Time Capsule Thermal Flaw
Wesley Hilliard (via gbdoc):
According to a German data recovery company, Datenrettung, the Time Capsule has a design flaw leading to failure and data loss in the aging machines. Golemreports that the German company has seen several Time Capsule failures, all with the same flaw.
[…]
The “parking ramp” is the part of the HDD that connects the drive to the external enclosure. Unfortunately, as the poorly-ventilated Time Capsule heats up, the two materials heat at different rates, leading to eventual wear and destruction of the parking ramp.
The data recovery company suggests that users that rely upon the Apple Time Capsule should seek a new backup solution.
Does your Mac still back up to an Apple Time Capsule? If so, it’s time to replace it, or at the very least its hard disk. The last model, the 802.11ac numbered A1470, is now more than three years old, and the risks of its hard disk failing are climbing every day. All older models, manufactured before 2013, are now running on borrowed time, as they’ve turned eight at least.
[…]
Apple stopped making Time Capsules over three years ago, and there isn’t any strong candidate for their complete replacement. For most, this will mean returning to separate Wi-Fi base station and storage systems.
Replacement storage is the more difficult, and the first question to ask is whether you really want or need networked storage.
Previously:
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I don't use a Time Capsule any longer, but I certainly still use the last model AEx/ac. Replacing it would be interesting, it is getting quite old, but there just isn't much else that works.
I think Wirecutter is receiving kickbacks from TP_Link, Wirecutter keeps recommending various TP-Link hardware, but they're all uniformly bad.
I find Wirecutter recommendations extremely hit-or-miss. Their recommended document scanner, a Brother portable model, cannot scan straight. Out of five attempts to scan a single page, maybe one will not have one or two black edge/corners. This has been complained about by me and others in their comments and they have done nothing about it, last I checked.
Sadly true that the options aren't great. TC was never perfect either, of course, but it's clear Apple's engineers cared about quality in a way other vendors don't. I ended up with a Netgear RAX200 as my single base station in AP mode. It only reboots occasionally. Use separate solutions for router, switch, NAS, but NAS especially. And even then, the RAX200 firmware, which is serviceable and relatively stable but still stodgy, does not support multiple SSIDs unless it's in its own router mode, contrary to AirPort which VLAN tagged. All a bit of a downer, but at least the Wi-Fi is nice and fast now ...
@Sebby in Europe, AVM Fritz!Box'es are popular. In my experience they are very solid. They receive updates for a long time. Have a half-decent web interface with plenty of options and they have been incredibly stable for me.
That said, what I love about the AirPorts is that they are configured through a native program rather than a web interface.
Still have an Airport Extreme in a box in the basement. It's a shame that Apple cancelled the AirPort products.
