Internal disk needs repair

As of High Sierra and with the demise of the TC in Apple lineup, the server TM function is available without the license.

https://www.howtogeek.com/330288/how-to-set-up-your-mac-to-act-as-a-networked-time-machine-drive/

That would seem like the ideal solution. For whatever reason it has not proven to be. I have not used it recently.. but early experiments were not promising. I suggest you do a simple setup and take it for whirl. Tell us how it goes.

Again you might find Time Machine on Catalina is not the greatest and CCC will work with the same setup more reliably.

We were trying to be accurate in stating earlier that the Time Capsule was never designed to be serviced and will tend to self destruct when you open up the case. So, you are wise to be extremely careful and not tug or pull on anything that looks like it could break or tear.

Good luck!

They look very fragile.

Yes.. the power plug is fine.. and you already have the SATA-POWER connector off the hard disk but the other plugs, Fan, LED, Reset are a real pain.. also to get them back in again. I don't like them at all.

It is worst thing Apple have designed I have ever opened.

The older models were built like a computer.. the new model is built like an iPhone.

Actually a working Gen4 TC is just as good as Gen5 as far as router and maybe even better hard disk performance. It is just missing the AC wireless which was nothing super anyway.. I still have a couple of Gen4 I keep running as I do consider them good solid units.

The 3TB seagate was infamous.

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/222267-seagate-faces-lawsuit-over-3tb-hard-drive-failure-rates

One bad batch does not mean they are all bad.. But you might find it hard to find one made in the exact same case. Anyway I would just avoid 3TB desktop seagate altogether.

Be warned.. a lot of drives are now SMR type.. even standard desktop.. and even small sizes. These are to be avoided like the plague. And it is not easy to discover which are SMR and which are standard CMR.

For the TC I would be happy buying even a second hand WD Green or Red as long as it doesn't have too many hours. It is easy to cut a few bits of foam to mount the disk. They are much quieter drives than most of the seagate.

On the other hand if you will recover the disk when the TC dies.. which may not be too long and want a big drive.. 8TB for example then new WD Red or Purple, Seagate Ironwolf, Toshiba ??? I would tend to buy NAS drives as they are more useful IMHO into the future. Not required for the TC .. where basically any drive works.

Sorry.. that is not particularly helpful. Just at the moment with world trade in turmoil it is hard getting stock of hard disks.. often you have to buy what is available.. Low cost drives are generally fine. The previous model WD red or any WD purple would be my choice if you can get hold of them.. Toshiba or HGST tend to be better drives but more expensive.

Almost none of the current generation of Seagate will fit the form factor of the old 3TB desktop ones.

That is why the construction of the TC is so poor. Rubber blocks for mounts without screws.. hopeless. But the rubber blocks only match the one series of drives.

I am looking at Red-10TB-Internal-Hard-Drive which states that it is a CMR drive, but seems to be an FAX rather than a FRX drive.

SMR in the FAX series covers 1TB-6TB

The 8TB and larger are still CMR drives. (From info I read)

Drive costs are sky high.. no doubt about it. Supply and demand.

If you can get away with smaller drive and even buying second hand do it. Drive prices will come down once the world starts working again.

That is really poor.

Refusal to boot means a drive controller that is dead and likely shorted. That happens when the computer undergoes a surge and protection diodes on the board might have saved it but are sacrificed in the process.

..... I will pull the drive out and check.

That is all that you can do at this point, assuming that you have tried a few restarts of the Time Capsule.



Good luck!