10-10-2008, 01:03 PM

can u split the hard drive of the TC? or is there a need with time machine?

i have time machine workin with my external but u cant save any work thats not on your computer to the hard drive...

10-10-2008, 02:51 PM

As it comes from Apple, you can not partition a Time Capsule. However, it is reported that inside a disassembled Time Capsule is a standard internal drive which can be unplugged. Supposedly you can remove the drive, manually partition it using your Mac, and put it back into the Time Capsule and it will remain a functioning partitioned drive which is compatible with Time Machine. I haven't tried it as this obviously voids the warranty.

I have a MB w/ a 160gb drive. About 100gb of it is used. I have been using Time Machine w/ my 500gb Time Capsule for several months now. I also use the Time Capsule as a network drive and write to it with both my Mac and PC.

1. Contrary to popular opinion, I have not found the incremental TM backups to take up much more space than the volume they are backing up. The 100gb I am backing up, doesn't take up much more than 100gb on my Time Capsule, even after months of backups. Some say your TM backup drive should be twice the size of the drive you are backing up. I think this is overkill. In my experience, 1.2x to 1.5x is adequate if all you are using it for is Time Machine.

2. Writing to a drive being used my Time Machine will cause a problem if the drive fills completely, as TM will then start deleting backups. However, in my case, this is not an issue. I read and write daily to the same drive as Time Machine is using and it works perfectly. With the scenario mentioned above, my 500gb TC still shows 318gb free and there are also about 50gb of ripped movies stored on it which were written to it from my PC. With 300gb of free space, Time Machine doesn't care if I use the drive for other purposes.