You can't partition Time Capsule!

I am not sure this will work but it might be worth a try. If you were able to create a sparse bundle with the size that you want try mounting the sparse bundle. It should appear on the desktop as a disk. Now can you select it for Time Machine?

If you can select it as a Time Machine target now the real test begins. Unmount the disk image and either wait for the next backup or choose Back Up Now to see if it mounts the image and uses it.

I cant't test this right now but might be able to a bit later.

Still can't be selected...

- I created the sparse bundle and its disk image did appear on the desktop (in non-descriptive white)
- When I went to TM preferences I still couldn't see it. I could only select the folder it is located in : "My Name Tim" (and it wasn't possible to save the new disk image next to it (on TC first level))
- So I did select the only disk I could : "My Name Tim" and started a backup.
Result: instead of using the sparse bundle I had created with limited size, it created its on standard non limited sparse bundle right next to it (how frustrating!)

Should I give up?

I was thinking to actually open your size limited sparse bundle so it appears to the Finder as a disk (double clicking it should do the trick) and selecting that if possible. I bet Time machine has to use its own sparse bundle though.

I thought I have seen something somewhere where this was possible but perhaps I am wrong. I bet the one I saw was on something other than a TC where you can control the size of user accounts better.

I opened both disk images and tried to drag the "Backups.backupdb" folder from the TM sparse bundle to the one I created... I got this error message : "The backup can’t be copied because the backup volume doesn’t have ownership enabled." I'm not sure I understand it... Any idea how to get around that ?

Also, I compared info for both sparse bunbles and disk images and they seem identical beside their capacity (1TB vs 200GB).

I'm afraid I am running out of ideas here. Apparently the level of control you are looking for isn't possible with the Time Capsule though it is with some other similar devices.

Looks like the only way to do this is with multiple user accounts on the TC but that seems to, as you pointed out, allocate everyone the same amount of space. Getting around this and producing the size space that you want would probably entail creating more accounts than you otherwise need.

I don't see how creating accounts would help... the limited size sparse bundle cannot be selected either and accounts are not space limited so that means more users allowed to eat up all the space available with their TM backups. I would have like to add my husband, if I was able to control the space each TM backups would take.

Oh well. I give up too. Thank you for all your support and ideas.

Anne

You're welcome. Wish I could have solved the problem. If I find a solution I'll try and remember to post back with the answer. If you can't tell it annoys me to no end not to find and answer to what should be a simple problem.

What I meant by multiple accounts is that as each account is created that as less overall space to be used. there is less space per account. Eventually you reach a point where the accounts are a nice size. Unfortunately, that does not stop a Time Machine backup from eating that entire space.