Storage - Time Capsule

Universal · 29 Dec 2010 at 17:09

I am looking a small server type sortage solution for my laptop. At present I use a portable LaCie drive. I am worried this could break over time so would like to backup my files while at home and have a more permanent storage solution. I have been looking at getting a Time Capsule. What are everyone's experience with these? Should I be looking at other options?

Thanks.

EDIT*–* Can this be moved? Apologies, put this in Software.

Nexus · 29 Dec 2010 at 18:25

The Time Capsule is basically just a harddrive with a router built in.

It's handy if you want a backup solution that doesn't need to be plugged in and will just run in the background. However, it's expensive for what it is and kind of pointless if you don't need the router abilities of it.

Other manufacturers offer their own harddrives with network abilities, so you could get one cheaper elsewhere.

Finally, you could just stick with using a harddrive that's plugged in to your laptop or plug in periodically to do a backup.

At the end of the day, the Time Capsule uses a harddrive, just like anything else, so it could fail. Buy a reputable brand, look after it and that's the best you can hope for.

If you are worried about data redundancy you could make two backups, or put items on optical discs if you can.

Raymond Lin · 29 Dec 2010 at 18:32

It does time machine to its HD, it has N wifi, i got it for those.

Skyboat · 31 Dec 2010 at 16:59

Raymond Lin said:
It does time machine to its HD, it has N wifi, i got it for those.

+1. I also use the NAS features to share or stream all my files from my external 2Tb HDD to any devices I want.

You can also archive any TM backups on the internal HDD to any externally connected USB drives too.

Feek · 31 Dec 2010 at 17:31

And it has two radios, 2.4GHz and 5GHz which can be used simultaneously.

adam_m · 31 Dec 2010 at 18:21

1Tb Time Machine = £234
Airport Extreme Base Station = £142 + £50 (1Tb WD Basic HDD) = £192
...AEBS with HDD = Time Machine .. although I see they have some 1Tb refurb time machines in for £169 which seems pretty cheap to me!

Personally I have an AEBS with 2 x 1.5Tb drives hooked up to it on a mirrored RAID, none of the data is critical so that's enough for me.

Cheers,
Adam

Universal · 8 Jan 2011 at 14:03

Thanks for the replys. Will update on what I do in the end. I am on Virgin Broadband (Netgear WRG614). What's the advantage of N wifi?

GeForce · 8 Jan 2011 at 14:24

So can I use an AEBS with an external HDD for Time Machine? I had a feeling that wasn't supported...

How about a normal NAS? Can I back up to that wirelessly? There are some around that claim to support Time Machine, but again, I thought Apple didn't support this.

(Apologies for slight thread hijack...)

Semple · 8 Jan 2011 at 14:28

Universal said:
What's the advantage of N wifi?

N is the new networking technology, it's just increased speeds and greater range.

blade007 · 8 Jan 2011 at 17:47

I've got a timecapsule, and to me it's excellent. It backs up my MBP in the background so I don't have to do anything or initiate something. All automatic.