Time Capsule died (No power / light on)

I am leaning toward getting a new Airport Extreme with a separate 2T HD because I don't want to have the same problem that I had in the past with TC.

If you are planning to use Time Machine for backups, you might not be aware that Apple does not support Time Machine backups to a drive attached to the USB port on the AirPort Extreme.

Specifically, Apple states that Time Machine can’t back up to an external disk connected to an AirPort Extreme....

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/15139.html

Me too, I just moved house yesterday and plugged the cable into teh rear of the TC this morning and totally dead ...... crap!!!

It has all my back ups on it.

Should I take it to the shop as I am reading that Apple do not support and will not fix? As with a dead PC you can get access to the hard drive, can this be done in this case as I assume the drive is still ok, its just a power issue?

Cheers

Hi again,

I called them this morning. Admits my allergies and sneezing I was able to talk to them.

They will replace it with basically no questions asked.

I guess also having a MBP under AppleCare also helped too as the case is registered under that.

They gave me a few options.

The could take my credit card number as insurance and send me a new one and them I send them my dead one back, or I could take it into an Apple Store for a replacement there. The problem is that I have data on there that I want to maintain, so they said take it to the Apple Store or an Apple Service provider and they would handle the transfer.

I don't have an Apple Store in my city, but have a Service Provider that I know that could do the transfer for me, but I kinda want to do it at the Apple Store because maybe then they would give me a new one instead of another w year tombstone.

So I need to weigh my options.

I'll let you know further what happens.

P.S. my serial number was not in the range listed, but that didn't seem to make a difference. I think the key is to be courteous, respectful and friendly.

I had a similar problem with my first generation Time Capsule about two years ago. The power supply crashed and all my backups were on the drive. I called Apple and they offered to replace the Time Capsule with another first generation TC but there was no way to replace the data. All data lost! Fortunately, I had my iMac and MacBooks that contained all of my necessary data and I backed them both up onto the new Time Capsule which I continue to use after two years. As a fallback I have been backing up my data on a separate LaClie once per day using the Mobile Me BackUp program, in addition to the regularly scheduled TC backups.

Now that my TC is getting older and the drive (500 MB) is almost 90% full I am considering a replacement. I am leaning toward getting a new Airport Extreme with a separate 2T HD because I don't want to have the same problem that I had in the past with TC.

Yes, Apple said that I could get my data off if I took it to an Apple Store or Apple Service Provider.

All my data is now sitting safely on an external drive.

My Apple Service provider opened up my Time Capsule and mounted it in an external case for me and I copied off the data that I needed and then zeroed out the drive over night a bunch of times to prevent data coming into someone else's hands in the future.

My replacement TC should be arriving very shortly today.

Cheers and hope this is a useful answer,

Andrew

My TC power supply packed up just after a year. I was told that no repairs are done to TC and no spares available? I have invested greatly throughout the years (since 1985) in Apple equipment and regard Apple as the best.

How come no repairs or parts available for TC? My supplier suggested to buy a new one and to throw the old one in the dustbin? Can I not buy a new power supply??

There seem to be a weakness with Apple Power Supplies as the Power Supplies of two of my Apple Cine Screens also packed up after 14 and 16 months respectively. I bought replacements and had no further problems.

Now my TC after just after a year. Can I not buy a new power supply?? Apple Support Please!!

This device cost me in access of R6000 in my country. Hard to accept no support on this issue!

Any Advice?

Apple consider the TC a consumable.. so the attitude is throw it in the bin and buy a new one. Too many executive lunches amongst the top brass at Apple and too much money sloshing around in their funds, to consider it worthy of their notice.. besides they make more money selling a new one.

But there are repairs which are simple relatively to do. If you have basic handiman skills or a good electronics repairer nearby anybody can replace a few capacitors.

https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s/apple-time-capsule-repair

So what happened? Did Apple repair/replace it?

did they say if they could recover the data as thats my main concern

People are able to do this, but what this document is really saying is that if it doesn't work, you are not going to get any support from Apple about this as it is not officially supported.

-Andrew.

Thanx a million LaPastenaque!

I will now be able to sort this out.

I also want to replace the HD with a 3T ?

Would I need any software to be installed on the new HD?