Time Capsule Question

[RcktMan77]

If I were to purchase Apple's 2TB Time Capsule, is it possible to partition the drive into say two separate 1TB partitions, using one partition for backups via Snow Leopard's Time Machine while using the other for either a NAS partition or Boot Camp partition?

If this is in fact possible, how comparable are the transfer speeds over a wireless n network when compared to an external 7200 to 10,000 rpm drive over Firewire 800 or USB 2.0?

Thanks!

 

[Hellhammer]

Yes, you can partition with Disk Utility

It's noticeably slower than USB2 or FW800 so I would NOT recommend it for Bootcamp. For backups and file sharing&storing it's great but not fast enough to run an OS properly as even USB and FW are too slow to run an OS

 

[RcktMan77]

Thanks for the helpful response. It's good to know ahead of time that running BootCamp from an external drive is something to avoid as well.


Thanks much.

 

[skorpien]

No, you can't partition the Time Capsule. You'll have to physically open your Time Capsule and seat the hard drive in an enclosure to partition it. You can't mount the TC's drive in Disk Utility. Hellhammer, no offense but I don't think the Time Capsule works the way you think it does.

You should never use a Time Capsule disk for Boot Camp either. The speeds you'll get over wireless are atrocious. They pale in comparison with the speeds you'll get using FireWire or even USB. Look up C|Net's review of the Time Capsule to better get an idea of transfer speeds.

 

[RcktMan77]

Well reading C|Net's review of the Time Capsule I have a better understanding of the wireless and gigabit transfer bandwidth. Although, they didn't explicitly mention anything about partitioning the drive. They did mention that there is networking software installed on the hard drive that handles it's control of it's networking capabilities, which I imagine would be erased upon repartitioning the drive rendering it useless, and thus as a preventative measure I could see Apple preventing a user from mounting the drive in Disk Utility.

So perhaps others may know of a better solution for what I am seeking. I currently have an older 2006 Mac Pro with 3 internal drives: a 1TB Mac OS X drive, a 1TB Backup Drive, and a 250GB drive devoted for a Windows 7 BootCamp installation. I purchased one of Apple's newly released MacBook Pros and configured it with a 500GB SSD. I purchased the notebook computer as my living situation will be changing and I don't forsee that there will be space enough for the Mac Pro and it's 30-in. ACD. Ideally I would like to distill the contents from my Mac Pro onto the notebook computer preserving as much of the drive performance and contents from the Mac Pro as possible.

Currently the Mac OS X drive has 808GB of 1TB free--roughly 50 GB of which I could do without or store on some form of NAS or external storage drive/media. I would like to maintain my automated backup capability with Time Machine on an external drive--perhaps Time Capsule would be helpful in this regard, and be able to utilize my Windows 7 drive via BootCamp with the notebook such that performance is relatively similar to that of the Mac Pro.

So might someone be able to suggest solutions as to how I might go about this keeping in mind that I would expect the SSD's performance to deteriorate as it's storage is used up without anyway in Mac OS X to restore it to it's original state?

Thanks again...

 

[Hellhammer]

No, you can't partition the Time Capsule. You'll have to physically open your Time Capsule and seat the hard drive in an enclosure to partition it. You can't mount the TC's drive in Disk Utility. Hellhammer, no offense but I don't think the Time Capsule works the way you think it does.

You should never use a Time Capsule disk for Boot Camp either. The speeds you'll get over wireless are atrocious. They pale in comparison with the speeds you'll get using FireWire or even USB. Look up C|Net's review of the Time Capsule to better get an idea of transfer speeds.

Well, thanks for correcting me. I thought it worked as a normal HD but looks like Apple has again limited things. Good to know this, was thinking of getting one but I won't if I can't partition it

 

[skorpien]

Well reading C|Net's review of the Time Capsule I have a better understanding of the wireless and gigabit transfer bandwidth. Although, they didn't explicitly mention anything about partitioning the drive. They did mention that there is networking software installed on the hard drive that handles it's control of it's networking capabilities, which I imagine would be erased upon repartitioning the drive rendering it useless, and thus as a preventative measure I could see Apple preventing a user from mounting the drive in Disk Utility...

I believe the reason they don't mention anything about partitioning the drive is because there is no way to do so without physically opening the Time Capsule and thus voiding any warranty.

Also, I assume the networking capabilities of the Time Capsule are handled by the Time Capsule's hardware itself. I'm basing my assumption on the fact that the AirPort Extreme is also capable of networking USB HDDs and is lacking an internal drive itself (and it does not create additional files on the external AFAIK).

Having installed a hard drive into my Time Capsule, all that was required to get it to function properly is to erase the partition using AirPort Utility once the drive is installed (may not have actually been necessary, but I did this just to prevent any issues in the future). This creates an additional hidden partition and files which I believe are needed for the Time Capsule to function properly. I would imagine that if you were to partition the TC's internal drive using an enclosure and use AirPort Utility to erase the partitions once it's back inside, that would get everything up and running.

As for your future setup, what size MBP are you thinking of purchasing? If you're going for the 17", you can always get an eSATA ExpressCard and make sure any HDDs/SSDs you purchase have eSATA ports. I'm fairly positive this will give you the transfer speeds needed for Boot Camp. Otherwise you can always purchase a large internal drive and partition it, using an external USB HDD for TM backups.

Well, thanks for correcting me. I thought it worked as a normal HD but looks like Apple has again limited things. Good to know this, was thinking of getting one but I won't if I can't partition it

Honestly, unless you intended to connect a USB HDD to the TC and use that as storage while using the TC's internal for TM backups, I think you'd be better off getting an AirPort Extreme and connecting a USB HDD. This offers much more flexibility in terms of partitioning your disk.

 

[Hellhammer]

Honestly, unless you intended to connect a USB HDD to the TC and use that as storage while using the TC's internal for TM backups, I think you'd be better off getting an AirPort Extreme and connecting a USB HDD. This offers much more flexibility in terms of partitioning your disk.

I already have four externals and only reason I would get NAS is if I bought a laptop, so I could have my movies etc in NAS so I could watch them from a laptop as well.

With all this issues with TCs and because it's so limited, I'm better off retiring one or two of my current ones and buying a 2TB and hook it to my router which has USB port. I only need the money for MBP now

 

[RcktMan77]

Well, in response to your question I purchased the 15-in. model that doesn't include the express card slot, and as mentioned I did CTO the 512 GB SSD into it which happened to be the largest capacity drive Apple offered; though, I know if I wanted I could install a larger capacity third-party drive. However, I would lose the performance benefit the SSD provides...

 

[Hellhammer]

Well, in response to your question I purchased the 15-in. model that doesn't include the express card slot, and as mentioned I did CTO the 512 GB SSD into it which happened to be the largest capacity drive Apple offered; though, I know if I wanted I could install a larger capacity third-party drive. However, I would lose the performance benefit the SSD provides...

You can still do SuperDrive solution and get up to 1TB in there. 512GB SSD + 1TB HD would be a killer setup

 

[skorpien]

My apologies, I misread your post thinking you were still in the process of making a purchase decision. You could partition the SSD and use a smaller chunk for Windows 7 and get an external for TM backups and storage for both your Windows and Mac OS X partitions.

Although Hellhammer's suggestion certainly has merit. That setup would be sick! Provided you don't need an optical drive