshot.

But the OP might want to limit the amount of data backing up and make sure he has a certain amount left for his video. In this case, partitioning is required.

 

[Altemose]

But the OP might want to limit the amount of data backing up and make sure he has a certain amount left for his video. In this case, partitioning is required.

I understand the logic. However, I am not sure of a way to partition an AirPort Time Capsule's internal drive. Normally, I'd run a USB drive off the back of the Time Capsule for storage purposes. Please explain if you know how as I am sure it would benefit many!

 

[redmac]

Buy a cheap USB drive, connect it to the Time Capsule and keep your music and videos in it. This way you'll be able to include your media files to your Time Machine backups.

 

[ColdCase]

Buy a cheap USB drive, connect it to the Time Capsule and keep your music and videos in it. This way you'll be able to include your media files to your Time Machine backups.

That is good advice. Now if you are backing up one computer and it has a small drive, say 500GB, and your video files are less than say 500GB, there should be plenty of room to share the Time Capsule Internal drive. In that case you would simply use the finder to drag and drop your video files to a folder on the time capsule drive.

 

[matrix07]

I understand the logic. However, I am not sure of a way to partition an AirPort Time Capsule's internal drive. Normally, I'd run a USB drive off the back of the Time Capsule for storage purposes. Please explain if you know how as I am sure it would benefit many!

Damn. Another solution is limiting the back up size though.
http://pondini.org/TM/A8.html

I might try this.

 

[Altemose]

Damn. Another solution is limiting the back up size though.
http://pondini.org/TM/A8.html

I might try this.

Personally, I prefer the idea of letting the Time Capsule be well, a Time Capsule so we can go back in time. Then a simple hard drive functioning for basic NAS functions.