Customer Reviews

Apple Time Capsule MB765LL/A 1TB

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I've owned the Apple Time Capsule 1TB model for several months now.

Pros:

1. Very large 1TB hard drive
2. Very fast WiFi connections
3. Easily sets up with your network (what Mac product doesn't?)
4. Much faster on my DSL network than the DSL wireless router I had previously connected

Cons:

1. Extremely SLOW data transfer. I'm not exaggerating when I say it took 15hrs to backup a wired connection with about 250gb of data to transfer...... wireless backup of that amount of data wasn't even reasonable, it was going to be several days.

2. I had wanted to use it for my iTunes library. To share my library on several devices when my Macbook was not available. Turns out the transfer speed is too slow for this purpose and I had to scratch that idea.

3. At times, it's been too slow to even use for Time Machine. The problem lies with the hard drive it seems since the wireless connection is extremely fast. Maybe there is some issue with the way the Time Capsule communicates with it's hard drive? I don't know, I only know it's painfully slow.

lf this can only be used as a wireless network hub and painfully slow backups, then there are better options out there. If Apple can somehow get this thing to work as advertised, then it might be worth a look. The way it is now... NOT RECOMMENDED!

Pros:
Set up was a breeze, It replaced a D-Link 655R with no problems.
Works on my multi platform network: PC with Ethernet cable, MackBook with 802.11n, PS3, Wii, iphone1g, iphone3g,and Canon wireless printer/scanner on 802.11g network.
Dual wireless antennas, keeps network running at top speeds with outstanding range! (for the first time ever my MacBook's internet reached speeds well over 20Mbps on Wi-Fi)
1TB storage works great for both my PC and Mac
The networked USB actually works! Unlike my D-link that needed special software that only was compatible with PC and not mac?
Cons:
It does runs warm (i only checked because of other reviews) just sitting there (although i don't thinks its much hotter than my D-Link; i never really paid attention); It runs hot when Time Machine is doing its initial back up (this did make me a bit nervous).
There are a few anomalies with the networked USB, when I plug in my external hard drive it will only read the Mac(FAT32) partition, and not the PC(NTFS) partition? (although my PC will only read my PC partition and not the Mac partition; my MacBook reads them both)
Network settings are not as flexible as an experienced network administrator may like.
A bit on the pricey side, (thanks Amazon for the $45 i saved over apple store)
Conclusion
Its great if your making a complete switch to Mac, or if you are looking for a true dual wireless, NAS, and print server, all in one slick device; and have the money.

This product is basically three products: an airport extreme wireless router, a networked drive, and finally, with Leopard, a networked backup system. Overall, it's a very good product, but there are some serious limitation one should be aware of.

As a router, it is fantastic. Typical Apple ease of use, with all configuration done by a very intuitive GUI application.

Unfortunately, it's not a great network drive. The drive appears to be internally connected using a very slow USB connection. You will find that even with a computer connected via Gb/s ethernet, transfer speeds will be limited to around 5-6 MB/s, tops. If you connect two Macs via fast ethernet, you can often get over 40 MB/s transfer speeds, so this is a rather large disappointment, especially for a device which will be getting a lot of use if you use Time Machine.

Time Machine is great in theory, but has a few issues. First, it is a file-based differential backup. That means if even a single bit of a 1 GB file is changed, the ENTIRE file gets backed up. Not only does this take a lot of time, it quickly depletes your backup drive because the same data is added to the disk every regular backup. To get around this, you have to explicitly exclude backing up such files. Good candidates for exclusion are Mail and iDisk caches, as well as virtual machine disk images.

There have also been numerous reports of Time Machine backups being susceptible to corruption. I've experienced this once, myself, after a backup was cancelled, so I can vouch that it happens. However, the problems can often be fixed by deleting the last backup. The next backup will take a long time as the computer must scan the full disk again, but the backups then continue on normally after that.

Time Machine backups have their place, and come in very handy to recover accidentally deleted files. However, they should only be considered part of a larger backup scheme. They probably shouldn't be trusted for a full recovery, as do to so requires the use of the notoriously unreliable Migration Assistant. (Note: it's worked for some people, including the commenter below, but it's never worked reliably for me for migrating applications.) As such, you should image your entire drive regularly, in addition to using Time Machine.

I had the first-gen Time Capsule and it worked fairly flawlessly. The two main features I was wanting with this TC were the dual band wireless broadcasting and the guest account configuration. As an iPhone user, I liked the fact that this TC could broadcast the faster wireless-N signal to the appropriate devices and I could still connect my iPhone using the wireless-G signal. Both features work great and are very easy to set up.

i bought this to replace my airport extreme base station. i didnt have any problem setting it up since i duplicated my aebs settings but i felt that my wireless connection was slower than before. i also had several problems with my internet going down. apple was helpful but since it was a continuous issue, they suggested to exchange for a new one. instead i just returned it. i couldnt be bothered with the aggravation since my aebs worked fine.

Not sure what all the negative talk is about this product. I have an iMac and this was the easiest set up I have ever seen for any type of electronic device. Trust me, I have a lot of gadgets and this one both router set up and time caspule were set up within minutes. It was so easy I thought I did something wrong. I gave up my complicated Linksys N router for this product because I love anythign Apple and the products are awesome and perform well. The Time Capsule makes storing files easy and the back up the first time took 30 minutes. The key is to hard wire it to the computer the first time. As for speeds, it zips right through backups and all my components are connected to lightning speed WIFI. This item does get really hot at times to the tough on the top of the box much like Apple TV does, but it is no big issue. You won't be sorry with this awesome addition!

I am a computer savvy person. This device does not work right out of the box. After 3 hours last night on my own and 2 hours today with Apple care, it was determined by Apple that I needed to return the product because they could not get it to work. I tried using it with a brand new macbook and a year old macbook. Both were unsuccessful. This product cannot continuously connect to the internet. Many many many others have had this problem. Just do a google search for "problems with Time Capsule" and you will see all the problems they have had with it. This is not typical of Apple products and they really should fix this device. Trust me, unless you want a huge headache avoid this product.

I bought this Time Capsule as I liked the idea of having a wireless hard drive for backup and that it as well supports the wireless network standard 802.11n.

This "TC" works great, is always fast, setup was easy, and I've never had any problems with it. I also use it's 1 TB hard drive for backups and to store my growing iTunes video library, which it streams video just fine to my MacBook and Apple TV.

All Mac users should buy one let alone to use for backups.

Like other reviewers, my 1TB Time Capsule died after 19 months of normal use with a bad power supply. While the Time Capsule _is_ covered if you have AppleCare on a Mac desktop or laptop, it only guarantees you a replacement product - not recovery of your data, even if the drive in the Time Capsule is fine.

For a product whose dominant purpose is to provide a backup of your data, the quality of this product and the service provided by Apple is simply unacceptable. If your data is of enough value to spend over $200 on a backup solution, I highly recommend you consider a consumer-grade network attached storage solution. Even before the Time Capsule failed it was noisy, ran hot, and the network-mounted drive would often disconnect from a computer where it was mounted.

In fairness, the wireless network features on the router worked somewhat better, and configuration is easier than with non-Apple wireless routers. Nonetheless, you would be better served to buy a reasonably good wireless router and a separate network backup solution.

I'm a huge Apple fan - I've had more than 15 Mac laptops and desktops over the last decade and currently have 5 in my household. I love all of them, and am normally very satisfied with all of Apple's products. Sadly, the Time Capsule is one exception to the rule.

Purchased a 1T APPLE TIME CAPSULE as backup/wireless base station for my iMac. Was not disappointed in the least...T/M unit performs magnificently in backing up the HD, and as a 10/100/1000 Mbps capable airport extreme wifi network base linking my Leapord-driven computer to the world. Recommend it!