Chosen Solution
I have a 2TB A1409 Airport Time Capsule. The drive is full and backup didn’t work since I got Sierra (middle March 2017). I am wondering if it needs a reset, maybe even a format, and I think it’s a good time to upgrade the drive. Both Time Capsule and Mac has the latest updates available (I think it is 7.6.7 for the Time Capsule) Can I use the 2nd gen (A1302) HDD change guide for my 4th gen (A1409) time machine? Can I use a 10TB drive as suggested elsewhere (i.e. Seagate ST10000DM0004), or would the power draw, temperature or other issues make this a bad option? If I don’t care about the rubber mat, wouldn’t the unit be better cooled off without it? I plug a USB powered fan into the unit anyway, to keep it cool (maybe I should use a standalone USB rather than the built in?) Thank you for answering. Update (04/08/2017) Bonus question: When I remove the internal drive, can I retrieve the backups from it without using a Time Capsule (like a power/USB connection that suits this drive type)?
One option would be to erase your Time Capsule using AirPort Utility in your Applications > Utilities folder. You’d of course lose your backup history if you did this, but if there are no problems with the device you could simply create a new backup. The A1302 and A1409 Time Capsules both have very similar designs, so the guides are largely interchangeable. I’ve swapped hard drives in several model Time Capsules without issue, but I’ve never attempted it with a drive larger than 3TB. It is possible that larger drives wouldn’t be recognized properly, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. The USB port on the Time Capsule is designed for use with a shared printer, but I can’t see any reason using it for an external fan would be an issue. Once you’ve removed the drive from the Time Capsule, you can still access the data by putting it into an external enclosure, though the backups are stored in password-protected disk image files that you’ll need to mount.
