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What about transferring Time Machine backup data from an existing drive to Time Capsule? That's the situation I'd be looking at if I bought one.

it seems like a bitter pill to allow the previously-promised usb-drive functionality on this new piece of hardware. That seems to show that a "server-grade" hard drive isn't necessarily the reason why only time capsule can do network backups with time machine.

I'm looking forward to a thorough review.
Of course how Time Capsule works with the generic, Time machine functionality both with the internal drive and drives hanging off the USB port, but also how it works as a network drive independent of Time machine.
Looking forward to your results. Thanks !!

I'm not one for class action lawsuits, or for suing anyone really. However, I'm sorely pressed not to start one due to the promises made by Apple on the previous Airport Extreme 80211n USB port drive backups mess-up. I was looking forward to getting a 750GB or 1TB USB drive and backing up my whole network of 4 computers--but then the functionality was never delivered by Apple!!!
I'd like to know why Apple reneged on its promise--and I'd like to see Apple extend some sort of rebate for purchasers of AE "n" routers within the last year to upgrade to the new Time Capsule that DOES have this capability.
Or how about a firmware update for AE"n" buyers so they can actually get what was promised. After all, the technology is obviously possible because they made it work on the new Time Capsule. Anyone agree with me? Please make your voice heard.

Glen,
When you do your review, can you comment on the following:
- Can the time machine drive be partitioned?
- Can an attached USB drive be partitioned?
- Can the drive be used as a basic network attached drive for drag-and-drop storage
- Any luck remotely accessing the drives contents over the internet?
Thanks in advance!!
-Mr Lizard

It certainly seems at this point, that Apple had a "revolutionary" idea to enable backup over wi-fi, then realized that they could make money off that idea with Time Capsule.
Apple makes great user-friendly products (I love my MBP), but has consistently shown that they're not so friendly-to-users. It is too obvious that they pulled the "backup to a (generic) network drive over Wi-Fi" feature, and replaced it with "backup to an Apple branded network drive over Wi-Fi". $$$

"Still, the 15 to 16 megabits per second rate means that 100GB would transfer in 15 hours. Not fast, but reasonable for an overnight-into-the-next-day first backup pass."
So you think it's reasonable that the 100 GB backup you started at 9 P.M. on Wednesday wouldn't finish until 12 noon on Thursday? I don't.

alansky said:

Well, then don't buy a wireless backup solution!

Or, do the initial backup with an ethernet connection, then go wireless.

It sounds like something is amiss with your network...I'm backing up to a TC right now over gigabit ethernet, at about 10MB/sec (80Mbps). Even 100Mb ethernet should be able to sustain very close to this.

I had originally considered NAS for Time Machine backups but as I researched it it became clear that standard NAS disks would not work with Time Machine.

I am interested in Time Capsule, but it would really be nice if the drive was at least mirrored. In that configuration it would 3 drive failures to loose your data. The mirror configuration basically would back up the Time Machine backup thus providing a high degree of reliability.

I suppose one could attach an external drive and then clone the Time Machine drive but mirroring would be a much quicker and cleaner solution.

I bought a 500 Gig Time Machine at a local Apple Store today. I was unable to get it to recognize my router. After trying everything I could think of, including changing the CAT 5 cable, I called Apple Tech Support. We finally solved the problem by unplugging both the cable modem and the Time Capsule from their power supplies, waiting five minutes, plugging the modem back in, and after it connected to the internet, plugging the TC back in.
After configuring the TC, my system wouldn't recognize the TC's disk. That entailed another call to tech support. The solution was to reset the TC, using Network Utility, and then reconfiguring TC.
The disk shows up under the Sharing section of a Finder Window's sidebar; it is not in the Devices section as are USB and FireWire drives.
I tried to copy the Backups.backupdb file from my existing firewire backup drive to the TC drive, but it wouldn't copy; al that happened was the Finder's sound that indicates a file copy or move was completed, but nothing else happened. So it appears that it is not possible to copy an existing Time Machine backup from one drive to anothera??or at least, not to a Time Capsule volume.

I absolutely agree. There are other wireless N routers with USB attached storage options, but I bought the AEBS solely for that reason: a big huge USB attached repository for my mac backups that was Time Machine compatible. I would have waited for Time Capsule had I known Apple was going to remove this feature later. But they screwed me in every way:

1. They didn't tell me there was a new product in the pipeline that would fit this need better,

2. they never fixed the problem with my existing product, and delivered the feature they initally promised,

3. they offered me no trade-in or upgrade option.

And it's not even that great of a wireless router. When I upgraded to the most recent firmware, the box froze, and my wirless network died. I had to downgrade to the original firmware to fix the issue. The Apple support forums are filled with similar issues.

I'm just screwed. Thanks Apple.

MrLizard said:

These are awesome questions, and I respect all reptiles.
* There is no provision for partitioning in AirPort Utility 5.3. Conceivably, Apple could fold in more Disk Utility features in the future, and it would be a simple software update (but require wiping the drive, unless they're using something more flexible in their hidden partitioning).
* Attached USB drives can be partitioned, but only when attached to a Mac (for HFS+ or FAT32) or other system (for FAT32). It's just the same as with the AirPort Extreme with 802.11n.
* Yes, it's NAS -- in fact, AFP is used for Time Capsule backups with Time Machine just as if it were a networked shared volume on another Leopard system.
* Remotely accessing: How? By AFP using an IP address on the router? I'll try that.