Time Machine

[Arkangil]

So I am brand new to Mac. I have had my MBP 2.53 for about a month and a half. After a router fiasco which took me from Linksys to Asus to D-link and finally to Airport Extreme, I have finally decided to go 1TB Time Capsule.

First off, I love this device. It works great!

Second off, Time Machine is the coolest looking application I have ever seen (maybe I don't get out much). I almost wish I could spend more time doing something in there besides just shifting back and forth, since I don't actually need to recover anything!

Third off, my question. I did not partition the Time Capsule (partly because I don't know how). I tired using the disk utility as I saw on the forum, but it never recognized the time capsule. That said, can I use any leftover space on the time capsule for just dropping files as an external hard drive? Will that cause any problems? If I do this, can my PC laptop with an application that allows it to read HFS+ (I think it's called) access these files, or anything done by time machine?

It is somewhat frustrating that on a PC I could do anything I wanted, and I am having to re-learn everything. I mean, I don't even know how Mac works it's file structure yet!! Ah well, all fun things to learn. That's why I got it! And love it!

Thanks for the help

 

[maflynn]

Third off, my question. I did not partition the Time Capsule (partly because I don't know how).

I don't believe TC gives you the ability to partition the drive. Its not accessible via the disk utility and the airport software doesn't provide you with the ability to partition it.

 

[Arkangil]

I don't mind if I can't partition it. But can I use any still available space (I only have a 320gig hard drive, and it's not full) as an external storage device?

 

[maflynn]

I don't mind if I can't partition it. But can I use any still available space (I only have a 320gig hard drive, and it's not full) as an external storage device?

Sure, I do, just connect to it via the Time Capsule icon on the finder window

 

[Richard1028]

Second off, Time Machine is the coolest looking application I have ever seen (maybe I don't get out much). I almost wish I could spend more time doing something in there besides just shifting back and forth, since I don't actually need to recover anything!

Yeah, it's pretty cool. (I don't get out much either.)

I just use an external drive with it. What I did was let time machine do its thing when I first set it up, then I copied some other folders to the drive. TM only uses it's own folder to backup in so it doesn't mind the other folders on the drive.

 

[Arkangil]

Very cool. So as I understand it, Time Machine will continue to work until it fills all available space on the drive, and then it will begin overwriting the oldest. Is that correct?

Once it fills the drive, will the drive then always be at max capacity?

Basically, if I want to use part for file sharing, say 10gig, do I have to always have a dummy file there holding that space?

 

[ydmusic]

Just for your info, I have started to try out Drobo TimeTamer (freeware), which limits the size of time machine files via a script. Should be interesting for those of you wanting to use time capsule for things others than just back up.

 

[Steve-M]

Basically, if I want to use part for file sharing, say 10gig, do I have to always have a dummy file there holding that space?

That is a very interesting question. You could actually use the disk utility to create a 10 GB disk image, place that on the time capsule, then mount the disk image to add, remove, or share files. You could even password protect it if you wanted.