Using AirPort Time Capsule as shared disc

[PaulMoore]

Hi there

Need some advice as to whether I am choosing the right solution to my problem...

I had an iMac with almost 1TB of data which failed... I had it all backed up and have it on a Time Machine external drive.

Since I can't afford to replace the iMac and have only a MacBook Air (with 60GB drive) I was thinking of getting a 2TB Time Capsule (my current router is going bad anyway) and moving iPhoto, iTunes etc. to the Time Capsule drive and using the MacBook Air as my main computer but with the data stored on the drive not on the computer...

I guess I would have to periodically back up the Time Capsule to an external drive so I have a backup... does this mean I have the set up all wrong?

 

[Weaselboy]

That will work fine. Just make a folder on the TC drive for your iPhoto and iTunes libraries.

Like you said, you would want to setup some sort of backup solution maybe to an external USB drive attached to the TC. You could setup a scheduled task with something like Carbon Copy Cloner to handle that for you.

You would want to be careful only one person is accessing those libraries at a time though.

 

[PaulMoore]

That will work fine. Just make a folder on the TC drive for your iPhoto and iTunes libraries.

Like you said, you would want to setup some sort of backup solution maybe to an external USB drive attached to the TC. You could setup a scheduled task with something like Carbon Copy Cloner to handle that for you.

You would want to be careful only one person is accessing those libraries at a time though.

Thanks

Could they be protected to only allow the MacBook to access (without having to continually enter a password)

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks

Could they be protected to only allow the MacBook to access (without having to continually enter a password)

Yes, if you open Airport Utility and go to the Disks tab you will see a drop down for "Secure Shared Disk:". You can pick there how you want to secure the disk and check the box to remember the password in Keychain. So as long as you are accessing the TC disk from your account you will not need to reenter the password.

 

[woyixiulas]

So as long as you are accessing the TC disk from your account you will not need to reenter the password.

 

[PaulMoore]

Yes, if you open Airport Utility and go to the Disks tab you will see a drop down for "Secure Shared Disk:". You can pick there how you want to secure the disk and check the box to remember the password in Keychain. So as long as you are accessing the TC disk from your account you will not need to reenter the password.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Boyd01]

I just got a new 2TB Time Capsule myself and plan to use it as a shared disk for my overflowing iTunes movie library. Am in the process of ripping my large DVD collection and even though my 2013 MacBook Air has the 512gb SSD, it's filling up fast with almost 300 movies and TV shows.

So I wanted a way to wirelessly access a large library around the house on my MBA and it looked like this would be the least expensive route, sort of a "poor man's fileserver", plus I get a nice network upgrade in the process. Best Buy currently has it on sale for $278 which was a couple bucks cheaper than MacMall and I also had a rewards certificate to lower the price a bit more.

Just got it hooked up, which was straightforward using Airport Utility. My only complaint is that.... couldn't they have printed the enclosed QuickStart Manual in something larger than 2 point type? Yeah, I could have read a PDF online, but if you're going to include a manual, print it in a readable size)

I already have Time Machine setup with a Thunderbolt dock/disk so I will only be putting movies on the Time Capsule. Did a little test and I am getting 29.7MB/s reading files from the Time Capsule and 27.9 MB/s writing files to it. Copying files to a cheap USB flash drive gives me less than 6MB/s.

I use my 2008 MBP running OSX 10.5.8 as a DVD ripping station at the other end of the house and just did a quick file copy test at 8.4MB/sec. Considering I had been using that same slow USB flash drive and "sneaker-net" to transfer the ripped files before, it's still a big improvement.

I had thought about getting an Airport Extreme and attaching an external drive but I have read anecdotally that the internal drive on the Time Capsule is a little faster.

Like you said, you would want to setup some sort of backup solution maybe to an external USB drive attached to the TC. You could setup a scheduled task with something like Carbon Copy Cloner to handle that for you.

I'm going to want to do this when I get to the point of removing the movies from my MBA. I assume that I can't include the shared Time Capsule disk in my Thunderbolt Time Machine backups?

Would be interested in other ways to do this. Haven't used Carbon Copy before, but I'll check it out.

 

[Weaselboy]

I'm going to want to do this when I get to the point of removing the movies from my MBA. I assume that I can't include the shared Time Capsule disk in my Thunderbolt Time Machine backups?

Would be interested in other ways to do this. Haven't used Carbon Copy before, but I'll check it out.

Nope... that won't work.