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Will Time Capsule work as External Hard-Drive?

I'm looking for a device to move all my pics and video to as my MacBook Air is running out of storage. I was told by a sales guy at a Mac Store (not apple store) that the Airport Time Capsule would not work because it only does a mirror back-up and any files that I delete off my MacBook would also get deleted off the Time Capsule. First, is this true? Second if so what device will work as a wireless external hard drive for my MacBook?

MacBook Air, iOS 8.2

Posted on Mar 13, 2015 6:29 PM

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1 reply

Mar 13, 2015 8:22 PM in response to BeaufordsQ

I was told by a sales guy at a Mac Store (not apple store) that the Airport Time Capsule would not work because it only does a mirror back-up and any files that I delete off my MacBook would also get deleted off the Time Capsule.

There is some confusion here between Time Machine and Time Capsule.


The software that backs up your Mac is Time Machine.. it is not going to provide an alternative to storage locally.. so if you delete items from the Mac hard disk .. TM will delete the file from the backup.


What the Time Capsule basically is.. a wireless router with a dumb hard disk inside.. that has nothing to do with backups... but neither is it a fully fledged NAS.. it is kind of like any low level router to which you plug in a hard disk.. the fact that TC has it internal helps its speed but adds nothing to its functionality.


You can indeed store your files on a TC..


With the following provisions..


1. Time Machine will no longer work. TM is limited to local disks..


2. iphoto in particular is specifically stated by apple to be an application that needs a local disk.. using network disk.. ie TC will result in corruption.


http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168

Although mostly about FAT32 it adds network drives.


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198

Note this applies to all network drives.. not just TC .. everything.

3. No backup.. your files are now sitting on a Time Capsule.. TM cannot back them.. and here TC fails to be a NAS.. all NAS can back themselves up to a backup USB disk.. TC cannot do this.. there is no incremental backup available.. and so if you want to backup your files you must do it manually ie copy and paste .. or use a decent backup software like Carbon Copy Cloner.. since it is beyond TM. And then the question arises . .where are you going to target the backups.. the very worst location is over wireless to a USB on the TC.. since that will make for extraordinarily slow backups.

I'm looking for a device to move all my pics and video to as my MacBook Air is running out of storage.

The correct place to do this is an external drive plugged into the MBA. So TM can continue to backup the files to the TC.

if so what device will work as a wireless external hard drive for my MacBook?

There is no such thing as a wireless external hard drive.. you must plug an external drive into the MBA by USB or FW or Thunderbolt depending on the age of the unit.. All wireless drives are network.. very few exist.. Most NAS are devices you plug into a wireless router.. and I would recommend against wireless built into a NAS.. it will not be as good or fast as a wireless router.


TC can be pressed into service.. as long as you are prepared to deal with backups.. and the fact that you will eventually corrupt your iphoto library and should really use TC only for storage not live files.

Will Time Capsule work as External Hard-Drive?

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