How to access the hard drive in my Time Capsule via ethernet, not wireless

Question

How to access the hard drive in my Time Capsule via ethernet, not wireless

I have a new Netgear 802.11ac router with ethernet ports. I also have an older (4 years old) Time Capsule that I replaced with the new Netgear router. My iPhoto library was recently corrupted (long story there). I don't have a backup except on my Time Capsule. How do I access the Time Capsule's hard drive over ethernet so that I can copy the iPhoto Library off of it and onto my Thunderbolt external hard drive? It's the only chance I have to save years of photos (my iPhoto library is 258 Gb large). I don't want to do this wirelessly. I've tried using ethernet cable from the TC to my Macbook Pro and to one of the ethernet ports on the Netgear router, but to no avail. I'm sure it's got to be simple but I've almost given up trying different configurations.

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Oct 19, 2013 1:19 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 19, 2013 1:31 PM in response to Rick Fernandez1

Insure that you have an Ethernet cable connected from one of the LAN <-> ports on the Netgear router to a LAN <-> port on the Time Capsule.

Connect another Ethernet cable from the MacBook Pro to another LAN <-> port on the Time Capsule.

Open up AirPort Utility on the Macbook.

Can AirPort Utility "see" the Time Capsule in AirPort Utility?

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Answer 2

Oct 19, 2013 1:38 PM in response to Rick Fernandez1

Plug the TC directly into the netgear by ethernet.

Then do a factory reset. This will not harm your existing backups in any way.

The Factory Reset Gen1-4.

Unplug your TC. Hold in reset. and power the TC back on.. without releasing reset for about 10sec. When the status light flashes rapidly; release it.

Be Gentle! Feel the switch click on. It has a positive feel.. add no more pressure after that.

TC will reboot after a couple of minutes with default factory settings and will wipe out previous configurations.

No files are deleted on the hard disk.. No reset of the TC deletes files.. to do that you use erase from the airport utility.

Connect to the TC by wireless.. this is just to do the setup..

Put the TC in bridge mode.

The TC will now appear as a client in the Netgear and should be accessible.. if not there is something else going on.. the Netgear may not be working properly with the TC. It happens.

I am not sure what equipment you have.. but if you have a thunderbolt connected hard drive.. how are you then connecting by ethernet to the Netgear.. as I understand it, unless your hard disk has a thunderbolt passthough port.. and you have tested and found the ethernet does still work with the hard disk in the chain.

There is no reason you cannot do it direct to the TC if you have enough ports. But the TC should be reset as above so it is in router mode. That is the only way you can connect to it as otherwise it is bridged.

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Answer 3

Oct 19, 2013 6:55 PM in response to Rick Fernandez1

Thank you for your ideas! However, this is what ultimately worked for me:

I turned off the Netgear router and removed the cable modem's ethernet cable from its WAN port

Then I reconnected the cable modem's ethernet cable to the TC's WAN port instead

I then connected ethernet between one of the LAN ports on the TC to the ethernet port on my MBP

(I did use Airport Utility only to make sure that wireless was turned OFF on TC, which it must be)

Lastly, I rebooted the router and the MBP.

Then I did a command-K in the Finder and found the TC.

From there it was a cinch to copy my iPhoto Library from my most recent backup to my external USB3 drive.

Thanks again!

Rick

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Answer 4

cavenewt

Level 2

355 points

Jul 13, 2014 1:39 PM in response to Rick Fernandez1

Today I had this exact need, to recover an iPhoto library from an old Time Capsule. All I had to do was plug in the Time Capsule to power, then connect one of its LAN ports to the ethernet port on my laptop. The Time Capsule drive shows up in the Shared section of a Finder window sidebar, if you have servers set to show up there in Finder Preferences.

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