Time Capsule used for Windows backup?

Hi, at home I have 2 WinPCs and a Mac and I am searching for a solution that will enable me to set up a wireless backup for all the 3.

So I am considering buying the large Time Capsule (1TB) if and only if I can use it as a backup drive for my WinPCs too. Do you know if this is possible or even better, has anyone done it??

Tnx!

 

Well I just found part of the answer. In the info about Time Capsule, it is said that it can be used as a backup drive for WinPcs too.
But has any of you already done it?
Was it easy to set up??

 

I use for SyncBack Pro, theres a free version for automated backups

 

You won't be able to use timemachine style backups on a pc, but you can still use the drive as a normal external drive and then use what ever pc software for backups you use, to the spare space on the TM. However there are some issues to know about first.
1) TM usually needs to be in HFS or mac extended (journaled) format. PCs can't read this by default without a 3rd party program like macdrive.

your other option would be to partition the drive in 2 and have on part formated as HFS and one as FAT32 or NTFS.
a

 

Tnx for the replies.

@Tolkmann. Was it easy to set it up? Are the transfer rates over the n network faster than what you would expect with the g?

@Underpantman. Very usefull piece of info. It is very strange that there is absolutely no mentionning oif it at the Apple webiste... The only thing mentionned is that as a PC user you need Bonjour. I have no idea what this software does. Could be an equivalent of macdrive?

 

Underpantman does this also mean that TimeMachine will only work with TimeCapsule? If I get another NAS let's say from Western, Iomega, Buffalo etc, will it be incompatible?

 

Time Machine works with any kind of external HDD. Be it on firewire, USB or networked. And of course any make of HDD.

I use it on my 320GB WD Passport HDD.

The Time Capsule disk is formatted in a very special "Apple Shared" file system. I couldn't find anything about this online. The special thing being you can store files over 4GB on it, and read+write it both from OS X AND Windows. (Tested it myself with some dual-layer .iso files being copied onto the Time Capsule from both OS X and Windows)

So that's some kind of HFS+ (for OSX) combined with NTFS (for Windows).

I wish I could format all my externals like that.

Anyways, doesn't matter what you use it with, you can use your Time Capsule with Windows software and with Time Machine on OS X just fine.
Just install the Airport software on the PCs so you can access the Airport Disk.

 

For NAS drives, timecapsule and The new HP media smart servers, are the only offically supported ones.

But there are some work arounds.

1) Any USB drive shared by a Mac over your network can be used for TM
2) A USB drive plugged into a Airport extreme can also be used
3) A NAS drive that has AFP mode, can with some hacking be used as a TM
M

Hope this has answered your questions
a

 

Indeed!
I cannot +rep you yet, otherwise I would!

 

I'd recommend buying the Airport Extreme Base Station and an external USB hard drive instead of Time Capsule. The main reason is that if you ever want to take your hard drive off site, you have to take your whole router since the drive is built in. If you buy the AEBS you can take your drive as you please, or even upgrade the drive at a later date if you require more storage.

 

If I do something like that, could I format the drive with the HFS+ format? (the only one compatible with Time Machine)

 

Yes. Attach the drive to your Mac first and then format it as HFS+ before attaching it to the AEBS.

Windows machines will also be able to read/write to the drive via the router.

 

Tnx! This actually means that I can use any kind of NAS as far as I format it to HFS+ first. That's a good thing to know since it opens up the possibilities