Time Capsule vs Airport Extreme+Ext HD

[ozthegweat]

Has anyone of you considered that the reason Time Machine doesn't support backing up to the Airport Disk is because Airport Disk doesn't work reliably with Leopard? What good would it do if Apple enabled the feature now and your Time Machine backup would constantly be corrupted?

The fact that Time Machine supports backups to hard drives attached to the Ethernet ports on Airport Extreme shows that Apple didn't disable it just to sell more Time Capsules.

 

[SheenL]

Has anyone of you considered that the reason Time Machine doesn't support backing up to the Airport Disk is because Airport Disk doesn't work reliably with Leopard? What good would it do if Apple enabled the feature now and your Time Machine backup would constantly be corrupted?

The fact that Time Machine supports backups to hard drives attached to the Ethernet ports on Airport Extreme shows that Apple didn't disable it just to sell more Time Capsules.

Apple did disable it,, U can only make it work with a Hack.. and i been using it with airport for 6 days now and it is working normally. Also know people that been using it longer with no problems.. all i can say is try it,,, or spend the money for a time capsule.. This Hack isnt for people that want time capsule, its for people that already bought airport and external drive

 

[t0mat0]

Looks like the 10.5.2 update will calm those of a angry/nervous/dissapointed disposition wrt recent Airport Extreme purchases and lack of decent AirDisk capabilities without having to buy a Time Capsule...Will see more fully when TC is on sale, and te update comes through.

 

[t0mat0]

<edit> dupe. Silly PC...

 

[nietzsche]

Time Capsule Unable To Make Bootable Clones

This would be another big reason to hold off on buying Time Capsule, and why, if you already have a large enough ext. hd, you might want to hang onto it. If you use SuperDuper or CCC, you can make bootable clones of your hd; if you move ovr to Time Capsule, you lose that capability.

I understand it is possible to make wireless bootable clones, but so far, I haven't heard Apple plans to add this feature to Time Capsule.

 

[Surely]

Looks like the 10.5.2 update will calm those of a angry/nervous/dissapointed disposition wrt recent Airport Extreme purchases and lack of decent AirDisk capabilities without having to buy a Time Capsule...Will see more fully when TC is on sale, and te update comes through.

Not according to this:

https://www.macrumors.com/2008/01/2...arcraft-fix-still-no-airport-extreme-backups/

and this:

http://babygotmac.com/a/leopard-1052-airport-express-and-time-machine/

I hope that this is addressed. I am planning on buying an Airport Extreme in the next week, and it would be great to be able to connect my external HD and forget about it. I refuse to buy TimeCapsule, solely because I have a perfectly functional external HD already.

I guess I'll end up trying the hack that SheenL has been using. Hopefully another week or so of people using it will show us how stable it is.

 

[JockItch43]

Drobo is Nice, Time machine only protects you from Accidental data loss. Drobo will protect you from data corruption and drive failure so together they provide total data protection.

WWW.Drobo.com

Drobo sure is nice. However, I'd like it a lot better if it came with additional ports besides just USB. Firewire 800 or especially eSATA would be great. If they update with these ports, I'd buy one for sure.

 

[MacFanBoyIIe]

Drobo sure is nice. However, I'd like it a lot better if it came with additional ports besides just USB. Firewire 800 or especially eSATA would be great. If they update with these ports, I'd buy one for sure.

I did a little research on this and DROBO's official stance on this is that the internals of DROBO (the reading/writing/moving around data) don't yet exceed the speed at which USB 2.0 is capable of. So basically, they could put FW800 or eSATA ports on it and it will backup at exactly the same speed as it does right now.

Still, I think it's an amazing product and plan to buy one in the next 3 or 4 months. Who knows, maybe they WILL release a newer model with faster internal workings and faster ports.

 

[DaveF]

As annoyed as I was that TimeMachine doesn't support AEBS + AirDisk like promised, I hope to get a TimeCapsule later this year. I've only got a $160 GB drive for TM right now. When it fills, I'll need a new drive. If reviews of TC are good, I hope I can sell my current AEBS used and buy a TC.

Does anything think there will be a used market for the 10/100 draft-n AEBS units? (Mine predates the 1 GBps wires speed bump.)

 

[TurboLag]

If the Time Capsule drive is HFS+ formatted, will a Windows machine be able to write to it? I think it should, as it would be a mounted network drive. Can anyone confirm?

 

[odaiwai]

The fact that Time Machine supports backups to hard drives attached to the Ethernet ports on Airport Extreme shows that Apple didn't disable it just to sell more Time Capsules.

Does this mean that it's possible to backup to a network share with Time Machine?

i.e., if I have an external disk on the MacMini shared over ethernet, can I select it as the Time Machine drive for a MacBook?

 

[performer]

Hello everyone. I have a few questions about Time Capsule.

Is it right, that Time Capsule has an integrated router?
Another question is about iTunes and Time Capsule. Is it possible to hear music on your hifi? So, supports Time Capsule Airtunes?

Thx for your answers and sorry for my bad english. I'm from Germany

 

[MacFanBoyIIe]

Hello everyone. I have a few questions about Time Capsule.

Is it right, that Time Capsule has an integrated router?
Another question is about iTunes and Time Capsule. Is it possible to hear music on your hifi? So, supports Time Capsule Airtunes?

Thx for your answers and sorry for my bad english. I'm from Germany

Hello! Yes, Time Capsule has an integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet router, just like the Airport Extreme Base Station.

As for the second question, I would assume so, but can't say for sure because I haven't tried it (don't have a Time Capsule). Anybody else know for sure?

 

[Qjuu]

Hi,

I also considered to use an external disk connected with Airport Extreme's or Time Capsule's USB port for my iTunes Library and TV recording.

I need a solid and reliable connection to that drive. Even after reboot or wakeup. Example: a planned TV recording (Eyetv) wakes up my Mac from sleep. If that external harddrive wouldn't be available at this moment, my recording would fail. Same for accessing my iTunes lib over AppleTV....

So you said a disk connected in this way is slow, sluggish and unresponsive. Do I get similar problems with a disk directly connected with my Mac (FW800 or USB 2.0). Or should I really consider a NAS drive? (hoping this is more reliable...)

BTW: At this moment I have a PC with 5 internal harddisks. It's reliable and responsive... but also noisy and energy consuming. I want to change that and get a (the ) new MBP....

Questions over questions... I hope someone here can give me a hint.
Thanks!

 

[Knolly]

Correct me if I'm wrong... But last I read, the drive in Time Capsule can ONLY be used for backups, and not data. Perhaps information has been released that says otherwise since I last heard though...

 

[ascender]

Correct me if I'm wrong... But last I read, the drive in Time Capsule can ONLY be used for backups, and not data. Perhaps information has been released that says otherwise since I last heard though...

That's one of the rumours that was started after (dis?) information from speaking to Apple. The problem is that until people get hold of them, we won't know for sure.

 

[vader26]

That's one of the rumours that was started after (dis?) information from speaking to Apple. The problem is that until people get hold of them, we won't know for sure.

It does say on Apple's site, "Because it mounts as a wireless hard drive, Tiger and Windows users simply access Time Capsule directly from the wireless network for exchanging and storing files quickly and easily." So I am hoping one will be able to use for more than just backup.

 

[MacFanBoyIIe]

It does say on Apple's site, "Because it mounts as a wireless hard drive, Tiger and Windows users simply access Time Capsule directly from the wireless network for exchanging and storing files quickly and easily."

This statement implies NAS capabilities. SO, if they lock it down to only backups (via Time Machine) I'd be very surprised (and disappointed).

 

[CyberBob859]

Time Capsule or Airport Extreme + Drobo?

This statement implies NAS capabilities. SO, if they lock it down to only backups (via Time Machine) I'd be very surprised (and disappointed).

I agree. This is critical to what I end up purchasing.

I have an iMac and a MacBook - both running Leopard - and I would like to use Time Machine on both machines to backup wirelessly. However, I also want to put my growing iTunes music and video library on an external NAS.

My options are:

A) 1 TB Time Capsule, as long as the drive can be partitioned to handle Time Machine backups AND hold my music and video.

B) Airport Extreme, and attach a Drobo to the USB port, as long as I can partition it to Time Machine backups and hold my music and video.

From what I'm reading on these forums, with A) I may not be able to hold my data (unknown until Time Capsule ships) and with B), Time Machine won't work without a hack.

I also know that with B), I get extra protection from drive failure, and can add storage as I need, but it's also going to cost me a bit more money to implement.

Am I reading this correctly?

 

[Diode]

I don't think the current Airport Extremes will ever be able to do time machine backups ... I was reading that there with cache writes and powerloss....

As quoted from a Apple developer:

This was explained on one of the developer lists a couple weeks back. The problem is that integrity cannot be guaranteed — the AirPort acknowledges receipt of the data before it’s actually written, and if power is interrupted, the disk disconnected, yadayadayada in the window between the Airport acknowledging receipt and the data actually getting written out to disk, it’s gone forever with no way to recover it or even realize it’s gone missing.

The developer then goes on to state a firmware update could fix the issue but we haven't seen anything from Apple. This leads me to believe they want you to buy a TC .....

 

[MacFanBoyIIe]

B) Airport Extreme, and attach a Drobo to the USB port, as long as I can partition it to Time Machine backups and hold my music and video......I also know that with B), I get extra protection from drive failure, and can add storage as I need, but it's also going to cost me a bit more money to implement.

You might want to scratch the DROBO idea altogether. I realize it's an amazing product, but:
a) it's VERY pricy
b) it's VERY slow and the more storage you put on it the more time your machine will spend (no pun intended) transporting data at lazy USB2.0 speeds..yuck!

If you don't want to wait for (hopefully SOON!) a new/faster DROBO, try something like this:
Newer Technology Guardian MAXimus RAID-1 [MIRROR] FW800/400+USB 2.0 Enclosure Kit for 2 x HDD for $149.99 from OWC.

The Guardian, at $150 bucks vs. the $500 tag for a slower DROBO...well you could get three Guardians, plus have $50 bucks left over to put to the HDDs you will have to get (whether you get a DROBO or Guardian you'll have to provide the HDDs). Then you can buy your own HDDs, whatever size you want, and use the faster FW800 to handle your Time Machine throughput.

Attached picture is my setup. It took me a LONG time (and many discussions on several forums) to figure out this was a good setup for my needs.
Whadaya think?

 

[CyberBob859]

You might want to scratch the DROBO idea altogether. I realize it's an amazing product, but:
a) it's VERY pricy
b) it's VERY slow and the more storage you put on it the more time your machine will spend (no pun intended) transporting data at lazy USB2.0 speeds..yuck!

If you don't want to wait for (hopefully SOON!) a new/faster DROBO, try something like this:
Newer Technology Guardian MAXimus RAID-1 [MIRROR] FW800/400+USB 2.0 Enclosure Kit for 2 x HDD for $149.99 from OWC.

The Guardian, at $150 bucks vs. the $500 tag for a slower DROBO...well you could get three Guardians, plus have $50 bucks left over to put to the HDDs you will have to get (whether you get a DROBO or Guardian you'll have to provide the HDDs). Then you can buy your own HDDs, whatever size you want, and use the faster FW800 to handle your Time Machine throughput.

Attached picture is my setup. It took me a LONG time (and many discussions on several forums) to figure out this was a good setup for my needs.
Whadaya think?

I like your setup a lot, but wanted to have a backup solution for both my iMac and MacBook. Both are older machines and have no FW800, only FW400

So, I was hoping to use Time Machine with NAS. One box with partitions for the backup for the iMac, the MacBook, plus the iTunes/iPhoto data. Time Capsule would work (maybe - if it can hold data), but I also think I need additional drive protection and room to grow. Hence, my idea with Drobo on the Airport Extreme via USB (if I can get it to work with Time Machine.)

I have some external drives right now that would be great to clone the hard drives of the iMac and the MacBook with SuperDuper. I know I'm going to do that.

 

[MacFanBoyIIe]

....So, I was hoping to use Time Machine with NAS. One box with partitions for the backup for the iMac, the MacBook, plus the iTunes/iPhoto data. Time Capsule would work (maybe - if it can hold data), but I also think I need additional drive protection and room to grow....

You've got a tall order there.
FWIW, the Guardian also has a FW400 port, so it could theoretically plug into your iMac, backing that up through Time Machine. Then you could use Time Capsule's "server-grade" (translated as "expensive") hard drive for your MacBook, backing up wirelessly. Under that setup, you might have to just enable sharing of iTunes and iPhoto data.
The reason I don't think it's a good idea to have your Time Capsule HDD, or DROBO, or any other NAS for that matter, partitioned is two-fold:
1) it creates a bottleneck when more than one device is trying to read/write to the same single-drive NAS simultaneously (especially through just USB).
2) it makes the HDD work much harder, decreasing the lifespan of it...that's very bad.

Have you considered setting up a Linux headless server with RAID5 on it? That would be sweet! It would totally solve all your problems with the iMac and the MacBook and allow you to serve up music, videos, and photos too. Lot's of people have done this, it's not as hard as you might think, if you can deal with a little CLI. Search some the forums and see if there is a tutorial on this kind of setup. It really sounds like your best option, all things considered.

 

[CyberBob859]

More complicated than I thought

You've got a tall order there.
FWIW, the Guardian also has a FW400 port, so it could theoretically plug into your iMac, backing that up through Time Machine. Then you could use Time Capsule's "server-grade" (translated as "expensive") hard drive for your MacBook, backing up wirelessly. Under that setup, you might have to just enable sharing of iTunes and iPhoto data.
The reason I don't think it's a good idea to have your Time Capsule HDD, or DROBO, or any other NAS for that matter, partitioned is two-fold:
1) it creates a bottleneck when more than one device is trying to read/write to the same single-drive NAS simultaneously (especially through just USB).
2) it makes the HDD work much harder, decreasing the lifespan of it...that's very bad.

Have you considered setting up a Linux headless server with RAID5 on it? That would be sweet! It would totally solve all your problems with the iMac and the MacBook and allow you to serve up music, videos, and photos too. Lot's of people have done this, it's not as hard as you might think, if you can deal with a little CLI. Search some the forums and see if there is a tutorial on this kind of setup. It really sounds like your best option, all things considered.

I never considered a Linux RAID5 server. What kind of hardware are we talking about here? I have an older AMD Athlon machine that (with the proper RAID card) I can probably convert to a Linux server. Although I have never set one up. Would Time Machine work with the Linux server? Which Linux distro would I use? Any idea on where I can get more info?

One thing I definitely want to accomplish is to protect my iTunes/iPhoto libraries. So, would it make sense to use a Guardian or Drobo to store the libraries, and just share them through iTunes? And would it be better to hook up this drive on the iMac or on a Time Capsule?

Man, this is getting complicated.