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Unable to backup to external drive connected to Airport Time Capsule

I am attempting to connect an external drive to my airport time capsule base station (3rd gen, I think) for backups because the original disk is failing. The external drive is a g-drive formatted for Mac but is not selectable in airport utility under "partitions." The disk appears but I can't select it -- doesn't stick -- and when I attempt to back up using time machine, I get the error that "backup disk not available" I have made direct backups to this drive when connected to Mac directly so I know it is formatted correctly. I've also attempted to enable "file sharing" with my Mac account but this still isn't working. Any suggestions?

Posted on Aug 9, 2019 2:02 PM

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Aug 9, 2019 2:15 PM in response to sotto65

g-drives do seem to have something of a history of issues.


Plug it back into your Mac and check with disk utility the actual partition system the drive is using.


You really want to use GUID not MBR or Apple Partition. The alternatives work fine on the Mac directly but not so good when used as network drive.


I do presume it is a desktop drive with a power supply??

Certainly any self powered drives are unlikely to work because the TC cannot supply the required current to spin up the drive.

But some USB chipsets just don't work. A powered hub can be a help in that situation.. even if the disk is powered I would still try a hub.


To be broader in thinking.. I would replace the internal disk in your Gen3 (A1355) .. do make sure it is not older one as I don't think they are worth messing with. Even the Gen3 is now 8-11 years old.. and tbh really better replaced.


These instructions are for Gen2 but the hardware is near identical.

You can use up to 8TB but you want low power drives so as to not overload the power supply.

Of course as soon as the Gen3 breaks you can pull the drive before you dispose of it.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Apple+Time+Capsule+Model+A1302+Hard+Drive+Replacement/2750

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Aug 9, 2019 2:27 PM in response to sotto65

The USB port on the Time Capsule is a very old and slow USB 2.0 design, so it may or may not work correctly if your hard drive is a USB 3.0 device......which is supposed to be backwards compatible......but the Time Capsule may not know this.


In addition, the USB port on the Time Capsule is underpowered, so it is often necessary to use a powered USB hub with a drive connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule......even if the drive has its own power supply.


Finally, the internal processing will limit the read/write speeds to about half of normal very slow USB 2.0 when a disk is attached to the USB port on the Time Capsule. So, even if things "work", you will likely learn a new meaning for the word "S--L--O--W". More chances for backup errors as well.


You don't indicate whether you have used the drive to make Time Machine backups in the past, but we will assume that is the case. As you know, the drive must be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for use with Time Machine.


Finally, a 3rd Gen Time Capsule is going to be at least 8+ years old and as much as 10 depending on when it was placed into service. It is very likely that the power supply inside the Time Capsule is failing or at best heading downhill.


Frankly, the Time Capsule should have failed a few years ago, so you have had very good luck with the product. But, I would not use the Time Capsule or a drive attached to the Time Capsule as my primary backup plan, unless you also have another plan in place as well. Your call on that though.





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Aug 9, 2019 3:33 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Thank you both for the responses -- very helpful. A follow-up question and a few more details... The question is if there is an alternative router to the Time Capsule that you'd recommend that I can plug in the G-drive? I know that Time Capsules are no longer being sold by Apple which is why I elected this Rube Goldberg approach. To the questions, this is a self-powering 1 TB SSD so no external power. You are correct that it is USB 3.0 so that may be the culprit. And I've plugged it directly into the Mac and was successful in doing a Time Machine back-up. According to disk Utility, it is "GUID Partition Map".

LaPastenague suggested that it was the right format but maybe this needs to be reformatted to work with an older Airport?

Aug 9, 2019 4:05 PM in response to sotto65

The question is if there is an alternative router to the Time Capsule that you'd recommend that I can plug in the G-drive?


The Synology router has a USB 3.0 port that will support Time Machine backups. Some of the upper end Asus models do as well. I'm leaning toward the Synology product myself in the next 6-12 months. I think LaPastenague may be using a Synology router now, or he has at least tested one carefully.


this is a self-powering 1 TB SSD so no external power.


If you want to continue to try to get this to work on the Time Capsule, try a powered USB hub. Compatibility wise, I would look for a powered USB 2.0 hub rather than a 3.0 hub.


The USB 3.0 port on your Mac is a much better match for the G-Drive, and it has a lot more "juice" than the USB port on the Time Capsule, which is likely one of the reasons that things are not working correctly on the Time Capsule.


LaPastenague suggested that it was the right format but maybe this needs to be reformatted to work with an older Airport?


If the drive works when it is connected directly to your Mac, then the drive is formatted correctly. So, that is not the issue.


The main likely issues now remain as:


1) The old USB 2.0 port design compatibility question with newer USB 3.0 drives


2) Insufficient power at the USB port on the Time Capsule


Even if you can get things to work with the Time Capsule, I would consider this a very short term answer. A new router is the way to go if you are looking for a reliable longer term solution.





Aug 9, 2019 4:58 PM in response to sotto65

To the questions, this is a self-powering 1 TB SSD so no external power.


Your TC has no where near enough power on the USB port. 1TB SSD draw a lot of current on 5v rail.. more than a spinning drive. Look at the disk label.. it is probably 2A or more.

That is WAY WAY beyond what USB2 port is designed for.. 0.5A and the TC would struggle to supply even that.


I also note this is a poor way to use SSD. USB2 port on a TC .. even the most recent one will be lucky to manage file transfer speeds of 15MByte/s when the SSD will handle 500MB/s. (maybe less in USB3 due to overheads but still FAST). A low end 1TB spinning drive is plenty fast enough for USB connections to network routers.


The question is if there is an alternative router to the Time Capsule


I tested extensively with Asus router.. several of them actually. They support Time Machine but I found it unreliable and could not recommend it.. about once every two months it would corrupt and need to start over. That is no where near good enough. Ignore what you read in tests that might run for a week if that.. I tested for over a year.. and was hit over and over again with the corruption. I fiddled every setting at my disposal to make it more reliable with no useful improvement. That is partly just Time Machine not being that reliable any more.. same thing happens on a Time Capsule if less frequently. It may work OK with a better backup software like Carbon Copy Cloner.


The Synology router on the other hand is one I do trust. I did not do long term testing on the router (RT2600AC and RT1900AC) but I do run Synology NAS which is at least as good as Time Capsule. The firmware on the router is based on the same firmware in the NAS so it is a lot more sophisticated than vast majority of routers around.

Speed is also good.. the Synology with USB3 set to max speed (which reduces 2.4ghz speed due to interference) equals or tops the best speed I could get out of the latest Time Capsule internal disk. However it is still around half the speed of the true NAS.


So let me gather up a few thoughts here.

  1. SSD are wasted in networks (unless you are on 10Gbit) due to saturation of even gigabit networks. Full speed gigabit 1000Mbit/s is 125MBytes/s.. even a low end NAS nowadays should achieve write speed of 100MBytes/s and slightly better reads. Spinning drives are actually better for bulk storage of data. And more than fast enough. Some low end self-powered might only manage 80MB/s. So if possible think NAS for the future.. expensive but long term well worth it. Some high end NAS can use small SSD for cache.. this is only going to speed up data flows where people use virtual environments and many different programs. Otherwise standard NAS spinning drives are fine.
  2. Buy a 1 or 2TB drive (up to 4TB is safe) for your TC if you really want to keep it running. Internal disk access speed is hugely better than USB. And standard 3.5" drives are cheap as. Changing disks on the early models is pretty easy. Apple installed Samsung Spinpoint which were not the greatest. Samsung disk division was bought by seagate. Most normal so called green drives, NAS drives or standard desktop drives will be low power and work fine. Enterprise drives are to be avoided due to lack of spin down and high current and heat generation. Saying that I really like Toshiba disks and have used a higher end 8TB in a Gen4 TC which worked fine.
  3. Time Machine is problematic at all times with later OS and Network targets including Time Capsules make it much much worse. I run both TM and Carbon Copy Cloner. The later just once a day to a local USB drive on the Mac. It has never let me down. TM to whatever target I am testing at the time.. with the strong expectation that it will flash up this message at any moment.


Unable to backup to external drive connected to Airport Time Capsule

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