Time Capsule + external drive

My 500gb Time Capsule is at capacity. Can I add an external hard drive to it and back up the three computers on my network wirelessly, or do I need to get the larger capacity Time Capsule?

Thanks.

You should be fine with that setup. I have an external drive attached to my Time Capsule and I back up to the external using Time machine without issue. I am hard-wired to the network but it should work wirelessly as well. It is probably best to use a drive that does not rely on the USB bus for power.

There are a few things to be aware of though they are not major issues:

1.If you are using Time Machine for the backup try making the first one by wire if possible. The first backup can be quite time consuming wirelessly.

2. If you are already using that external drive for a backup. Time Machine will want to create a new backup. When the backup is done by network it is stored in a sparse bundle file on the hard drive.

3. Once you have made the backup if Time Machine ever reports a problem with the drive you cannot run Disk Utility to repair the drive while it is connected to the Time Capsule. You'll have to disconnect the drive and connect it directly the Mac first.

Time Capsule

Thanks, that's encouraging. If I connect the external drive to the Time Capsule will it appear as a separate drive in the Time Machine application, or as an external drive in Finder? (Or possibly somewhere else?)

My external drive shows as a drive in both Time Machine and Finder. In the Finder I usually have to click on the Time Capsule and it shows me all drives attached to it so I can choose the one I need. If this really bothered me I could put an alias of the drive on the desktop and click on that as needed.