Getting rid of Time Capsule
filipp
Has anyone ever managed to get all their data off of Time Capsule?
I have one 1TB model that's been used as an AFP share in a SOHO
environment. When we tried to automate a backup to an external drive it
quickly became apparent that it's just a terrible solution as a file
server.
There's about 440 GB data on it. It's impossible to copy all of it
since the connection keeps dropping intermittently (also tried with
rsync which didn't work). Then I tried the Archive button. After about
14h of copying it was roughly 5% done so using that is out of the
question since the volume cannot be accessed during that time.
So can anyone suggest a method of getting all data off of one of these
things, short of actually ripping it apart and using a HD enclosure?
Many TIA,
-filipp
--
-filipp
http://unflyingobject.com
"The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet."
-- William Gibson
Paul Sture
filipp <no-...@unflyingobject.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Has anyone ever managed to get all their data off of Time Capsule?
>
> I have one 1TB model that's been used as an AFP share in a SOHO
> environment. When we tried to automate a backup to an external drive it
> quickly became apparent that it's just a terrible solution as a file
> server.
>
> There's about 440 GB data on it. It's impossible to copy all of it
> since the connection keeps dropping intermittently (also tried with
> rsync which didn't work). Then I tried the Archive button. After about
> 14h of copying it was roughly 5% done so using that is out of the
> question since the volume cannot be accessed during that time.
>
> So can anyone suggest a method of getting all data off of one of these
> things, short of actually ripping it apart and using a HD enclosure?
>
With dropped connections I assume you are using the wireless interface.
Can you use a wired interface (aka ethernet cable) to do the transfer?
--
Paul Sture
Fred McKenzie
Paul Sture <paul....@sture.ch> wrote:
> > So can anyone suggest a method of getting all data off of one of these
> > things, short of actually ripping it apart and using a HD enclosure?
> >
>
> With dropped connections I assume you are using the wireless interface.
> Can you use a wired interface (aka ethernet cable) to do the transfer?
Filipp-
I moved from the 1 TB to a new 2 TB Time Capsule. I had no trouble
drag-copying the files to an internal HD by connecting via Ethernet, and
then doing the reverse with the new TC.
It does take a while to do the transfer, but Ethernet is faster then
Wireless. Moving the TC's HD to a FireWire enclosure would probably
work, if you can figure out how to get into it!
Fred
filipp
The 3 workstations connected to it are actually all using Ethernet. The
capsule shared volume will intermittently just disappear from all 3
desktops. From talking to other users I got the impression that the
Capsule is perhaps fit for archival but not for shared storage.
Thanks!
filipp
Hi Fred,
Thanks for the feedback! The machines are all using Ethernet (sorry I
didn't mention that before). The speed seems to vary a lot. Sometimes
it works pretty fast, sometimes it takes a long time to even establish
a connection. But it always seems waay to slow to transfer all the data.
How many workstations do you have connected to it?
I'm gonna extract the drive this friday. There's some instructions on
how to open it on hardmac.com but the site's down right now
unfortunately.
Thanks again,
Fred McKenzie
filipp <no-...@unflyingobject.com> wrote:
> How many workstations do you have connected to it?
Filipp-
I have 4 machines that can backup to the same 2TB Time Capsule
wirelessly. Only one (a Mac Pro) is normally active. Two of the others
are laptops and one is an iMac that is no longer used on a regular basis.
From the description of your setup and problems, I wonder if your Time
Capsule has malfunctioned? If so, then extracting the HD may be a good
idea while you can still access the data.
Fred
J.J. O'Shea
(in article <4b038035$0$3887$7b1e...@news.nbl.fi>):
How old is your TC? If it's approaching 16 months, you may want to visit
<http://timecapsuledead.org/>, the Apple Time Capsule Memorial Register. Last
time I went there were over 950 TCs registered there...
The TC has a _major_ problem and they tend to die somewhere between 16 and 18
months in service, a.k.a. 'just after the warranty dies'.
--
email to oshea dot j dot j at gmail dot com.
Lloyd Parsons
If you have Applecare on a Mac, then the TC warranty is covered by it.
IOW, 36 months.
Richard Maine
And, interestingly, it does not matter at all when you bought the TC. It
doesn't have to have been bought with the Mac or anything like that. If
you have a Mac under Applecare, and that Mac uses the TC, then the TC is
covered as long as the Mac is covered. I rather carefully read that part
of the Applecare agreement a while back when I thought the disk in my TC
had died. (It turned out to be a very non-obvious problem caused by
interference from an apparently unrelated piece of 3rd-party software; I
found this out just before I was about to take my TC down to a genius
bar).
So as long as you have one Mac anywhere in the house that is covered by
Applecare, and the Mac makes any use of the TC (say, if the Mac is on a
net that the TC routes for), the TC can remain covered indefinitely. I
find this a bit surprising, as infinite duration coverage is unusual. Of
course, to get that infinite duration coverage on the TC, you'd have to
buy a new Mac at least every three years and put that new Mac under
Applecare, so it isn't as though it is free. TANSTAAFL.
--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgment.
domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain
Lloyd Parsons
nos...@see.signature (Richard Maine) wrote:
> Lloyd Parsons <lloydp...@mac.com> wrote:
>
> > In article <he0h0...@news6.newsguy.com>,
> > J.J. O'Shea <try.n...@but.see.sig> wrote:
>
> > > The TC has a _major_ problem and they tend to die somewhere between 16
> > > and 18 months in service, a.k.a. 'just after the warranty dies'.
> >
> > If you have Applecare on a Mac, then the TC warranty is covered by it.
> > IOW, 36 months.
>
> And, interestingly, it does not matter at all when you bought the TC. It
> doesn't have to have been bought with the Mac or anything like that. If
> you have a Mac under Applecare, and that Mac uses the TC, then the TC is
> covered as long as the Mac is covered. I rather carefully read that part
> of the Applecare agreement a while back when I thought the disk in my TC
> had died. (It turned out to be a very non-obvious problem caused by
> interference from an apparently unrelated piece of 3rd-party software; I
> found this out just before I was about to take my TC down to a genius
> bar).
>
> So as long as you have one Mac anywhere in the house that is covered by
> Applecare, and the Mac makes any use of the TC (say, if the Mac is on a
> net that the TC routes for), the TC can remain covered indefinitely. I
> find this a bit surprising, as infinite duration coverage is unusual. Of
> course, to get that infinite duration coverage on the TC, you'd have to
> buy a new Mac at least every three years and put that new Mac under
> Applecare, so it isn't as though it is free. TANSTAAFL.
Yep, I noticed it when I was looking at the TC. I had just bought a new
iMac at the time with Applecare. I think that is really a nice way to
do things.
Not a free solution, but pretty darn good.
The Translucent Amoebae
> On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:03:50 -0500, filipp wrote
>
>
>
> > On 2009-11-17 17:37:43 +0200, Paul Sture <paul.nos...@sture.ch> said:
>
> >> In article <4b024bce$0$26317$7b1e8...@news.nbl.fi>,
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....!!!!
Lately; i've been creating a bunch of Data ( Family Photos, Scanned &
Labeled )
That i would like to put somewhere where they'll be preserved for A
Very Long Time...
And everywhere i look, that this Not It...!
CD & DVD's last as little as 2 years, Claims say 50 years,
But that's still disappointing...!
And Now The Time Machine, whose very function is to preserve data for
a very long time,
Lasts only 2 years...!!!
Gawd...!!! i HATE Computers...!!!
Is it the TBybe HD's that are failing...?
How long is the data expected to last on a really good HD...???
Eh?
Tim Streater
> Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....!!!!
> Lately; i've been creating a bunch of Data ( Family Photos, Scanned&
> Labeled )
> That i would like to put somewhere where they'll be preserved for A
> Very Long Time...
> And everywhere i look, that this Not It...!
> CD& DVD's last as little as 2 years, Claims say 50 years,
> But that's still disappointing...!
> And Now The Time Machine, whose very function is to preserve data for
> a very long time,
> Lasts only 2 years...!!!
>
> Gawd...!!! i HATE Computers...!!!
Oh - it's *you* again - Mr Punctuation himself !!! ... ??? ... !!!
--
Tim
"That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted"
Bill of Rights 1689
Jim Gibson
<303fd9f1-6a8d-467c...@b25g2000prb.googlegroups.com>,
The Translucent Amoebae <transa...@seanet.com> wrote:
>
> Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....!!!!
> Lately; i've been creating a bunch of Data ( Family Photos, Scanned &
> Labeled )
> That i would like to put somewhere where they'll be preserved for A
> Very Long Time...
> And everywhere i look, that this Not It...!
> CD & DVD's last as little as 2 years, Claims say 50 years,
> But that's still disappointing...!
> And Now The Time Machine, whose very function is to preserve data for
> a very long time,
No, the function of Time Machine is to provide a backup in case your
primary drive has a failure or you inadvertently lose a file. It is
_NOT_ the function of Time Machine to be an archive.
> Lasts only 2 years...!!!
No, it is not Time Machine that fails after two years, it is Time
Capsule, an external hard drive and wireless access point sold by
Apple. Time Machine (the software) can work with hard drives from any
manufacture.
>
> Gawd...!!! i HATE Computers...!!!
>
> Is it the TBybe HD's that are failing...?
> How long is the data expected to last on a really good HD...???
Check out the results of this study by Google, one of the largest users
(apparently) of consumer-grade external hard drives:
<http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf>
or this article from Gizmodo about the same study:
<http://gizmodo.com/237980/google-teaches-us-five-things-about-hard-driv
e-death>
Conclusions: nobody knows how long a disk drive will last.
To preserve critical data, I would recommend getting two internal or
external hard drives and copying or backing up your important data to
both, either manually or using a backup tool. When your primary drive
or either backup drive starts to fail, replace it immediately. Do not
make a single copy on any medium and delete the original file. You must
at all times have 3 copies, or for short periods of time only 2.
Transfer your data to whatever new storage technology comes along in
the future.
--
Jim Gibson
filipp
>
> To preserve critical data, I would recommend getting two internal or
> external hard drives and copying or backing up your important data to
> both, either manually or using a backup tool. When your primary drive
> or either backup drive starts to fail, replace it immediately. Do not
> make a single copy on any medium and delete the original file. You must
> at all times have 3 copies, or for short periods of time only 2.
> Transfer your data to whatever new storage technology comes along in
> the future.
That's pretty much what I had in mind - to keep using the TC as the
central storage and then automatically clone it daily to an external
drive and from that weekly to a second one for offsite backup. Then I
quickly realized that it's not possible with TC (rsync will give errors
copying from it and the connection may drop at any time, CCC will not
even list it as a source. Finder copies might work but I don't know how
to do that incrementally).
I've now extracted the drive as per these instructions:
http://www.applefritter.com/node/23907 and cloned the data partition to
a 2TB firewire drive with Disk Utility. Yay! :)
Thanks to all who replied,
Tom Stiller
filipp <no-...@unflyingobject.com> wrote:
> On 2009-11-20 20:09:24 +0200, Jim Gibson <jimsg...@gmail.com> said:
> >
> > To preserve critical data, I would recommend getting two internal or
> > external hard drives and copying or backing up your important data to
> > both, either manually or using a backup tool. When your primary drive
> > or either backup drive starts to fail, replace it immediately. Do not
> > make a single copy on any medium and delete the original file. You must
> > at all times have 3 copies, or for short periods of time only 2.
> > Transfer your data to whatever new storage technology comes along in
> > the future.
>
> That's pretty much what I had in mind - to keep using the TC as the
> central storage and then automatically clone it daily to an external
> drive and from that weekly to a second one for offsite backup. Then I
> quickly realized that it's not possible with TC (rsync will give errors
> copying from it and the connection may drop at any time, CCC will not
> even list it as a source. Finder copies might work but I don't know how
> to do that incrementally).
>
> I've now extracted the drive as per these instructions:
> http://www.applefritter.com/node/23907 and cloned the data partition to
> a 2TB firewire drive with Disk Utility. Yay! :)
>
You can copy a TC backup with CCC or SuperDuper if you mount the disk
image stored within the Data partition of the TC. I don't know if
anything other than a block level copy will work ant that,
unfortunately, erases the target disk first.
--
Tom Stiller
PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF
J.J. O'Shea
(in article
<303fd9f1-6a8d-467c...@b25g2000prb.googlegroups.com>):
_Time Machine_ doesn't last two years, laddie. _Time Capsule_, a system
consisting of a hard drive, a wireless access point, a router, and a switch,
has a power supply problem and the _power supply_ on the TC dies after about
16-18 months service. The _hard drive_ is (usually) fine. If you remove the
drive and mount it in something else, your data is fine. If you replace the
power supply, your data is fine. Of course, as the problem which kills the
power supply is heat-related, and the hard drive is in the same enclosure as
the power supply, your hard drive is stressed and is likely to die earlier
than a similar hard drive not in a TC. This is why there are unofficial
hardware hacks which do the following:
1 delete the internal power supply and set up an external power supply,
removing a large part of the problem
2 change the internal fan setup so that the fan actually cools down the TC
internals.
If those hacks are done on a TC, your warranty is (of course) void, but your
TC should last a lot longer.
Remember always that there are exactly two types of hard disk drives:
1 those which have failed
2 those which have not failed... yet.
All examples of the second class will become examples of the first class if
you just wait long enough. A hard drive which has a 50,000 mean time between
failures is a drive about which the vendor says that half (50%) of the drives
made will survive to 50,000 hours of use. This, of course, means that half of
the drives die before 50,000 hours... and the vendor has no idea which half
_your_ drive belongs to until after it fails. Remember always that 50,000
hours from right now includes tomorrow, so your drive could fail tomorrow...
or, indeed, later today. Or next year. Or it could last for a decade. The
vendor doesn't know, but if they give a five year warranty with the drive
they're betting that it'll hold together for at least five years. If they
give a _one_ year warranty with the drive, they have much less confidence in
how long it'll live, and you should, too.
Apple has a one year warranty on TCs, expandable if you have AppleCare on any
Mac connected to the TC. This should be considered a hint.
>
> Gawd...!!! i HATE Computers...!!!
Gawd, I think that insane microbes should be exposed to concentrated
isopropyl alcohol and/or bleach.
>
> Is it the TBybe HD's that are failing...?
It's not the hard drives, it's the power supplies, and they fail on both 500
GB and 1 TB models. As a look at the website in question would have shown.
You couldn't be bothered to check out the link, could you? Moron.
> How long is the data expected to last on a really good HD...???
Check the warranty. Look on the box for the MTBF data. A low-end Western
Digital MyBook crapola drive will have a 1 year warranty and a low MTBF
rating, and will typically die after 15-18 months service. A good Seagate
drive will have a 5 year warranty and a high MTBF rating, and will typically
die after 75-90 months service. Seagates cost perhaps 10-25% more than WDs,
but for some reason you'll see acres of WD drives stacked up in Worst Buy and
similar rip-off operations, while there will be comparatively fewer Seagates.
Gee. I wonder why this might be so...
>
> Eh?
J.J. O'Shea
(in article <uq2dne-Kzvj_U5vW...@brightview.co.uk>):
> On 20/11/2009 17:04, The Translucent Amoebae wrote:
>
>> Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....!!!!
>> Lately; i've been creating a bunch of Data ( Family Photos, Scanned&
>> Labeled )
>> That i would like to put somewhere where they'll be preserved for A
>> Very Long Time...
>> And everywhere i look, that this Not It...!
>> CD& DVD's last as little as 2 years, Claims say 50 years,
>> But that's still disappointing...!
>> And Now The Time Machine, whose very function is to preserve data for
>> a very long time,
>> Lasts only 2 years...!!!
>>
>> Gawd...!!! i HATE Computers...!!!
>
> Oh - it's *you* again - Mr Punctuation himself !!! ... ??? ... !!!
>
>
Will no-one rid us of this turbulent microbe? Where's the isopropyl?
sbt
<try.n...@but.see.sig> wrote:
> All examples of the second class will become examples of the first class if
> you just wait long enough. A hard drive which has a 50,000 mean time between
> failures is a drive about which the vendor says that half (50%) of the drives
> made will survive to 50,000 hours of use. This, of course, means that half of
> the drives die before 50,000 hours... and the vendor has no idea which half
> _your_ drive belongs to until after it fails. Remember always that 50,000
> hours from right now includes tomorrow, so your drive could fail tomorrow...
> or, indeed, later today. Or next year. Or it could last for a decade. The
> vendor doesn't know, but if they give a five year warranty with the drive
> they're betting that it'll hold together for at least five years. If they
> give a _one_ year warranty with the drive, they have much less confidence in
> how long it'll live, and you should, too.
Sorry to quibble, but the above isn't quite correct as a 50,000 hr MTBF
doesn't mean that half the drives will fail before 50,000. It could be
more or less than half, so long as when you add up the hours of life
and divide by the number of units involved, the average time is 50,000
hrs. In a couple of small, but corresponding, examples:
Suppose you have 10 drives and two of them fail at 10,000 hrs but the
other 8 each last 60,000 hrs. That is a MTBF of 50,000, which 80%
outlast. Conversely, you coulld have 8 that last 40,000 hrs, one that
lasts 80,000 and one that lasts 100,000. Again, a MTBF of 50,000, but
80% don't make it to that figure.
--
Spenser
J.J. O'Shea
(in article <211120090727517211%dogb...@chaseabone.com.invalid>):
Okay, I'd go with that. It'd be really unusual to have drives that fail in
that pattern, though. Typically there's a bell curve to the failure patter,
with a big chunk of the failures being less than one standard deviation away
from the mean. If you have a while bunch of drives with a MTBF of 50,000
hours, a few will die at 10,000 hours, and a few will die at 100,000 hours,
but about half to two thirds of them will die within 40,000 to 60,000 hours.
At least that's been my experience.
sbt
<try.n...@but.see.sig> wrote:
Well, it is really the difference betwween "mean time" and "median
time" (the latter of which would have been in agreement with your
original assertion).
My experience has been a little different than yours, with drives that
last survive the original few months lasting well beyond the MTBF. But,
I've only been in this business since 1976 :) I enjoy relating the
story of the first 25 PC ATs that we got from IBM at Ashton-Tate: 14 of
the 25 didn't survive a 72 hour "burn in" period upon arrival -- all
were hard-drive failures. The other 11 were still in use 3 years later
when I left the company. I've seen similar patterns over the years on
personally-owned hardware as well.
--
Spenser
Tim Streater
> My experience has been a little different than yours, with drives that
> last survive the original few months lasting well beyond the MTBF. But,
> I've only been in this business since 1976 :) I enjoy relating the
> story of the first 25 PC ATs that we got from IBM at Ashton-Tate: 14 of
> the 25 didn't survive a 72 hour "burn in" period upon arrival -- all
> were hard-drive failures. The other 11 were still in use 3 years later
> when I left the company. I've seen similar patterns over the years on
> personally-owned hardware as well.
Your bath-tub curve then, high to start with due to DOA, dropping to low
for a long time, and then high again as they all reach EOL.