Other than a built in Wi-Fi router, how does this compare to the Apple Time Capsule external drive? Is it worth double the price for the Apple device
1343303
I think the Time Capsule is a bad idea, because it's a combination router and hard drive - so when one of those things inevitably fail, you have to replace both things. Also I don't think it's particularly well designed in terms of dissipating heat from the hard drive so I think it will fail sooner. I bought an Apple Airport Extreme and plug this hard drive into it for a Time Capsule drive and it works great.
1343304
also, your observation is mistaken - This is not 2x the price of Apple's product, it is rather apple's product that is 2x the cost of this.
1343305
No Apple's products are always higher than most anything else. I would prefer this one over the Apple because this is what Seagate does, Hard drives. Apple has a company manufacture the drive then puts their logo on it. This one would be more stable.
1660162
Hello David Yes, in my domestic network scenario I use a Mac and my wife use a Windows laptop and network drive map works without problems. The NAS is connected on my Apple Time Capsule 1TB old version and the GUI interface of this NAS is easy to use and the access is via http. About the FTP, I can't comment because I've never used.
1083385
I recently purchased the Drobo 5N. I was using 2.4mhz because of my wifi extender. It was really slow with data file transfers. But since I have upgraded my wireless router and now on 5mhz the transfer speed has drastically improved. I will also be purchasing the msata ssd drive in the next few weeks to increase the speed even more. But so far I am happy with my decision and love the disk space I have. I am not 100% sure about moving your drive from one into the other. I have seen a few conflicting youtube videos on this. One person was able to do it and another person said that he was unsuccessful with it. I hope this has helped you somewhat. I recently purchased the Drobo 5N. I was using 2.4mhz because of my wifi extender. It was really slow with data file transfers. But since I have upgraded my wireless router and now on 5mhz the transfer speed has drastically improved. I will also be purchasing the msata ssd drive in the next few weeks to increase the speed even more. But so far I am happy with my decision and love the disk space I have. I am not 100% sure about moving your drive from one into the other. I have seen a few conflicting youtube videos on this. One person was able to do it and another person said that he was... » Read More I recently purchased the Drobo 5N. I was using 2.4mhz because of my wifi extender. It was really slow with data file transfers. But since I have upgraded my wireless router and now on 5mhz the transfer speed has drastically improved. I will also be purchasing the msata ssd drive in the next few weeks to increase the speed even more. But so far I am happy with my decision and love the disk space I have. I am not 100% sure about moving your drive from one into the other. I have seen a few conflicting youtube videos on this. One person was able to do it and another person said that he was unsuccessful with it. I hope this has helped you somewhat. « Show Less
1827197
I have/am using it. I keep it in a closet behind where my computer is. I ran a long usb cable through the wall. Plan is to bolt it down to prevent theft. The mac mini backs up via the usb. My MacBook Pro is configured to backup over the wireless to the same drive. All works well now. Although it took a while to get the wifi backup to work. I feel a lot better knowing that in a fire, I can dash out and not worry (too much) about losing all my photos, music, and movies. I wish Apple would make time capsule fire and water proof.
650969
I agree with W Yang, with the iphone your locks you into a 2 year contract for very slow internet connection, Steve Jobs himself said this at the release yesterday, that the wifi is a much faster system than what the iphone uses. to me the choice is easy over my current ipod video, larger touch screen, and wifi. i only need about 4gb of music so this will leave me 12gb for video podcasts and movies. and with the flash memory less parts to fail than with a hard drive. Oh and what about a camera, wheres the camera.....lol
1631655
Not out of the box...the backup features the Time Capsule uses are built into the Mac OS X software. This link might help explain it better than I could:https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5229376
1147251
Deedee,Judith and James have addressed the internal drive of the Time Capsule -- in addition the TC has an external USB port where you can plug in another, additional, external drive -- and configure it as an additional network hard drive (for example, as a redundant backup not using Apple's Time Machine software), available to all wi-fi connected devices. You have a multitude of options available.
948782
There are benefits and cons to both. The biggest pro for the Time Capsule is of course the embedded HD. The reason I brought that up specifically is because my Airport Extreme has had issues connecting to my Seagate 3TB HD (STCA3000101). After determining that the USB cable was the problem it's been working fine ever since. The pro with the Airport Extreme is the ability to use different hard drives with increased capacity.
1343774
I bought a chinese Superdrive knockoff, and it didnt work, so I spent the extra $$ and bought the Apple USB Superdrive here on Amazon (I had to install the NI bundle this way...sucks..) It works just fine.My advice is "what is another 30 or 40 bucks after spending a small fortune on this machine??" lol
1408560
This will work as well as any other drive. The advantage of this style unit is that it is self contained. There are many external enclosures or NAS boxes available that will do the same thing. This is a reasonably priced plug'n'play method. Just make sure you know how much data there is to backup , then make sure you get something equal to or bigger in capacity. If you love your data then multiple backup drives are a smart option. I am not a fan of Apple in general but the backup software they include with OS X (Time Machine) is quite nice.
1965738
Wow! I think it'd depend on how you use it and set it up. For me the 4TB with thunderbolt has been faster. But I use it mainly for moving data between my mac and the backups.
2275329
Yes, there is something you don't know about and have overlooked. It depends on how you use the unit. I use it for nothing except playing podcasts of a certain conservative talk-show host. I never need more than 2GB to hold even a month's worth of podcasts, and I am never that far behind. Why pay more for function I don't need?
1042055
yes, it should i just bought one 2 days ago and it's awesome, i've got an old school mac g4 running 10.5 with two external drives connected via firewire (with all my vid's on them) and the WD box was able to connect to the computer without needing to do any kind of setup on the box. you just have to make sure your file sharing is turned on, on ur mac(durr). the only reason i say that it "SHOULD" is that my entire house is setup with gigabit, ie no wireless... so it should work so long as the WD box connects to the network that your computer is on. i'm just not sure how fast everything would be over wireless.
361659
Not exactly sure about the quality of the wi-fi. I have no problems. You will make a backup of your entire hard drive though. Plenty of room
591764
Just my $0.02 worth. I've been using the DIR 655 for a looong time now. The technology isn't the newest, but it is really solid and stable. I have a 100mbps internet connection (super fast). My wireless download speed is 20.74mbps. My wired is around 93mbps. Usually if your staying within your own network, you can achieve speeds up to 100mbps to 1gbps depending on your networking gear.I would recommend this device, but keep in mind that it's not dual-band and it doesn't support the latest in wireless networking technology.
1040827
Any storage you attach to a wi fi router will be very slow, especially compared to wired links. There are several reasons for this but the most important one is a router is designed to make sure no one link/channel sucks up the entire bandwidth that is available. If you had a "business" router you could establish rules that would let you work around this but consumer models are made to be "user friendly". You *might* be able to tweak the "game" settings to allow greater throughput but then you would have to set up your storage programs to use certain ports. IMO you are better off using wired LANs (and/or one of the four Ethernet ports on the router) for heavy duty storage transfers. However, this unit will do just fine if all you need are routine backups (especially at night) and nominal file access by a few users. I have 1TB attached through the USB port and another 2TB attached via wireless and while transfers are slow they are acceptable for home use. Note that USB is going to be the slowest of all choices with a router, behind wi fi (a bit faster) and ethernet (very fast).
1087509
I have a two-story townhome and my time capsule located upstairs in the farthest corner of my bedroom. With the Time, I am able to get Wi-Fi service when I am in my yard outside of the house, as well as in my basement. It's perfect for Wi-Fi & as an external back up.