Basic Time Capsule Questions

[DCM_UK]

A web search revealed it uses OS X, I shan't refer to it as iOS again. Are there any Time Capsule experts on here? I got one half price and as a time machine and wi-fi device to my three Air Expresses it works fine, problem started when I thought I could partition its drive to create a 200GB drive for general usage, what happened was that the partition was created on my mac drive, this used up or reserved 200GB of its drive which could not be removed. The problem was solved by restoring from the Time Capsule from the previous day, it took 6 hours. On the Apple community website the Time Capsule gets many bad reviews, maybe it should be used for backing up and nothing else. The USB port doesn't seem to permit much.

 

[Slydude]

I'm not a Time Capsule expert but I think I can answer some of your questions.

1. Some users apparently had issues with the hard drives in some Time Capsule's failing. Other users such as myself have been using them for years with few/no issues. Recent versions seem to have been pretty solid.

2. Apple didn't make it easy to partition the hard drive in a Time Capsule. Basically one has to remove the drive from the Time Capsule, place the drive in an enclosure, attach the enclosure to a Mac to partition the drive then replace it in the Time Capsule. Not wot worth it in my view.

3. If you want to partition the drive to use it for both extra storage and Time Machine backups there is no need to partition the drive. You can have both Time Machine backups and other data on the Time Capsule drive simultaneously. The data doesn't get intermingled. Keep in mind that as regular data takes up more and more space there is less space for Time Machine backups. I've done this before with no problems.

IIRC you can achieve the effect of partitions by creating separate user accounts and limiting how much space each takes up. This is done via the setup utility but I would have to connect my Time Machine to check out how to do that.

You can connect a USB hub to that port and attach one or more external drives to the hub. This can potentially make those drives available to any computer on the network. I also used it for a bit to make a printer wireless capable when the manufacturer's utility did not work well. The only problem I had was I couldn't look at the ink levels and scanning was a pain to set up.

BTW Welcome to the forums. Looks like you got your profile question sorted out.

 

[pigoo3]

On the Apple community website the Time Capsule gets many bad reviews, maybe it should be used for backing up and nothing else.

So we know what we're dealing with...please let us know what exact model Time Capsule you purchased. Time Capsules have been around since 2008 (9 years)...and there were/are a lot of different models.

- Nick

 

[DCM_UK]

Hello Slydude

Interesting thing is that I have a Samsung 1TB hard disc that I formatted via the USB port on the MBA into 2 500MB partitions, if I connect this to the USB port of the Time Capsule (A1470) only one partition is shown in Airport Utility.

 

[DCM_UK]

Hi, not sure if my first reply was sent so here goes, the TC is a 1470.

 

[pigoo3]

Hi, not sure if my first reply was sent so here goes, the TC is a 1470.

Thanks for the model info. That's the latest model Time Capsule (2013). As far as I know...these are supposed to be pretty good. Some of the very initial TC's from back on 2008/2009ish did have some issues. I have a TC from around 2011...and it's worked great & still working great!

- Nick

 

[Slydude]

Hello Slydude

Interesting thing is that I have a Samsung 1TB hard disc that I formatted via the USB port on the MBA into 2 500MB partitions, if I connect this to the USB port of the Time Capsule (A1470) only one partition is shown in Airport Utility.

I can't test that with my Time Capsule because the port no longer sees any drive attached to it no matter how many partitions there are. I don't remember using partitioned drives with mine simply because the drives were too small to both partitioning.

If you attach the drive to the Time Capsule and check things from the Finder do all of the partitions show? If you hassle never done things this way do the following:
1. In the Finder go to Finder Preferences in the General tab and make sure that the "Connected Servers" is checked.
2. Now the Time Capsule should appear on the Desktop and I believe you have to double click it to get the hard drives attached to it to show.

I seem to remember something a while ago about the Airport Utility only shows the first partition on attached drives but i don't trust my memory on that.

 

[pm-r]

…problem started when I thought I could partition its drive to create a 200GB drive for general usage, what happened was that the partition was created on my mac drive, this used up or reserved 200GB of its drive which could not be removed. The problem was solved by restoring from the Time Capsule from the previous day, …

Something isn't making any sense here, or I'm not understanding the problem.

One, if the drive was partitioned with Disk Utility, then it can also be used to remove the partition.

Two, there's no way that using Time Machine backup will change any partition during any sort of restore.

And yes, Apple's Time Capsules behave and work differently than many more normal storage devices.






- Patrick
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[MightyGem]

A web search revealed it uses OS X

If you're using the latest version, 10.12.x then it's now using Mac OS. So don't refer to it as OS X again.

 

[pm-r]

If you're using the latest version, 10.12.x then it's now using Mac OS. So don't refer to it as OS X again.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you are completely in error and out of date.

The correct and latest terminology is NOT "Mac OS" as you state, but IS now macOS. ;D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS

Now go to your corner and sit on that stool!!!




- Patrick
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[DCM_UK]

Airport External Disk

I have an A1470 Time Capsule (2TB) in my system, connected to its USB port is a 1TB hard drive containing two 500MB partitions, my question is two fold: 1. Why does only one partition show up in Airport Utility? 2. How can I get access to this disk? I can go to Finder and use Command K to connect the server and mount both partitions of the external disK and I can drag and drop files from the desktop to the partition not showing in Airport.
Can anyone show me a better way of using the external hard drive?

I am using Mac OS on a MacBook Air.

 

[pm-r]

I'm not sure why but I do know that the Time Capsule can be quite obstinate as to how and why some things work or don't work.

How are the volume partitions formatted???

 

[MightyGem]

The correct and latest terminology is NOT "Mac OS" as you state, but IS now macOS.

Aaaaarrrrggghhh!!!!!!

 

[DCM_UK]

The format chosen was the default OS X Extended(Journaled)

 

[DCM_UK]

If you're using the latest version, 10.12.x then it's now using Mac OS. So don't refer to it as OS X again.

'Manners maketh man', so where are yours?????? the word please is NOT difficult to remember.

 

[Slydude]

I'll try to run this down for sure but I don't think both partitions will show up in the Airport Disk Utility. Accessing the drive from the Finder is about as simple as I was able to masker it. I did mount the drive and create an alia so that I didn't have to use the command K option every time. IIRC once the alias was created all I had to do was click on the alias. You could do that for each partition.

At one point I had a script going to0 mount the drives for me. I think I could attach that to the login items for my user account on the Mac. That way the drives mounted when I logged in without any intervention from me.

 

[pm-r]

BTW: I don't want to mess things up but isn't this problem already posted and ongoing with another subject thread???:
http://www.mac-forums.com/os-x-operating-system/342075-macbook-air-operating-system.html#post1765036

Maybe the admins could merge the two unless I'm mistaken. :Blushing:






- Patrick
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[pm-r]

Do we have a duplicate subject thread going on here???:
http://www.mac-forums.com/switcher-hangout/342103-airport-external-disk.html#post1765042

It might help to merge and edit the two. :Blushing:






- Patrick
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[Slydude]

I've merged the two threads into one since they both deal with questions about the Time Capsule and external disks. If this is too confusing I'll try to clean things up a bit later.

 

[pm-r]

If this is too confusing I'll try to clean things up a bit later.

I would think that merging the two will lessen the confusion thanks Slydude.






- Patrick
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