Anyone here use Apples Time Capsule?

[Ill Frequencies]

Can't decide if I should get this or just an external HD..?

Any opinions would be great

[djod]

I have one and use it for timemachine via wifi and its flawless.
Its set and forget. Just perfect.

Laterz

[Monchai]

me too, works great but I haven't tried restoring the whole system yet.

[swishniak]

i use time machine on usb drives - one at home, one at the studio and a portable that i take on tour. they are all cheap normal usb drives, but have saved my ass several times and let me sleep better at night.

[trevox]

I have a standard external HDD using time machine. It's in a FW case and is daisy chained after my sound card, so I don't even have to think of plugging it in or anything. Most of the time you don't know it's there. I have transferred from one mac to another once (both running SL), upgraded to Lion using it and restored my system completely once when Finder went crazy and couldn't find a solution that worked. All times were relatively seamless - just the odd bit of re-entering activation codes etc. I have also pulled older versions of files which has been a lifesaver at times - well it certainly saved me a lot of work!

I guess the thing to consider is - do you mind having to plug a HDD in for backup? If not, it is far cheaper to use a standard USB/FW drive. While I have never used a time capsule itself, given the amount of time it takes to transfer media to my NAS drive, I would imagine USB/FW is a lot faster too.

[Ill Frequencies]

Ah sweet I forgot that you could use time machine with just a normal hd :p will probs just go a normal external hd then as time capsule price is a bit much for me at the moment and I really don't mind having it plugged in.

Cheers for the responses.

[c5_convertible]

Maybe you could also take a look at the Synology NAS range. They support time machine out of the box.
They are nicely priced, and have lots and lots of features that might be handy as well.
And, you can have them in several configurations (from one drive up to 24...)

That is what I use. I have a DS1511+ with 5 1TB Disks in it. This can be expanded to 15 drives if I ever need them.
And, it is as easy as using a time capsule. You just switch the thing on, follow the instructions, and enable time machine support. Done. Can be seen immediately in Time machine after that.

[posssu]

I don't have Time Capsule, but used to backup via Airport Extreme into a HD (same principle). I really can't recommend it. Especially if you have lots of new data, it's really really slow to backup via wifi and the capsule will be running constantly in the corner. Much more effective to use Time Machine and just an external HD.

But if you have a laptop and don't have running on same desk all the time, then I understand Time Capsule might be nicer to use.

[jonny72]

Time Capsules are nice but way too expensive for what you get. If you can use an external drive either connected directly or over a (wired) network then it's a far better and cheaper option.

I'd also recommend a Synology box. I've got a DS411J, not cheap at about £500 (including 4 x 2Tb drives) but worth every penny. Works perfectly as a file server and supports Time Machine backups, but it's all the other features you get on top. I use it as for a home security system, wire up a camera and then I get alerts if there is movement and can view a live stream over the internet (or my iPhone or iPad). Loads of other useful stuff it can do though; FTP/web/mail server, photos, music etc. Next version of their software is adding a Dropbox service, so you can host and sync from the box.

[icedsushi]

really really slow to backup via wifi and the capsule will be running constantly in the corner. Much more effective to use Time Machine and just an external HD.

Exactly my experience with backup via WiFi with my Time Capsule. It's painfully slow. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal because of it being in the background, but the use of resources during the backup dramatically slow down what you're doing on the computer at the same time. I've had simple tasks like just saving a file & waiting for the file save box be delayed by 20 seconds because of it. Whatever you do, forget about doing backups over WiFi with Time Machine it's just not worth slowing things down to have one less cord. Use a hard-wired connection.

I imagine any backup via WiFi would be this way, probably not unique to the Time Capsule. I believe you can plug in the Time Capsule which should speed things up. But I haven't tried that. It only has ethernet so I don't know how fast that would be compared to a USB or FireWire drive.

I'm switching to using a regular USB drive. I got tired of the WiFi backups slowing down my system to a crawl, and I'd like to use something smaller and/or faster RPM specs, than the Time Capsule which might excel more at serving a single purpose etc.

[posssu]

really really slow to backup via wifi and the capsule will be running constantly in the corner. Much more effective to use Time Machine and just an external HD.

Exactly my experience with backup via WiFi with my Time Capsule. It's painfully slow. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal because of it being in the background, but the use of resources during the backup dramatically slow down what you're doing on the computer at the same time. I've had simple tasks like just saving a file & waiting for the file save box be delayed by 20 seconds because of it. Whatever you do, forget about doing backups over WiFi with Time Machine it's just not worth slowing things down to have one less cord. Use a hard-wired connection.

I imagine any backup via WiFi would be this way, probably not unique to the Time Capsule. I believe you can plug in the Time Capsule which should speed things up. But I haven't tried that. It only has ethernet so I don't know how fast that would be compared to a USB or FireWire drive.

I'm switching to using a regular USB drive. I got tired of the WiFi backups slowing down my system to a crawl, and I'd like to use something smaller and/or faster RPM specs, than the Time Capsule which might excel more at serving a single purpose etc.

Word!