Yeah... me again.. help with backing up a Mac with Time Capsule

MsHark

Time Capsule - Time Machine - I see these words being used on the web but I have no idea what the difference is. Is it the same thing?

 Anyway I have been trying to back up my hard drive for days... it is taking forever and is only at 94 MB out of something like 65 GB... something like that.

I read that if you connect your computer and the time machine via ethernet, this process goes faster.

I have a feeling I don't really know what an ethernet cable really is... I have a cable that I connected, but I have a feeling it is not the right sort of cable because on the back of the time capsule (machine?), the "ethernet activity light" is not lit at all and the backup is not going any faster.

The cable I am using, I think, is the kind that can be plugged directly into an internet router? or a cable? .... I feel so dumb right now.

This is the cable I was trying to use: 

http://i53.tinypic.com/xol6i0.jpg 

Please help!

Thanks. 

 

AmyRI

The "Time Capsule" is the actual hard drive that you purchased. "Time Machine" is just the software on the Mac that makes it easy to back up and see the old backups on the hard drive.

You're right, connecting through the ethernet cable will be MUCH faster than backing up wirelessly. You should only need to plug it in the first time you back up. The next time, it will only save changes to the computer and will therefore transfer much less data, and go fast enough wirelessly.

You have the correct cable - that is ethernet. I don't have that particular hard drive, so I can't help too much. I would try to connect using the cable again. It sounds like it might not recognize that it's plugged in and it is instead still using the wireless. Maybe turn off the wireless on your computer and see if you can still talk to the hard drive? That would force it to transfer through the cable. You should be able to reconnect to the wireless once you have it transferring through the ethernet connection.

Hope this helps!

AmyRI

AmyRI:

The "Time Capsule" is the actual hard drive that you purchased. "Time Machine" is just the software on the Mac that makes it easy to back up and see the old backups on the hard drive.

You're right, connecting through the ethernet cable will be MUCH faster than backing up wirelessly. You should only need to plug it in the first time you back up. The next time, it will only save changes to the computer and will therefore transfer much less data, and go fast enough wirelessly.

You have the correct cable - that is ethernet. I don't have that particular hard drive, so I can't help too much. I would try to connect using the cable again. It sounds like it might not recognize that it's plugged in and it is instead still using the wireless. Maybe turn off the wireless on your computer and see if you can still talk to the hard drive? That would force it to transfer through the cable. You should be able to reconnect to the wireless once you have it transferring through the ethernet connection.

Hope this helps!

Sorry, one more thing! The ethernet cable should be plugged in to your computer on one end and the time capsule hard drive on the other. No router/modem should be in between.

MsHark

Amy, thank you very much! That is what I was doing yesterday, but maybe I need shut off wireless, restart, and have it all plugged in correctly when it turns on.  Thanks for the clarification! At least I know I was doing it right.