Apple Time Capsule. Yay or nay?

milltown

I need to sort out backing up my data before it's too late and Mrs.Milltown divorces me for losing years of photos etc.

Simplest solution would appear to be a 2TB time capsule (2TB should be plenty and I can't figure out how an extra 50% storage can cost almost 100% more). Like most things Mac I imagine it will be easy to set up and just work the way it should, backing up the iMac and MBP and feeding the house with wifi.

I'm presuming I can use it as my iTunes library too, and save the hassle of syncing my phone and ipods with two computers?

Price aside though, there looks to be cause for concern over the reliability of these, from reading the reviews on Apple's own site. Does anyone here use one? Or have experience with them? Was there a dodgy batch of a certain vintage that was particularly prone to failure? I'd hate to think I'd gotten round to safeguarding all the family's memories, only to have the safe go on fire. If something does fail it's most likely to be the hdd, right? Chances of recovering data without paying big money would be slim, no?

What other options would be recommended? Airport extreme and a big external hard drive would have me back in the same price bracket. Airport express, afaik, only takes a printer plugged into it's USB port.

I don't think I fancy going the full-on NAS route for reasons of power, heat, noise and presumably cost.

Are there other router and external drive combos that I should look into?

All advice and opinions appreciated, thanks!

maggy_thatcher

For stuff such as photos, especially if they're irreplaceable, I'd highly recommend some kind of off-site storage, such as Flickr, Picasa, Photobox, etc. (in addition to home backup). Potentially, all you'd need is a power surge to knock out all electronics in a house, wiping anything you keep locally.

Personally, I use Flickr (unlimited photo storage for $44.95/2 years), but take a look at the other options and see what suits you best.

Stainless_Steel

I have a Drobo NAS for backups. Works with Mac time machine feature.

For really important files (business related docs) I backup over the net to a NAS in my parent's house. This isn't too quick though and I would want to be backing up large photos!

stimpson

I have a USB hard drive connected to the mini and shared out. This lets me backup the MacBook too and is a fraction of the cost of a Time Capsule.

Leatherman

I've had a time capsule for two years, did as required & expected with min hassle.

avalon68

I have a WD terabyte external usb drive - works just fine with time machine, and I also created a partition on it to store other stuff if needed. Fraction of the cost of the time capsule too. Very happy with it, and have had it almost 2 years now with no problems.

bertie4evr

I have an Airport Extreme with an external HD connected to it. For important stuff I have Dropbox.

milltown

bertie4evr wrote: »

I have an Airport Extreme with an external HD connected to it. For important stuff I have Dropbox.

For important stuff you entrust it to a third party?

I'm thinking the Airport extreme and a USB drive attached is probably the way to go. Reading up on the failures of Time Capsules I don't fancy the gamble of it failing and leaving me without backups and a router.

milltown

OK. Refurbed AP extreme ordered, now for the hard drive.

1TB would probably be enough. Not much of a price difference between a 1TB USB powered slim drive and a 2TB mains powered 3.5" drive though. Are one or the other typically more reliable? It will be left plugged in the whole time and won't be moved around. Is heat and noise much of an issue with mains powered drives these days? The last one I had was a hulk of a yoke with a fan that was on the whole time. It used to get worryingly hot too, although I know it's temperature cycles that will kill a drive faster than just being hot the whole time (within reason).

Any more advice for me?

Deep Thought

Airport Extreme with 2TB Synology NAS attached

stimpson

milltown wrote: »

OK. Refurbed AP extreme ordered, now for the hard drive.

1TB would probably be enough. Not much of a price difference between a 1TB USB powered slim drive and a 2TB mains powered 3.5" drive though. Are one or the other typically more reliable? It will be left plugged in the whole time and won't be moved around. Is heat and noise much of an issue with mains powered drives these days? The last one I had was a hulk of a yoke with a fan that was on the whole time. It used to get worryingly hot too, although I know it's temperature cycles that will kill a drive faster than just being hot the whole time (within reason).

Any more advice for me?

You're probably better off with the 2TB drive for that application. It's not like you need portability or anything. External drives are pretty quiet nowadays. My external drives are fanless.

squonk

I started out using over the air backups with a USB drive plugged into my airport extreme. That was quite slow so over time I migrated to a 1TB drive plugged directly into my mac using USB. The drive is mains powered, never moves and I've not had a problem yet. Time Machine is useful mainly for laptops which could be roving around the house and you don't always want to plug a drive directly into them for the purposes of backing up. If you've just got an iMac or Mac Mini, then the external USB route is cheaper and just as good.

avalon68

Mine is also plugged directly into the computer. Its a mains powered one, never noticed any heat out of it and it's always plugged in too. The mains powered ones just looked mor "sturdy" than the slim ones, and portability isn't really an issue for me.

Hobbes

Time machine and drop box (or you can use Sky Drive, Google Drive, etc).

AntHraxEater

Slightly off-topic, here's an article that explains why better storage options cost so much more. (It's not just about Apple products.)

milltown wrote: »

... 2TB should be plenty and I can't figure out how an extra 50% storage can cost almost 100% more.

milltown

I thought it was going to tell me about the law of diminishing returns in a hard drive factory. It just confirms what I was implying in the bit you quoted, that there is no reason for additional GBs to cost more than base model GBs.

Anyhoo. Airport and external hard drive are now in hand.

Before I get started on backing up, is there a free/cheap app that will scan my computers for duplicates so I can trim the size of the backups?

I'm right in thinking that all the music in my user folder is duplicated in an iTunes folder somewhere, once I've played it in iTunes for the first time, yes?