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dlmart2

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 2, 2007
669
1
ok.. I have a 1 TB Time Capsule that I use exclusively for backups. If I were to purchase another Time Capsule (1 TB), can I "span" the two, to make it appear as a single 2 TB backup drive?
 
ok.. I have a 1 TB Time Capsule that I use exclusively for backups. If I were to purchase another Time Capsule (1 TB), can I "span" the two, to make it appear as a single 2 TB backup drive?

No, you can't. Time Capsule cannot be set up as a RAID volume. Two Time Capsules on the same network will be seen as two separate drives.

It might be easier to use an external USB drive with your current Time Capsule instead, assuming you're wanting additional storage.

True, but you will still not be able to span backups across both drives, whether it's a secondary Time Capsule or an External HDD. If you change the target for your Time Machine, you will have to create a backup on the new drive from scratch.
 
True, but you will still not be able to span backups across both drives, whether it's a secondary Time Capsule or an External HDD. If you change the target for your Time Machine, you will have to create a backup on the new drive from scratch.


Yeah, you're right. I was thinking the external could be used almost exclusively though, assuming there's only one machine backing up. :)
 
Yeah, you're right. I was thinking the external could be used almost exclusively though, assuming there's only one machine backing up. :)

That's a good idea, assuming there's only one machine. I haven't heard of many people needing to backup more than a terabyte of data on a single machine, and if they do I doubt Time Capsule is the right backup solution :p

To the OP, if you're backing up multiple machines, you can always just tell each machine to target a different Time Capsule, and that would work. But if you need to backup more than a TB of storage on a single machine, you probably need something that's a little more robust. Sorry I can't be of more help with the specifics.
 
here is my situation...

i have a 750 gb iMac and I would like to back up the entire computer with time machine... I already have a 300 gb external hd. I would like to get the 500gb time capsule and attach my 300 gb external hd. Can I do this and combine the 2 harddrives to back up my entire computer with time machine?

i have heard that you can attach the external hd but can only choose from one of the drives to back up with time machine. that would not allow the full 750gb to be backed up. I would need to combine the 2. How would I do that?

Or can I just set time machine to backup different folders to each of the drives, because that will work as well.

Thanks
 
No you can't. Time Machine will only allow you to choose one drive. You can't select different drives for different folders. You'd either need a 1TB external attached to the Time Capsule, or buy the 1TB Time Capsule to begin with. And as stated above, you can't span a single backup over two drives. Just can't be done.
 
What if I have a time capsule at home and one at work. Can I back up one machine to *both* TCs? I might spend a week at work, during which back-ups occur regularly, but then I might work at home for extended periods and I might want to back-up there too. Make sense?
 
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