Mac Book Air & Time Capsule Wireless Network

[FuzzySloth]

I really WANT a MBA, but my only concern is the size of the hard drive. I currently have about 150GB worth of files (mostly music and photos) on my PowerBook G4 and was wondering how smoothly iTunes and iPhoto will access these files if they were saved on Time Capsule? Has anyone set up a wireless network using TC and accessed it through their MBA?

I guess the first question is if this is at all possible? Second, how would I initially save my files from the old PowerBook G4 (OS X 10.4.11) to TC? Third, once the music and photos are saved on TC, can I simply open iTunes and iPhoto on my MBA and access the data on TC?

Thanks for your help!

 

[krye]

I really WANT a MBA, but my only concern is the size of the hard drive. I currently have about 150GB worth of files (mostly music and photos) on my PowerBook G4 and was wondering how smoothly iTunes and iPhoto will access these files if they were saved on Time Capsule? Has anyone set up a wireless network using TC and accessed it through their MBA?

I guess the first question is if this is at all possible? Second, how would I initially save my files from the old PowerBook G4 (OS X 10.4.11) to TC? Third, once the music and photos are saved on TC, can I simply open iTunes and iPhoto on my MBA and access the data on TC?

Thanks for your help!

It was my understanding that TC is to be used as as storage for Time Machine. It's not a wireless hard drive that you can just dump data on. I don't know if you'll be able to do what you want. If you are going to use Time Machine, you'll have to make 2 partitions, 1 for use with Time Machine, and one for your data. And then, I'm not toatlly sure you will be able to access that 2nd partition.

 

[dahcheet]

Are the Time Capsules even out yet?

If the TC works like any other network drive then you should be able to access it the same way.

What I'm hoping for is a way to Partition the drive. I'd LIKE to get a 1TB TC and partition 300-500GB to use as a backup for my MBA and then the rest as Network storage for music/movies/tv shows/etc. Ideally, I'd like to get a TC and an AppleTV but I just don't have that much money lying around.

 

[frunty]

Apple says:

"Time Capsule with Time Machine in Leopard is the ideal backup solution. But that doesn’t mean Tiger, Windows XP, and Windows Vista users can’t enjoy the benefits of Time Capsule, too. Because it mounts as a wireless hard drive, Tiger and Windows users simply access Time Capsule directly from the wireless network for exchanging and storing files quickly and easily."

From the TC info page.

It sounds like you'll be able to just use it as a wireless hard drive in addition to the Time Machine functionality, but until someone gets their hands on one it's tough to know 100%.

 

[hexonxonx]

I really WANT a MBA, but my only concern is the size of the hard drive. I currently have about 150GB worth of files (mostly music and photos) on my PowerBook G4 and was wondering how smoothly iTunes and iPhoto will access these files if they were saved on Time Capsule? Has anyone set up a wireless network using TC and accessed it through their MBA?

I guess the first question is if this is at all possible? Second, how would I initially save my files from the old PowerBook G4 (OS X 10.4.11) to TC? Third, once the music and photos are saved on TC, can I simply open iTunes and iPhoto on my MBA and access the data on TC?

Thanks for your help!

Once you get Time Capsule setup, you tell iTunes the new location that you want the music to be in. It will then start updating the new location for music. Then it will ask if you want iTunes to automatically manage the music, select yes. Now you will select consolidate library from the advanced menu and it will move all your music to Time Capsule.

I have an Extreme Base Station setup with an external drive with all my music on it. Itunes automatically knows the music is there whenever I sync or play songs in iTunes. My other Windows machines can sync and play the music as well with iTunes. It works flawlessly.

 

[ks-man]

Once you get Time Capsule setup, you tell iTunes the new location that you want the music to be in. It will then start updating the new location for music. Then it will ask if you want iTunes to automatically manage the music, select yes. Now you will select consolidate library from the advanced menu and it will move all your music to Time Capsule.

I have an Extreme Base Station setup with an external drive with all my music on it. Itunes automatically knows the music is there whenever I sync or play songs in iTunes. My other Windows machines can sync and play the music as well with iTunes. It works flawlessly.

Does iphoto work the same way with pictures? If yes can you still edit pictures that are stored on the wireless drive?

 

[hotsauce]

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I really WANT a MBA, but my only concern is the size of the hard drive. I currently have about 150GB worth of files (mostly music and photos) on my PowerBook G4 and was wondering how smoothly iTunes and iPhoto will access these files if they were saved on Time Capsule? Has anyone set up a wireless network using TC and accessed it through their MBA?

I guess the first question is if this is at all possible? Second, how would I initially save my files from the old PowerBook G4 (OS X 10.4.11) to TC? Third, once the music and photos are saved on TC, can I simply open iTunes and iPhoto on my MBA and access the data on TC?

Thanks for your help!

Once you get Time Capsule setup, you tell iTunes the new location that you want the music to be in. It will then start updating the new location for music. Then it will ask if you want iTunes to automatically manage the music, select yes. Now you will select consolidate library from the advanced menu and it will move all your music to Time Capsule.

I have an Extreme Base Station setup with an external drive with all my music on it. Itunes automatically knows the music is there whenever I sync or play songs in iTunes. My other Windows machines can sync and play the music as well with iTunes. It works flawlessly.

So am I understanding this right? All your music files will reside in the TC hard drive so outside of your network your iTunes program will be empty? Also, you mentioned that you also access your iTunes file with your PC. Does it matter what file system you use, i.e. NTFS or HFS or Fat32?

 

[hexonxonx]

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So am I understanding this right? All your music files will reside in the TC hard drive so outside of your network your iTunes program will be empty? Also, you mentioned that you also access your iTunes file with your PC. Does it matter what file system you use, i.e. NTFS or HFS or Fat32?

Since the music is stored on the Time Capsule, any computer connected to the network can load up that music from each computers iTunes. I have my drive setup as the way I got it from the store, fat32. The Mac can read it and so can the PCs.

 

[jjd]

Once you get Time Capsule setup, you tell iTunes the new location that you want the music to be in. It will then start updating the new location for music. Then it will ask if you want iTunes to automatically manage the music, select yes. Now you will select consolidate library from the advanced menu and it will move all your music to Time Capsule.

I have an Extreme Base Station setup with an external drive with all my music on it. Itunes automatically knows the music is there whenever I sync or play songs in iTunes. My other Windows machines can sync and play the music as well with iTunes. It works flawlessly.

Thanks for this clear summary of your set up. I am planning to do the same with TC. A couple of questions - will there be any duplication or redundancies with using the TC for this and also for Time Machine? And then thinking specifically about the MBA, is possible to have the entire iTunes library housed on my TC, tell my MacPro to look at it for music and have the MBA "sync" with it (as opposed to just look at it when I am in network range) but sync to only a selection of it. The point being that I will want music stored locally on the MBA for when I am traveling, but will want to keep it synced with the TC, but there will be too much content on the TC to have it sync all of it... Do you follow me?

 

[ks-man]

Anybody know if iphoto works the same way where you tell it where to look? If it does is the responsiveness ok for viewing pictures and slideshows? How about editing photos?

This will probably be the deciding factor as to whether or not I get a time capsule so I'd really appreciate if somebody who knows could respond.

Thanks for the help.

 

[xraydoc]

Thanks for this clear summary of your set up. I am planning to do the same with TC. A couple of questions - will there be any duplication or redundancies with using the TC for this and also for Time Machine? And then thinking specifically about the MBA, is possible to have the entire iTunes library housed on my TC, tell my MacPro to look at it for music and have the MBA "sync" with it (as opposed to just look at it when I am in network range) but sync to only a selection of it. The point being that I will want music stored locally on the MBA for when I am traveling, but will want to keep it synced with the TC, but there will be too much content on the TC to have it sync all of it... Do you follow me?

My comment about (some of) this is that if you keep both your iTunes and iPhoto libraries on the TC, AND keep the Time Machine backup on this device as well, you're just putting all your eggs in one basket and asking for trouble. If your TC's hard drive dies, you lose your iTunes and iPhoto libraries - and your backup at the same time. Not a smart solution.

As for moving just a selection of music to iTunes, you'd basically have to manipulate the library files and create/copy/delete symlinked music folders - iTunes isn't designed to sync like this. I tried it once a couple years ago and it was a royal pain. Unless someone has a better method, this is too cumbersome to do.

 

[Ollivander]

Anybody know if iphoto works the same way where you tell it where to look? If it does is the responsiveness ok for viewing pictures and slideshows? How about editing photos?

This will probably be the deciding factor as to whether or not I get a time capsule so I'd really appreciate if somebody who knows could respond.

Thanks for the help.

It is possible, this will explain how to do it...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5938334&#5938334

 

[ks-man]

It is possible, this will explain how to do it...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5938334&#5938334

Thanks for the link.

It definitely shows that you can have iphoto look at the other drive. Unfortunately it doesn't get into how well working with the photos (to both view and edit) is vs. accessing them on the local hard drive.

I'll probably have to wait until time capsule comes out and hope that some reviews test that particular function.

 

[ubercool]

This is great to know! I'm gonna do the exact same thing when I get my TC.

Once you get Time Capsule setup, you tell iTunes the new location that you want the music to be in. It will then start updating the new location for music. Then it will ask if you want iTunes to automatically manage the music, select yes. Now you will select consolidate library from the advanced menu and it will move all your music to Time Capsule.

I have an Extreme Base Station setup with an external drive with all my music on it. Itunes automatically knows the music is there whenever I sync or play songs in iTunes. My other Windows machines can sync and play the music as well with iTunes. It works flawlessly.

 

[ubercool]

Thanks for the link.

It definitely shows that you can have iphoto look at the other drive. Unfortunately it doesn't get into how well working with the photos (to both view and edit) is vs. accessing them on the local hard drive.

I'll probably have to wait until time capsule comes out and hope that some reviews test that particular function.

Common sense dictates that it will be slower. Hey. you're asking for a big file to be read wirelessly vs. directly off a local hard disk. Whether you want to put up with the TC time hit is entirely up to you.

 

[ks-man]

Common sense dictates that it will be slower. Hey. you're asking for a big file to be read wirelessly vs. directly off a local hard disk. Whether you want to put up with the TC time hit is entirely up to you.

Agreed it would be slower but there is a threshold of irrelevance towards the speed differential. If it normally takes 8 seconds to do a save of an edited file and now it takes 10 seconds or instead of 3 seconds to activate a slideshow vs now it takes 4 seconds, it is taking longer (25-33% longer in fact), but most people probably wouldn't care about that time of extra lag.

 

[Nutcookie]

thi sulotion sounds great! but when will it be available in stores!? it says shipping in february, does anyone know of a more exact date!?