Time Capsule - Upgrade Internal Drive or USB External?

[jscro]

We've added another Mac in our house, and I'd like it to use the Time Capsule for backup. The trouble is it contains a 500 GB drive that's already full.

Should I crack it open and drop another drive in there or just plug in a USB external? Is there a good reason for doing one or the other? It's over a year old, so I assume the warranty is void.

 

[Hellhammer]

USB HD can be reused when the TC dies and the HD inside it can then be removed and put into enclosure to reuse it too, so I'd get USB, it's easier

 

[skorpien]

If you purchased the Time Capsule with and/or are using it with a machine that is still covered under AppleCare, then so is the Time Capsule.

If you don't mind voiding the warranty, or if it truly is out of warranty, I would purchase a larger capacity HDD and external enclosure separately. Then you can put it together and connect it via USB, and if you find that it's giving you issues you can open up the Time Capsule and swap the drives (and still have a 500GB external to use).

This is the route I took as I did not feel comfortable modifying my TC initially. However, after having non-stop issues with Time Machine and the USB HDD, I decided to do the swap (Although I was unaware of AppleCare covering Apple peripherals, so despite having AppleCare still left on my MB/MBP, I no longer have it on my TC)