Time Capsule backup to USB

Do you want to copy all of the data on the Time Capsule hard drive over to a USB drive connected to the USB port on the Time Capsule? If yes, you can use the Archive function in AirPort Utility to accomplish this easily.

Make sure that the USB drive is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Connect the USB drive to the USB port on the Time Capsule

Open AirPort Utility, select the Time Capsule and click on the Disks tab

Click on the Archive button

In the example above, all of the data on the Time Capsule disk named "Data" will be copied over to the USB disk named 500 GB Drive.

If this is not what you want to do, we'll need more details.

Very strange. I've done this a number of times with no issues.

The only way that data would not now be present on the TC would be if the TC disk was erased. Is it possible that you might have clicked the Erase button by mistake instead of Archive?

If you power off the TC and restart your Mac, what happens if you click on the Time Machine "clock" icon at the top of the Mac's screen and then click on Open Time Machine Preferences? This should display a window that shows the current status of the Time Capsule disk.......named "Data" by default.

In the example below, my Time Capsule disk is named Backups and you can see that my Mac is backing up to that disk. I also back up the Mac to an external hard drive named MBP TM.

Are you sure that the USB drive is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? If the info with the USB drive indicates that it will work with both PC and Mac.......then the USB drive is not formatted correctly for the Archive process.

Post back immediately if you are unsure about this.

After you click Archive, you will be asked to confirm again that you want to copy the data on the TC drive over to the USB Drive

When you click to confirm, another window will appear that looks like this:

Note that the info indicates that the Time Capsule status light will blink amber while the disk is being archived.

Click Continue to confirm and start the process.

If the USB drive is formatted correctly, the process will begin after a few seconds and the amber light will begin to blink slowly to confirm that the Archive process is proceeding correctly.

The amber light will continue to blink slowly until the Archive process has completed. When the light turns back to solid green, that is your confirmation that the Archive process has completed.

You are copying all of the data on the Time Capsule disk over to the USB disk, so it's going to take a long time. How long will depend on how much data is stored on the Time Capsule disk.

As I recall, an Archive of a 2 TB Time Capsule.....which was close to full.....took a few days last time I did this.

The Archive function is really useful if the Time Capsule drive is close to full, and you want to copy all of the data on the Time Capsule drive before you erase the Time Capsule drive.

For regular use, I'm sure that you have already figured out the big downside to the Archive process.

Average copy/transfer speed is usually around 30-50 GB per hour. Speeds will vary during the process.

So, after 10 hours, 300-500 GB will have been copied.

After 20 hours, double that to 600GB to 1,000 GB (1 TB)

After 30 hours, it's up to 900 GB to 1500 GB (1.5 TB)

After 40 hours, 1200 GB (1.2 TB) to 2000 (2 TB)

So, if your Time Capsule is 2 TB and it is close to full, the copy/archive is likely going to be anywhere from approximately 40-60 hours.

Hang in there. You can perform other tasks on your computer(s) and mobile devices during the copy/archive process. You will be notified when the process completes and the indictor light on the Time Capsule will switch back to green.

Nice work!

There is a scale just below the picture of the Time Capsule that you can check from time to time to note the overall progress of the Archive.