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ame8199

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2011
267
30
Since El Captian bricked my computer and of course I haven't backed up since last year....

Can someone explain Time Capsule....does it allow me to hook it up and it uses wifi to back up like every week or month whatever I pick?

I don't want to have to hook up my usb, I just want it to do it automatically. Is that possible?
 

ame8199

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2011
267
30
Also what is the difference between the tall tower and the flat box one?
 

adam9c1

macrumors 68000
May 2, 2012
1,885
312
Chicagoland
Time capsule is a router plus integrated time machine inside.

Your computer will backup to this drive same way as if to the external USB you used to do.

The tower TC is the latest which supports AC wireless.
There a few different versions / revisions of the flat ones.

Google apple time capsule wiki for various model specs.


If you need to do a complete restore you boot into recovery partition and choose restore from time capsule.
 

ame8199

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2011
267
30
Thank you! So if I read the info correctly... All the versions do the same thing? I can get a used 3rd or 4 th generation and still use it as a router and wireless backups with time machine?
 

adam9c1

macrumors 68000
May 2, 2012
1,885
312
Chicagoland
I Think 3rd gen is PreN specification or N Draft.

But yes u can get a used one.

Better performance / speed of backup if you hard wire your computer with Ethernet when you run backup.
 

ame8199

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2011
267
30
No idea what preN or N Draft means ...but thank you for your quick reply
 

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
488
Elkton, Maryland
I can get a used 3rd or 4 th generation and still use it as a router and wireless backups with time machine?

Yes. However it would not be as fast as a newer model coupled with reliability concerns of a few years old hard drive hosting all of your backups. An alternative is to get an AirPort Extreme 6th generation and an external hard drive as they officially have Time Machine support. Keep in mind that the tower 6th gen. Extreme was the first to offer official Time Machine support. You can get them for $129 from Apple Refurbished online store.
 
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