airport time capsule as hard drive

I had this problem too. Yes you can use it as a hard drive, and better yet, you can use it wirelessly with a password. You can figure out how by checking my thread out. You can find it here. If you have any questions, let me know because I am happily using it without internet interruptions, and I got it to work. I would recommend reading the whole thread before trying nay steps listed. Anyways, here is a more simplified process:

1. Connect to router - First, find an ethernet cable laying around, or disconnect one from your mac. Then, plug one end into the LAN slot <--> of your router. Then, connect the other end into your hard drive / Time Capsule via the WAN port. The WAN port is the one that has a dotted circle printed on top of it.

2. Clear hard drive - I would recommend doing this if the hard drive is on the filled up side. Be warned, make sure you get any important files out of the drive. If you don't know how to do this, then skip this step for now and come back to it later on. First, open up the app Airport Utility. It should appear inside the Utilities folder inside the Application folder in your finder. Select your Time Capsule, then click edit. Once your are in the menus, select disks on the top. Then click Erase Disk. This will erase everything off your hard drive. You will keep the settings, but your data will be irrecoverable. Again, only do this if you feels certain there is nothing on there that you need.

3. Factory Reset - Don't worry, this isn't as daunting as it may sound. You are going to keep all of your files, just erase your settings. First, get a bent paperclip or mechanical pencil. Next, unplug all cables from the time capsule except the power. Instead, unplugged the power from the wall. Then hold down the reset button which is by the oval shaped opening and below the printed play button. While holding it down, plug the Time Capsule back in to the wall. keep holding the button down for about 15 seconds.

4. Reconnect all cables. When you go into Airport Utility, it should show up in other devices as Airport Time Capsule a7as5 or something like that. Click on it and set it up. Click create a new network. once you are in, set the name and password for it (you will use this to unlock disk later) then go over to the network tab and change network mode to "Off (Bridge Mode)". Then go to wireless tab and select off for the network mode. Then click update, and wait a minute.

5. Go to finder and click on the airport's name that you gave it. It should be under the shared tab, but if it's not, then click on Finder at the top left of your screen and select Preferences. Then make sure that all the items under the "Shared" heading are turned on. Go back and it should appear. Enter password if prompted, and there you go! click on the Data folder and drag and drop any items you want into it.

6. only do this step if you skipped 2. Take any files out of the hard drive that you may need, then continue on with the rest of step 2.

I hope this helped you. This took me a long time to write and would not be possible without Bob Timmons. He was the one that helped me get through my problem, so props to him. If you have any further questions, please just reply to me and i'll try to answer it. Good luck 🙂

Are you asking if it is possible to turn off the WiFi on the Time Capsule and connect it to another router that is providing a WiFi signal?

If yes, then the Time Capsule can be set up this way......but.....and this is a big BUT......Apple does not officially support backups to the Time Capsule using Time Machine in this type of setup. So, things might work....and they might not.

No way to know how well....or if....this type of setup will work until you try it out on your own network router.

Maybe if you could provide more details on exactly what it is that you are trying to accomplish, we could provide a better and more accurate answer.

Yes, it is possible to just use the Time Capsule as a network drive to store files. You don't have to use it for Time Machine backups. However, if you haven't already purchased it, I would highly recommend against doing so for just using it for this purpose.

If you only need an external storage device, you may be better served with just an external drive that was designed for that specific purpose. The Time Capsule is a wireless router with a built-in drive.

As Tesserax notes, the a Time Capsule is both a wireless router and hard drive. One-half to two-thirds of the cost of the product is tied up in the router, so if you are only planning to use the Time Capsule as a hard drive, there are far better investments for you to make. But, it's your call.

You potentially can use it for either or both. However, it was designed to be used as a destination for Time Machine backups.