Time Machine without Time Capsule? How to

[jketron]

How do I use the Time Machine service in my Apple computers without having to buy a Time Capsule?

 

[benhollberg]

You can use it by connecting external hard drives directly to the computer.

I have a 2 TB hard drive connected to my Time Capsule via USB and use that to back up five Macs to it. So you don't necessarily have to back up to the Time Capsule.

 

[jketron]

One of the computers is a MBP and I'd like to not lock it down to a USB direct attached drive.

I have a 2TB Time Capsule now and I'm on my second one on weeks. I'm over it and would like another solution to backup up my MBP over the wireless.

 

[benhollberg]

Are you going to continue using the Time Capsule for WiFi? If so then do what I did. I got a 2 TB Seagate drive at Costco and connected it to the Time Capsule via the USB, you can then select that drive when setting up Time Capsule.

 

[jketron]

Im considering not using the Time Capsule at all.

I'm having issues with my second one now and I'd like to consider other options.


What Wifi Time Capsule-less options are there? Only the MBP will be wireless of course the Storage device doesn't need to be

 

[grawk]

airport extreme with attached usb drive works for time machine

 

[jaw04005]

airport extreme with attached usb drive works for time machine

That's an option, but it's not technically supported by Apple (go figure).

However, you can also attach the external Time Machine drive to your desktop and have your MacBook back up to that Time Machine drive (a long with your desktop). That's what I do with my MacBook Air. It works great and since my Mac mini is always turned on, it's fine.

If your desktop and MacBook both support Wake On LAN (via wired or wireless) and you own a supported router, the MacBook will wake up the desktop and Time Machine drive from sleep.

Good luck. Once you get Time Machine going, it's great. I even removed the icon from my menu bar so I just forget about it. However, like you, I had nothing but problems with the Time Capsule. Personally I feel it's one of the worst products to come out of Apple in a long time.

The enclosed, non-removable hard drive is a disaster waiting to happen. I expect we'll get new smaller revisions to the AirPort Extreme soon. I wish they would just officially support Time Machine over an AirDisk drive (like Jobs originally announced way back in 2007) and kill Time Capsule all together. Or at least make it user-replaceable (could be similar to the bottom of the new Mac mini.).

 

[benhollberg]

That's an option, but it's not technically supported by Apple (go figure).

It may not be supported but it is easy enough to set up, they also told me that it was impossible, she really said impossible, to use Time Machine with another hard drive connected to my Time Capsule but it worked easy and setup was normal just the first time I tried it.