My Time Capsule just died on me. So before I go drop another $500 for another one, I just wanted to check here to ask if there were any other options as far as similar storage devices for backing up my MBP. I am wondering if I can buy a Network Storage device to do the same thing as the time machine. Any advice would be apprecieated.
I'm not a big fan of TimeCapsule or TimeMachine as I don't think they serve the needs for users for more robust and stable solutions.
TC and TM serve more of Apple's interests in selling you more complicated expensive hardware and reducing their support costs than anything else.
Read through my user tip here and take control with bootable clones, it's awesome as you can boot the machine from them and make more clones so your data is much more safer and less headaches on your part as well.
Most commonly used backup methods
Powered drives are cheap, about $130 each + the cloning software. A new TC is a whopping $500 and can't boot the machine neither, nor make duplicates of itself or be used in file recovery efforts etc.
Get an external hard drive and periodically connect your computer to it for Time Machine backup. Cheap and easy. And it can be a life saver.
Agree with CT.
CT wrote:
And it (TimeMachine) can be a life saver.
Not if your internal drive is not booting it isn't.
A clone is bootable in seconds and is as recent as the last saved update, then one can retrive files off the internal drive (if it's working) even get deleted files off a hard drive with Data Rescue, and either run the computer off the external drive clone (like if the internal drive is dead) or erase and reverse clone all their troubles away in about a hour or so.
TimeMachine is only a backup system, if one's boot drive fails to start because of hardware or software causes, it requires a lenghly fix either in hardware or in some cases software before a restore can occur.
Also since it's not bootable, one can't use a TM drive to use Data Rescue type software to recover data (even deleted) off the internal hard drives.
Clones are bootable, thus they can be checked out that they are functioning correctly to restore, TimeMacine can't do that so you have no idea if your data on the TM drive is going to restore, unless you take the effort to do so to a external drive and boot from it.
TimeMachine copies the same corruption problems that are occuring on the boot drive and if a TimeMachine drive is corrupt, god help you. At least with a non-booting clone I can read the files directly or even connect it to a PC and recover files.
Because I maintain my machines and software very well, I never really had any issues for over 20 years of using Mac's.
However I did have a boot hard drive suddenly fail on my PowerMac G5 Dual once, but I was up in 20 seconds on my bootable clone and making another one on a new internal drive.
TimeMachine/TC is better than nothing, but it's far from being robust and relaible and in the case of TC, quite expensive to replace and hard to restore with.
rewyanc2k wrote:
My Time Capsule just died on me. So before I go drop another $500 for another one, I just wanted to check here to ask if there were any other options as far as similar storage devices for backing up my MBP. I am wondering if I can buy a Network Storage device to do the same thing as the time machine. Any advice would be apprecieated.
Did the entire Time Capsule die, or just the HD?
If only the HD, you can connect a USB drive to the TC and back up to it instead. That's a bit slower than backing-up to the internal HD, but not much. And it has the advantage that you can connect the drive directly to your Mac if necessary for certain operations. You can even do the first backup via USB, but it takes a bit of finagling. See the blue box in #Q2 of Using Time Machine with a Time Capsule.
It's always prudent to keep "secondary" backups, especially when your main ones are on a network. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for details and some suggestions.
You may also want to review Time Machine vs. Clones and Archives for an overview of the different types of backup apps, the advantages and disadvantages of each, and some recommendations.
EDIT: I'd strongly advise against a NAS, unless you're technically-proficient (if you are, I'd still advise against it, just not as strongly). See the pink box in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #2 for an explanation.
Message was edited by: Pondini
MBP Backup Options
