Q: Time Capsule as file server, backed up to external drive
-
Dec 14, 2011 1:23 PMby LaPastenague,HelpfulIt isn't designed for what you want.
Yes, you can do it, but the problem is the TC has no internal backup mechanism except to archive the entire disk to the USB drive.. it takes many hours as it is extremely slow. It is also manual and will require the TC to do nothing else for up to a day .. or more once you get up to 2TB or larger.
The only other way to do it, is to use some sort of backup software on the computer.. that will incrementally backup the TC.. but actually changes in the sparse bundles if you are using them for backups will take a long time as I doubt the software will be able to see inside and just backup the changes. If the USB drive is plugged into the TC it will still be copied across the network and then back again to the TC.. so that is pointless, and slow as molasses in Jan. (in northern hemisphere). You may as well plug the usb drive in the computer and run the backup there. Then you think.. why am I doing that. I should just backup straight to the usb drive plugged into the computer.. so you see, it is not ideal. Doable.. not can you be bothered and what happens if you forget.
IMHO the very definition of a NAS is a device that
1. Creates a mirror of the files stored.
2. Has some easy backup method to a drive plugged into the NAS, that uses rsync or some simple automated way to keep the backup in sync with the storage.. without human intervention.. because humans are feeble and fragile and forget.
The TC is a backup device designed for Time Machine and particularly for laptops, where plugging in a hard disk is messy, and ugly. And people want to do it automatically over wireless. In the end, TC is a router (it is identical to the Airport Extreme of the time.. minus antenna placement) with a hard disk hanging off it.
-
Dec 14, 2011 3:47 PMby Pondini,HelpfulTony500 wrote:
Hello.
Is it possible to use Time Capsule as a file server, and have it back up to an external hard drive plugged into the USB port? There will actually be two external drives, one plugged in, and the other stored off-site. They'll be switched every week or so.
As LaPastenague says, if the data on the TC's internal HD is in one or more disk images, that can be done, but may be difficult.
But if it's in a normal folder/file structure, CarbonCopyCloner can do it, as can ChronoSync. Neither will be very fast, however, as the data must go from the TC to your Mac, then back to the external HD via the TC! So it would actually be considerably faster to connect the HDs directly to the Mac that's running the app.
-
Jul 17, 2012 7:30 AMby capaho,Tony500 wrote:
Hello.
Is it possible to use Time Capsule as a file server, and have it back up to an external hard drive plugged into the USB port? There will actually be two external drives, one plugged in, and the other stored off-site. They'll be switched every week or so.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
You need a bona fide NAS, like QNAP or Synology, to backup the internal hard drive to both an attached USB drive and a remote cloud storage device. A NAS works better than a TC as a file server and a network backup device, but most NAS models don't include a built-in router.
-
Jul 17, 2012 2:04 PMby LaPastenague,xosa wrote:
Yes, you CAN do this.
You can use AirPort Utility 5.3.1 or later to transfer a complete copy (backup) of the data from your Time Capsule disk to an external disk that's connected via the Time Capsule's USB port.
Sure you can manually archive the disk.. and when you add 1GB of files. you can manually archive the whole disk again.. because that is the only choice.. archive the entire disk.. no increments.. and once you get up to 1TB and over it will take a day or more.. during which the TC disk is unavailable to the network.
That is not a very satisfactory backup method.
