How to setup new VELOP mesh system with existing Time Capsule

Correct

After all the steps above, if things are set up correctly, you will now be on the Velop WiFi and you should now be able to "see" the Tim Capsule when you open AirPort Utility on your Mac.

If that does not work, then we are back to square one. That means resetting the Time Capsule back to factory default settings and starting all over again with a completely new setup for the TC. We are trying to avoid that if possible.

PS my TC is making spinning grinding sounds.

Unfortunately, we are going from bad to worse. I cannot offer any help on the grinding sound. Sounds like the TC hard drive is failing. If the TC is 6+ years old, then the hard drive is "suspect" at that point.

If we can get the TC up and running, you can connect a USB drive to the TC and copy everything off the TC disk to the USB drive to keep a copy of your backups, in case you need them going forward. But, the TC needs to be working correctly before you can do this.

If you want to try to get the TC working with the Velop system, we will have to start all over again from scratch, reset the TC, then set it up again. The article assumed that most of the work was already done, so it made things look simple.

Fortunately the reset will not affect any of the stored data on the TC hard drive, but I'm not optimistic about how long the TC will keep working based on your description of things.

I can help on the reset and setup of the TC, but It's your call if you want to try this.

I assume that Time Machine will find the TC connected to the VELOP after all this?

Best to not assume anything when you are making changes on a network. You might have missed the previous discussion in this thread when I covered this:

I gather I don't have to mess with Time Machine on my laptops during this process.

I answered as follows.........."That will remain to be seen, and cannot be known until you try to restart the backup process."

"Remember that Time Machine on each Mac has been programmed to locate the Time Capsule at a defined destination or location on your network. But.....you will have a new network.....and a new network location or destination for the Time Capsule......when the new Velop system is up and running. "

"It is possible that the old settings on each Mac to find the TC might still work.....and possible that they won't. If they don't, then we will have more work to do at the time to get Time Machine backups running again."

However.....If the TC is still making grinding noises......you may want to think about replacing the TC.

Now that I have a VELOP router I'm not sure how I can put a B/U disk on that network and access wirelessly through Time Machine. Let me know how to do that when you get a chance.

I would be amazed if the Velop router would support Time Machine backups to a USB drive connected to the Velop router. Very few routers will support Time Machine this way. Some that will are the Synology router and the upper end routers from Asus.

It won't hurt to try connecting a USB drive to the port on the Velop router to see if Time Machine will recognize it, but like I said......it is extremely unlikely that it will, since Velop makes no mention of Time Machine support in their product literature or specifications.

You could also post on a Velop support forum to ask about this though to get some more opinions.

While in-progress APU flashed a warning every so often that "this device may be overheating."

This message confirms that it is the internal fan that is the real culprit making the grinding noises, since hard drives tend to "click and clack" when they are failing.

The fan is likely clogged with dust or the motor bearings are wearing out, or both might be true. As it stands, the fan can't keep the internal electronics cool enough because it cannot move enough air.

Unfortunately, it is a job for a service pro to open up the Time Capsule to get at the internal components, since the TC was never designed to be serviced. The product is inclined to literally self-destruct if you try to open up the TC and don't know exactly what you are doing. A replacement fan will cost about $20-25, but the labor will be probably be in the range of $150-200 or more.

Can I use this disk to continue with Time Machine? The TC backups are for two laptops and only take up a bit more than 0.5 TB.

In theory, yes. In practice, I have not tried this, so cannot say what the results might be.

If this works for one machine can I swap it over to the other when I want?

In theory, yes. In practice, I have not tried this, so cannot say what the results might be.

Follow up.......

Can I use this disk to continue with Time Machine? The TC backups are for two laptops and only take up a bit more than 0.5 TB.

Probably not, since it appears that the existing Archive on the disk will be erased if you try to set up Time Machine to back up to the drive.

If this works for one machine can I swap it over to the other when I want?

Probably, since it appears that Time Machine can back up to the same disk from different Macs. This is different than backing up an Archive. Things would be better and simpler if you used a separate drive for each Mac if possible.

Simplest way to see or access the Archive contents on the USB drive.........

Connect the USB drive directly to your Mac

Double click on the drive icon

Hold down the option key on your Mac while you click on the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the Mac's screen

Click Browse Other Backup Disks

Select the backup that you want to view if it is not already highlighted

Click Use Disk and Time Machine will open to display the backups of the Mac that you have selected

Few of us ever need the old backups from weeks, months and even years going back in time, so once you have a few weeks of backups on the new USB drive, you could erase the Archive USB drive and use that to back up one of the Macs. The whole idea of an archive is simply to have a backup in case the TC failed and you needed to restore a file or files.

But, some users have a tough time erasing the old backups.....even when they know that they will likely never need them.