Apple Time Capsule not connecting

Windows 10......if that what you are using on your PC.......may not be able to read the settings on the Time Capsule since Apple designed AirPort Utility for Windows to work with Windows 7.

Power up the Time Capsule and let it run for minute or two

Hold in the reset button on the back of the Time Capsule for 7-8 seconds and release

Allow a full minute for the Time Capsule to restart to a slow, blinking amber light status

Connect an Ethernet cable from your modem to the WAN "O" port on the Time Capsule

The Time Capsule is now set to provide a default wireless network signal with a name like Apple Network xxxxxx

You need to log onto that WiFi network from your PC

There is normally no password required to do this, but if you are asked, the default password is

public

Now open AirPort Utility for Windows and the Time Capsule might appear on the left panel

Click the Manual Setup button if you want to manually configure the Time Capsule

Click the Continue button if you want AirPort Utility to guide you through the setup

Unfortunately, a 2011 version of the Time Capsule is now 8+ years old, and the average useful life of this product was about 4-5 years, so it will be remarkable if the Time Capsule is still operating correctly.

If you are able to get the Time Capsule working, I would not store any data on the Time Capsule that you cannot afford to lose, since the product is well past its time. For what its worth, Apple has assigned a current status to the 2011 Time Capsule as "Obsolete". This means that they will not provide any assistance on the product, even if you are willing to pay them.

AirPort Time Capsule 802.11n (3rd Generation) - Setup GuideNov 9, 2009 - 910 KB

Is the the hard drive spinning all the time, or does it go into sleep mode when not in use.

If you are using Time Machine to back up to the Mac, the Time Capsule hard drive will spin up when the backup begins and spin down again when the backup is done.

Can I use a USB cable to transfer data without wiping the drive.

Sure. Just connect a USB drive that has been formatted to use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to the USB port on the Time Capsule and use the Finder to copy data from the Time Capsule hard drive to the USB drive.

it's using Double Nat, router plugged into TC

You may have meant to say that the TC is plugged into the router. In that case, you would want to set up the TC in Bridge Mode to avoid the Double NAT error of having two devices......your router and the TC both trying to act as routers providing NAT services for the network. Normally, you would only want one device to act as a router providing NAT on a simple home network.

Open AirPort Utility

Select the TC

Click Manual Setup

Click the Internet icon at the top of the next window

Change the setting for Connection Sharing from "Share a Public IP Address" to "Off (Bridge Mode)"

Update to save the new settings

If for some reason you must use Double NAT on the TC setup, then you will need to connect any device that you want to communicate with the TC......wired or wireless......to the TC. The TC will assign IP addresses to all connected devices in that case.

If you are using Windows 10, you will probably not be able to access the data on the Time Capsule hard drive since Apple uses the SMB1 prototol for this service and Windows 10 has disabled SMB1.

Good luck!