time capsule formatting...

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Level 1

36 points

time capsule formatting...

Hi

Ive decided to reformat my time capsule hard drive as its been taking a while to go through the 'freeing up space' sequence. I thought it might be good just to give it a fresh start.

Im just wondering what the best way to format it is? If I erase it using airport utility it doesn't give me any options as to what format I want to use. Should I reformat as APFS using disk utility? or is airport utility good enough?

Many thanks for your help

Nick

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 23, 2020 12:24 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Bob Timmons

Community+ 2024

Level 10

161,504 points

Nov 23, 2020 2:43 PM in response to Nickholl

Apple sparse bundle disk image is just that.....an image on the Time Capsule drive. Time Machine Backups are stored in Time Machine Backups inside the sparsebundle.

You need to format the drive named "Data", which is the Time Capsule hard drive.....unless you have changed the name of the drive.

APFS was not around when the Time Capsule was designed in 2012 and Apple never released a firmware update to allow this. The hard drive will be formatted in Mac. You have no choice on this.

The "sparsebundle file" image on the Mac formatted hard drive might be formatted in APFS though if your Mac is running Big Sur, even though the "Data" hard drive itself will be formatted in Mac. Time Machine will take care of this automatically. Might work, might not. Results vary.

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Answer 2

Nickholl Author

Level 1

36 points

Nov 23, 2020 2:26 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Hi - thanks

Im not very technical on these matters - but Im just curious to know why it doesn't reformat as APFS?

Interestingly when in disk utility it does seem to give me the option to reformat there (although I havent, and used airport utility as suggested)

thank again

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Answer 3

Nov 23, 2020 2:11 PM in response to Nickholl

You will need to use AirPort Utility to format the drive on the Time Capsule. The drive will be formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

You have 4 options for the process.

1) Quick Erase......only takes a minute or two and will be fine if you are keeping the Time Capsule for your own use

2) Zero Out Data.....replaces everything on the hard drive with zeros. Good choice if you won't be keeping the Time Capsule. Will take 8-12 hours or so to erase everything

3) 7 Pass Erase.....Runs the Zero Out Data process 7 times.....and takes 7 times longer. .Use this if you have government secrets on the Time Capsule

4 35 Pass Erase.....Runs Zero Out Data 35 times and will take 35 times longer.......only for the most paranoid folks

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