Time Capsule Repair

Symptoms of Failure

Our problems started with Time Machine backups starting, but not completing. We were also having difficulty shutting down. When I dug deeper, I had similar problems with the sparse bundles in Disk Utility. The problems went away when I switched Time Machine over to a different hard drive.

Why Repair?

Our backup strategy called for hard drive cloning every two or three months with Time Machine for incremental backup. I considered staying on the external drive, but it was an effort to even get a weekly backup on the external drive. And the Time Capsule is so nice when you have laptops. This was also an opportunity for me to upgrade to a 1TB hard drive.

The Repair

The repair went smoothly with an assist from the internet. Brandon Hansen’s Hard Drive Repair for Time Capsule was particularly helpful. If you are comfortable installing a hard drive or card in a computer, then you probably have all the skills you need.

After Action Report

My fan power connector was found disconnected during the repair. I may have done it myself during the disassembly, but I can’t help but wonder if the problems were caused by over heating after the connector came loose.

I had no problems accessing the old hard drive using my USB hard drive adaptor. Disk Utility reported a bunch of errors when repairing the sparse bundles, but was successful in the end. I don’t expect to need the old data, but I’ll keep it for a few months just in case.