Should I buy a Time Capsule?

Hey all,

I am strongly thinking about buying a Time Capsule to back up my MBP and My iMac, as well as my Girlfriends 2 Windows Machines (*Shudders*)

I think that if i go ahead I will just get a refurb one from the apple refurb store, as they are much much cheaper. Firstly would anyone discourage me from doing this?

Secondly, I was wondering if anyone any experience using a TC with more than 1 mac as well as windows and how easy it is to set up?

Finally, I was just wondering if having the TC would mean getting rid of my cheap Thomson router that came free with my Broadband, and using the TC as my router, or if I should just plug the TC into the existing router and just use it as a wireless HDD and not a router?

Any help would be great!

Thanks all

Adam

I use the time capsule with 2 macs. For windows I need to get something setup but haven't done it yet. What version of Windows are you using? For the latest versions - i.e. Windows 7, you need Professional or Ultimate to backup to a network drive. Home Premium by itself won't backup to a network drive. That being said you probably want a 3rd party backup solution anyway.

I don't use the TC as a router - but that is because I have a router that automatically runs a dynamic dns script for me. Other than that the TC is a fine router. You could run a dyndns script on a computer but it is nice having it built into the router. Anyway if you don't like the Thomson then try the TC as a router.

refurb is warrantied - but I would discourage you getting a 1st gen one - i.e the 500g or 1 tb first gen as they can have power supply problems.
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There are people here who have had no problem - I am not one of them - I lost my original time capsule to this problem.
A refurb 2nd gen 1TB or 2TB should be fine.

Thanks for replying!

The PC's are XP, so im guessing they should be fine?

The version that I am looking at is

"Refurbished Time Capsule - 1TB, w/Simultaneous Dual-Band Wi-Fi (current generation)" - From the refurb store.

Its £169 - which from what I can tell seems to be a great price.

Is there a way (it may be default im not sure) to have the TC mounted permanently on both macs? and does it store the time machine backups in the same folder?

Thanks,

Adam

I used a 3rd party tool even with XP but there is this article
Windows XP Backup Made Easy

That time capsule - dual band current gen should be fine.

The time machine files are stored as sparsebundles at the top level - separate for each mac that backs up.

You should be able to go to System Preferences -> Accounts -> login items and navigate to the network drive. If you want to not show it click the hide check box.

That is great. Thanks for the response!

I now just have to work out if I can afford it, or if I should just buy a USB Drive!

A TC would be super cool.. just not sure if I should splash out. It seems that from what you are saying it will do everything I want it to tho... Tricky!

Thanks again!

Adam

I was using the Dual band TC as my primary monitor for several months. The only thing I have noticed is runnin some security tests from sites like Shields up yields different results. All ports show up in stealth mode but the TC is shown as responding to a Ping test. My previous Belkin did not respond to that test.