Reviews for Time Capsule - 2 TB

I've been through external hard drives and USB flash drives, but they just weren't doing it for me. I did not want a hard drive connected next to my computer all the Time for automatic Time Machine backups. If I just wanted to drag and drop my files to a USB flash drive (or hard drive), I would have to do it after every iTunes song I download or after every picture I upload.

It just felt highly impractical, so I decided to go with Time Capsule for the above reasons. Setup is very quick. It recognized my previous Airport Extreme configuration and passwords, so I really did not have to set up anything. Initial backup took about 45 minutes for about 20GB. After that, it's seamless. I really don't use Time Machine, because I primarily wanted a device that backs up for me in an easy-to-use way. Although having Time Machine is great for those times where you need to recover something you lost.

Time Capsule also has a great design. I love the silver Apple logo.

I have not noticed any jump in range or performance with this new 2TB Time Capsule compared to my last-generation Airport Extreme. The range may be slightly better, but if it is, it isn't that noticeable.

You cannot beat this setup for backing up.

As with all Apple products, 5/5

The good: Set-up is easy. Looks pretty.

The bad: In spite of allegedly server grade components, the inbuilt power supply is third rate junk. Mine failed after 19 months of light usage. This is apparently a known fault of the first generation Time Capsules. According to the Apple Store I got mine from the problem had been fixed on the version I have. I beg to differ. As a result they wouldn't replace mine.

If you absolutely must have a Time Capsule make sure you have Apple Care too. I'd recommend an external hard-drive and a decent quality router as a more reliable and flexible alternative.

Very disappointed.

Its an Airport Extreme with a built-in hard drive. Same easy setup, same reliability and easy backup.
You could get cheaper by using a NAS or a USB drive but my experience wasn't good with that as the external drive (a WD World edition) didn't respond sometimes and missed backups. So I sold both and got this for just a little more.
The other plus with this is the drive is totally silent.

One cautionary note: Despite the "server grade" claim, it isn't. If you are after a backup solution for a business, buy a raid-based system but this is an ideal home backup.

I paid the extra money for a Time Capsule because I do not like junk. I am very disappointed. The Time Capsule began powering off on its own a year ago, it would then need to be manually restarted. Now it has powered off and will not restart. After searching on-line for a solution it appears that this is a major issue for all Time Capsules. I am now outside the warranty period, and I am stuck with a Time Capsule paper weight. It is very disappointing! Research the Time Capsule before spending the money.

This is my second time capsule that has died after 18 months. Apple needs to do something about this product. I don't think it is a coincidence. It is annoying that is dies just out of warranty. I have had a linksys router for over 7 years and it is still running strong with heavy daily use.

This morning, my Time Capsule (where I keep all of my music files) stopped working. No noise no explosion, no talking message, the TC just stopped. That was after only 2 years. I had 380 GB of commercial music that I produced, wiped out! Wait, it gets worse.....THAT WAS THE SECOND TIME! Almost like clockwork, I had a first generation which crapped out after 26 months, and this morning, a 500GB 3rd generation TC bit the dust; which was replaced under warranty. My mother always told me "First Time, shame on them" , "Second time, shame on ME!". Do I roll the dice with a 100 dollar coupon that Apple was nice enough to email me? Or 2 years from now I write another paragraph about how it failed and I'm a moron? Somebody please give me your opinion? Please?

So right after the warranty is up, the drive quits, won't backup the computer, can't access files anymore, etc. I thought I was the only one, but after reading the reviews below, I think this is one of Apple's mistakes....Now I have a $300 wireless adapter and no workable drive. Don't buy it.

The only bad reviews I see on here are from people with older generations of time capsule. This time capsule (5th generation) has only been out 5 months or so. So everyone saying it only last 12-18 months are talking about older versions. Those reviews do not apply to here. I understand the frustration but I would hope Apple has addressed this issue with this new version. I will report back in a couple of years to let you know if there are any problems with this version.

Oh yeah, BTW: Time Capsule is awesome!

I've owned Apple computers since the old Mac Classic days and have gone through many operating systems. Suffice it to say that I've also experienced a number of crashes requiring reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling everything either from a backup or one-by-one. It's always been a horrible experience. A little more than a month ago I upgraded my iMac to Mountain Lion. Short story there is that the install caused a catastrophic loss of data and, again, I was forced to wipe the drive and begin again. I always found excuses not to use Time Machine and not to purchase a Time Capsule, but after my last upgrade disaster, I decided to take the plunge. A week ago Apple issued a product recall on my iMac because the boot drive suffered a manufacturing defect and was likely to fail, so I was faced with another experience of starting from scratch. Today I picked up my iMac and when I booted it at home I used the Mountain Lion recovery partition to access Time Machine, restoring everything to my computer from my Time Capsule. Four hours later, voila! It was as if nothing had happened. I didn't have to reinstall anything, and everything worked perfectly. It was as if nothing ever happened! It was the easiest and best experience I've had with a critical computer problem. I highly recommend the Time Capsule. Buy it. Use it. Don't be without it. I'm using it to back up my Macbook Pro and my iMac. Now I definitely have peace of mind.

Worked well until it died. Did not make it 2 years. Unable to recover data now.