Can I recover my Time Capsule data? Panicking!!!!

For the future always have more than one backup on more than one device. In my own situation I have three backups, one on Time Machine, one cloned backup (SuperDuper) and another cloned backup that I keep in my fireproof file vault and rotate once a month with the other cloned backup. Some even recommend keeping a backup off site, like in a bank Safe Deposit box. it all depends on how much you value your “entire life”.

It’s never a question IF a storage device will fail but WHEN it will fail.

Unfortunately, it is not looking good.

"Data" needs to show up when you click the Disks tab in AirPort Utility.

AirPort Disk must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Do you recall connecting the drive directly to your Mac and using Disk Utility to format "AirPort Disk" that way?

There are really two issues here.

1) The Time Capsule disk "Data" is not displaying......likely because the disk has failed.

2) The "target" disk for the Archive that you want to perform may not be formatted correctly.

The first order of business is to try to get the Time Capsule disk "Data" displaying again. The Archive process cannot run as long as "Data" is not displayed.

Try powering off the Time Capsule and leaving it off for a few minutes. Then, power the Time Capsule back up to see if "Data" will be displayed in the Finder.

At this point, you will have to look for an independent shop that can pull the hard drive out of the Time Capsule and take it apart to see if the data is still good on the disk.

Unfortunately, this type of thing is really expensive......you must usually pay up front.....and there will be no guarantee of success.

Wish there were better news, but this is really the only option left. If the shop is successful, you won't need to run the Archive, the shop can simply copy the data from the Time Capsule disk over to your SSD.

Have the shop also check to make sure that the SSD is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

I have the tools to take the hard drive out of the housing and connect it directly to my computer and I have data recovery software.

That would be great if it works, but if the drive has failed......(the disk is not spinning) you will have to take the drive apart and install the disk itself in another "caddy" or something similar.