Reviews for Time Capsule - 2TB

I cannot speak to longevity/service life of this device at this time since it is brand new. What I can say is that I was extremely impressed with how easy the setup was. I was able to extend my wireless coverage by asking it to mimic my current Airport Extreme. I could have chosen to do it via wireless or via cat5... i chose cat5, but it looks like wireless would have been just as easy. I now have better wireless coverage, as well as 4 switch ports in the bedroom for wired devices. I have set it up to serve up my USB printer as well. Again... very easy. Lastly, both my Macs are now backing up to the device, which was by far the easiest backup solution I have ever seen. I have been in IT for 15 years and setup and managed Backup Exec servers. I have never seen anything as easy as this.

The only reason why this device does not have 5 stars, and this is more of a general gripe with Apple than issue with this product...
I bought the 2TB version because I could not justify a 66% cost increase for 50% more storage. 3 TB drives are NOT $200 more expensive than 2TB drives. Apple really screws us on these types of upgrades; be it RAM, solid state capacity, or HD capacity. This happens across all their product lines, and it is my only complaint with Apple.

129 of 137 people found this useful

I have a mixed Mac/PC environment. I wanted something simple for the Mac users, and a better wireless network, so I went with this instead of separate devices. The unit works very well, the wireless is pretty fast, and it's easy enough to set up. Having one box on the counter top is pretty nice, compared to three boxes that I had before. The wireless router has gigabit ports, which would cost you around $80-100 in a separate router. Some people mention limited setup options for the wireless network, but I was able to set up the features I needed fairly easily.

Now for the limitations:
1. The drive is formatted as FAT32, not NTFS. I know this is due to limitations of the MacOS, but the result is that a lot of small files will take up a large amount of disk space, due to the drive addressing. You may find that your 2TB drive may only be able to store as much as a 1 TB drive formatted with NTFS, but YMMV depending on the file size. Large files (like media) will not be much of an issue.
2. You have to put the AirPort Utility software on each PC that you want to connect. I know it's not that big a deal, but nowhere in the setup instructions is this little tidbit mentioned.
3. There is no automated backup software included with PCs. Of course, you can use many other software backup solutions and configure the Time Capsule drive as the backup destination, so this is not that big a deal.
4. The wireless router does not offer WEP as a security choice, so if you have an older device that does not support WPA or WPA2 (for example, some Nintendo Game Boy and DS models fall into this category), then you are basically hosed. You would have to attach a second wireless access point to your network and configure it for the WEP parameters you want. It has been argued for some time that WEP should be dropped due to insecurity, but this may just push everyone to replace their older devices more quickly.

I have only owned this for a short while, so I can't comment on whether it can be used as a DLNA server or other stuff like that.
If you like simple stuff, with easy setup (like most Apple products), then this may be a good choice for you. If you like going under the hood, or like to experiment, and you have some PCs or other devices on your network, then there may be better choices for you.

76 of 81 people found this useful

The Time Capsule (2nd gen.) power supply went belly up one month short of th 3 year anniversary. Apple did replace the failed unit with overrnight delivery. That's the good news. The bad news is the 3 years of backups went out the window because Apple has no service for moving the data between the two units. I am using an external disk for my backups for now on. I'll use the internal disk for typical use and backup to the external USB drive.

57 of 66 people found this useful

Rating 4 stars. Would be 5 stars if not for the following problem:

Cannot use Time Machine backups when changing to Time Capsule.

You can upgrade drive size for Time Machine To Time Machine and Time Capsule to Time Capsule. You cannot upgrade Time Machine to Time Capsule databases. Apple support confirmed this. There are some hacks on the internet but I would not recommend them until Apple approves. Apple needs a better way to upgrade drive size and changing the databases, recommend a button on Time Machine preferences to move database with the above mentioned options. Apple would then fix the database so moving either forward or backward would not be an issue and easy for us consumers.

If you need those backups suggest you let Time Capsule backup the old Time Machine backup files and then restore to a drive if the Time Machine Databases are needed.

53 of 67 people found this useful

I was wondering whether to get this or not, but I am sure glad that I did. We have a iMac and a MacBook Pro and plan on getting a MacBook Air in the near future. We never backed up any of our systems because you had to plug the hard drive up, etc. This is so easy as the commercial back in the day said " set it and forget it".
It also increase the speed of my wireless connection by 10 mbps, WOW. We used to run at 15 mbps now we are averaging 25 mbps on the wireless Macs in our home.
The only downside is that once in a while the Macs cannot find the time capsule to do a back up and then it suddenly appears, don't get it but oh well as long as it backs up, I am fine.
We also use it to store data that I don't want cluttering up the MacBook Pro.
I would tell anyone to get this product it is well worth the money.

39 of 41 people found this useful

I have had everything up and running seemlessly for about 4 months. The router works very well and the automatic wireless backups are real nice. I also use the drive as a network mounted NAS device to store files from other machines I have on the network. I'd love to be able to use this as my iTunes library so I can watch movies via apple TV w/o having the mac book on, but alas, that is not to be.

38 of 43 people found this useful

I can only give it 4 * due to the fact that I it will show I'm off-line but when I check my Time Capsule the light is green but I get the error that Time Machine can't be found. Tired of having to reset my Time Machine. I was really amped up when I purchased it because it had many uses well I still have to purchase and extender that goes in my wall and purchase more memory. Please send out an update so that it works correctly all the time not some of the time. I love my Mac products and won't change but if your going to sell products that don't completely work then bring the price down.

38 of 44 people found this useful

Before getting the "Time Capsule" i read over many reviews and my conclusion was that about 65% of Time Capsule users were happy with their purchase. My experience was very positive as well. Setting up Time Capsule was not too difficult however, the length of time it took was very long 24-36 hours (300g). That was a bit surprising but once it was completed (January 6th 2013) it was worked like a charm with the exception of increased internet speed (Air Port Extreme is built in). I would definitely suggest Time Capsule.

26 of 27 people found this useful

I had two Iomega network drives that each died after about a year. When the 3rd was DOA, I decided to spend the extra money and try the time capsule. Setup was much easier and so far (one year later) its still working fine. I wish it was possible to add a drive to incrase capacity, but so far no complaints. I can see the drive from all my devices (laptop, desktop, iphone and ipad). Perfromance is not great, but as good as the Iomega. Wireless range is much better than my previous G router and I like the guest function. I would recommend and will but another when this one dies.

16 of 17 people found this useful