Use Old Time Capsule as External Drive

[4wheelcycle]

I just bought a new Time Capsule. Can I use or convert my old Time Capsule to serve as an external hard drive?

I don't want to use it as a router. I just want to connect it to my iMac (or my new Time Capsule) as an additional external storage drive.

Ideally, I would like to be able to partition the old Time Capsule's hard drive, but I could use it as a single partition if necessary.

I imagine I could take the hard drive out of the old Time Capsule and remount it, or add a USB or maybe a Firewire connection to it in its current housing, but my first choice would be to connect it to my iMac or my new Time Capsule with its existing Ethernet or USB ports.

 

[pigoo3]

Here's a You Tube video describing how to it:

Use Time Capsule as External Hard Drive - YouTube

Notice that the "dude" doing the video is about 8 years old...so even an 8 year-old can do it!

- Nick

 

[4wheelcycle]

Reply to Nick

Nick,

I already found that YouTube video - I agree, 8 years max. However, it's not clear how he has it set up. It appears he may have it set up in the traditional way as a wireless router and is just using the drive space for general use.

I can, and do, use my existing Time Capsule that way. I have a dedicated external hard drive on my iMac for Time Machine backups, and I use my Time Capsule as a shared wireless drive that can be accessed by all five computers in our house - three Macs and two PCs.

I will use my new Time Capsule the same way I use my present one.

In order to get some use from my old Time Capsule, I'd like to use it as a plain old external hard drive. Are you suggesting I can just plug my old Time Capsule into an electrical outlet and it will appear as an accessible wireless drive on my home wifi network? If so, I suppose I could use it that way, but it is not clear that is what the 8 year old is doing - would that work?

In any event, my first choice would be to connect it directly to my iMac, or to a PC, via an Ethernet or USB port and use it as a general purpose external hard drive, with the ability to partition it, etc.

 

[pigoo3]

I already found that YouTube video - I agree, 8 years max.

Well you should have told us that first!

If you know You Tube well...(generally speaking) when you are watching a You Tube video...related subject videos appear in the right margin. I would check out those related videos as well to see if they describe the setup you are looking for.

- Nick

 

[4wheelcycle]

Further Research Results

I have done some further research and I may have found an answer to my original question.

This Apple Support write-up tells how to migrate data from one Time Capsule to another Time Capsule: How to migrate Time Machine backups from one AirPort Time Capsule to another

Based on the instructions, it appears I can connect my old Time Capsule to my iMac (or to a PC?) by connecting an Ethernet cable from a LAN port on my old Time Capsule to the Ethernet port on my iMac. My old Time Capsule should then show up in the Finder on my iMac, which would allow me to use the old Time Capsule as an extra external hard drive.

The only hitch is that I currently connect my iMac directly to my Time Capsule, with all the other devices in our house connected wirelessly to the Time Capsule's wifi network. This means I would have to unplug my new Time Capsule and switch my iMac over to a wireless internet connection every time I wanted to use the old Time Capsule as an external hard drive.

However, I have also found a five port Ethernet switch at Amazon (TP-LINK TL-SF1005D 5-port 10/100Mbps Desktop Switch) which reviewers say works perfectly. If I correctly understand how it works, I think I can connect one port to my iMac (or to a PC) and create four useable Ethernet ports.

My new Time Capsule is on order (along with a Retina iMac!), so I am not going to try this set-up until the new Time Capsule arrives and my old Time Capsule is out of service. I will post a follow-up to comment on how the set-up works.

In the meantime, if anyone on the Mac Forums knows whether this set-up will work (or not!) I would appreciate any further advice.