Time Capsule plus extra Hard drive

Time Machine (TM) treats each drive (internal & external) of the Time Capsule (TC) as separate drives. That would mean, from a client, TM can only back up to one or the other, not both simultaneously. Nor can you use an external drive to increase the capacity of the TC's internal drive for TM backups.

When I connect by USB to TC Time Machine Preferences shows both drives. One says "Data on Time Capsule" the other says "Time Machine Backups on Time Capsule" I can only select one at a time. Which is the Time Capsule?

The simplest way would be to temporarily disconnect the external drive, and then, note what TM tells you is the TC's internal drive.

If I want to have a backup of the backup on Time Capsule by having the external hard drive attached to TC by USB, how would this work?

You can archive the TC's internal drive to an externally connected USB HDD. You will find the Archive option on the Disks tab of AirPort Utility.

Time Machine can only be set to use one of the drives, is the second drive also receiving my backup?

As a part of configuring TM for first time use, you have an opportunity to identify which drive (internal or external) you want to TM backups when using a TC as the destination. Subsequent backups will go to the drive that you identify.

For example, you can configure TM on the MacBook to backup to the internal drive and TM on the Mac Mini to backup to the external drive. You can also configure both to backup to either the internal or external drive.

The idea of having another HDD was to provide another level of security. I'm not sure how to use the Archive setting, does it erase all the data already on the Time Capsule?

No, the archiving process does not erase any data on your TC. Instead, it make a copy (archive) of the existing data. You can elect to make multiple archive copies using multiple HDDs or periodically make archives with just a single HDD.

For more information about archiving, please check out this Apple Support article: Time Capsule: Using AirPort Utility 5.3.1 or later to make a copy of the Time Capsule disk

It looked like the initial question here was exactly my issue but I'm not sure of the replies. I have my 8 month old iMac working fine with my 1 TB Time Capsule. I want to be able to manually hook up a 500 GB portable hard drive for another complete backup and then keep the portable HD off premises as another level of backup security. What is the best way to do that? Total data on the Mac is currently about 100 GB. Can you archive a selected backup (most recent) from the TC without archiving the entire TC hard drive? Should it run through the TC or just connect directly to the Mac? Other issues? Thanks for any help.

wkiser wrote:
It looked like the initial question here was exactly my issue but I'm not sure of the replies. I have my 8 month old iMac working fine with my 1 TB Time Capsule. I want to be able to manually hook up a 500 GB portable hard drive for another complete backup and then keep the portable HD off premises as another level of backup security. What is the best way to do that? Total data on the Mac is currently about 100 GB. Can you archive a selected backup (most recent) from the TC without archiving the entire TC hard drive?

No. The archive copies the entire disk (and it's otherwise unusable during the copy).

Should it run through the TC or just connect directly to the Mac? Other issues? Thanks for any help.

It will be much faster to connect it directly to your Mac. You might also consider using a different app; that way, you've got two completely different backups in two separate places, with two different apps. See 27 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions for some suggestions.

I want to be able to manually hook up a 500 GB portable hard drive for another complete backup and then keep the portable HD off premises as another level of backup security. What is the best way to do that?

In this case you would point Time Machine at this external HDD for backups. Realize that this would start the backups from scratch. "Ping-ponging" between backup destinations would not be practical. I would think is would be simpler just to make the backups to the TC's internal drive, and then, periodically create archives to the external HDD for safe keeping.

Total data on the Mac is currently about 100 GB.

The "rule" is to have 2 - 2.5 x the storage capacity for the amount of data that you want to back up. As you no doubt already know the more available the "farther back in time" Time Machine can keep track of.

Can you archive a selected backup (most recent) from the TC without archiving the entire TC hard drive?

Unfortunately no. The archive process will back up the entire disk's contents including both TM backups and anything else stored there. One option is to acquire a number of external HDDs, and then, rotate them for the archives. For example, you can leave one off-site and the other nearby.

Should it run through the TC or just connect directly to the Mac?

The external HDD must be connected to the TC's USB port for the archive process to work.

Other issues?

To help answer any additional questions or information about any issues, I would strongly suggest that you take a look at this excellent FAQ source from one of our Discussion members, Pondini: Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions

Amazing knowledge that you folks kindly share with those of us trying to learn. Thanks for the answer. It looks like a good solution would be to just hook up the new external drive directly to the Mac and make a complete backup (probably overnight). That doesn't affect the TC or even involve it I guess.

A final query. Is there any advantage to buying a HDD already formatted for Mac (at a premium price) vs buying the same drive for a pc and then re-formatting it using the Mac utilities? Thanks again for your help.

wkiser wrote:
Amazing knowledge that you folks kindly share with those of us trying to learn.

Where do you think we learned much of what we know? (right here 🙂 )

Thanks for the answer. It looks like a good solution would be to just hook up the new external drive directly to the Mac and make a complete backup (probably overnight). That doesn't affect the TC or even involve it I guess.

Correct.

A final query. Is there any advantage to buying a HDD already formatted for Mac (at a premium price) vs buying the same drive for a pc and then re-formatting it using the Mac utilities?

As long as it can be formatted for a Mac, no. (I've heard that some can't, but I've never heard of anyone actually finding one -- that may have been many, many years ago).

And many of us recommend completely erasing and reformatting a new drive anyway, to get rid of the --junk-- optional software that's often included.

Thanks again for your help. I just finished reading your #27 Time Machine-FAQ including the link to explain clones. Excellent information and understandable. Sorry you had to repeat all the info you already laid out so nicely there. Is there much difference between the two cloning software programs?

I've never gotten around to trying SuperDuper, so can't really say. I understand the setup and operation of the two are somewhat different, but they both end up making a bootable clone. I get the impression some folks just prefer the interface or options of one or the other.

Since SD has a free version, and CCC is donationware, give them both a try.

Let us know what you think.

My issue solved. With your encouragement, I purchased a Seagate GoFlex 500 GB portable hard drive formatted for a pc. (Price was almost $100 cheaper than the Mac-formatted drive.) Seagate actually had step-by-step instructions on their support forum (as also posted here) as to how to reformat the portable hard drive for use with a Mac. Very simple using the Mac Utilities. I then downloaded the free version of CarbonCopyCloner. Also very simple and also quite easy to use. I connected the portable hard drive directly to my iMac via USB. Then I used CCC to make a clone of my Mac hard drive. That took a couple of hours or so -- as expected. I just let it run overnight. Now I have a second backup in the form of a clone of my iMac hard drive on the portable hard drive which I plan to keep off site. Routine backups are on my TimeCapsule. I plan to do a re-clone of the iMac every couple of weeks. I also plan to go back to the CCC website and make a donation for the software. It worked great. Thanks for all your help, advice, and encouragement.

I've just set up a time capsule to replace my old external hard drive. How do I now ensure that the files on the old hard drive are copied to the new time capsule? Do I just plug the old one into the new one and it will do that automatically or is it more complicated? Any advice greatly received. Thanks.