5 Votes
Hard Drive Repair for Time Capsule With Internal Drive Error
As I wrote previously, I had a Time Capsule problem. Basically, the hard drive crashed and I was stuck with a very expensive (but fast) router. Luckily, my plan to recover my data was successful. Here are some details on how it went.
Taking apart the Time Capsule
This proved to be fairly straightforward – and the most complicated “computer surgery” I’ve done in the past is upgrade memory (iMac) or add a wireless card (PC). I followed the steps on a Harmac article entitled, Changing a disk in the Time Capsule – only I stopped after the hard drive was out (i.e., almost to the end of page 3).
Here are some photos I took along the way:
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Removing rubber cover from bottom of Time Capsule. |
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Bottom of Time Capsule with rubber cover removed. |
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Time Capsule with bottom rubber cover and hard cover removed. Top: Hard drive. Bottom right: Intact wire connection to fan, which is attached to hard cover. |
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Top: Time Capsule (upside-down) with internals exposed. Bottom-left: Rubber cover with screws. Bottom-right: Hard cover and fan assembly. |
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Removing securing cover from temperature sensor on Time Capsule hard drive. |
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Insides of Time Capsule with hard drive removed. |
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Removed Time Capsule hard drive. |
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Preparing an External Drive
I purchased an external drive (a Western Digital 1TB My Book) and hooked it up to my iMac. This is where I would store the data I was able to restore/extract from the Time Capsule hard drive. (You know, the way I was “supposed” to be doing it from the beginning.)
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1TB Western Digital “My Book” external hard drive hooked up and running, with box. |
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Fixing the Drive
I plopped the Time Capsule hard drive into a SATA dock (specifically a 2.5/3.5" USB 2.0 SATA HD Docking Station), which was plugged in and hooked up to my iMac, but not turned on.
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Time Capsule hard drive in the SATA dock, sitting on the SATA dock box. |
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When I turned on the dock, two disks mounted on my desktop. Neither looked to contain my information, so I assumed they were “administrative” in nature.
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Disks mounted before fix. |
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Opening Disk Utility, I noticed two things: There was another disk partition on the Time Capsule hard drive that wasn’t mounted, and one of the disks that did mount needed to be repaired.
When I tried to repair the mounted disk or to mount the unmounted disk, Disk Utility would give me an error – ironically, something about not being able to unmount the disk. Fifteen minutes of looking online didn’t yield anything useful, so I grabbed a bigger hammer.
I opened DiskWarrior, which immediately gave me the option to rebuild the unmounted disk. It worked on it for … I forget how long – an hour? Then it presented me with a report of success and mounted the drive.
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DiskWarrior rebuilding the problem disk on the failed Time Capsule hard drive. |
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DiskWarrior report after rebuilding failed disk on Time Capsule hard drive. |
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Disks mounted after fix. |
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Looking around on the disk I found everything was intact. I was saved!
Moving the Info
DiskWarrior had inserted a new file structure on the rebuilt Time Capsule hard drive (to contain suspected problem files), but it was easy to pick out what I needed and drag it directly onto the My Book drive. I moved over the music (which took overnight) and left the backups of my iMac and MacBook.
Putting Things Back Together
I re-assembled the Time Capsule and everything looked just like it did before. In fact, I’d be surprised if someone at Apple was able to tell I took it apart. I guess there could have been something like those cell phone indicators that change color when the phone is dropped in water, but it wasn’t obvious. It functioned just right, too. Time Machine picked up right where it left off, and I’m still able to access backups from before the “incident.”
I powered down the external hard drive and plugged it into the Time Capsule, and the computers on the network had immediate access to the music there.
One Remaining Question
There’s just one step I have yet to figure out: How to get the information on the external drive backed up on the Time Capsule, too. My only idea right now is to occasionally hook the external drive up to one of the computers, run a backup, and then move it back. It’d be much easier, of course, if I could automate it. Ideas, anyone?
Similarly tagged OmniNerd content:
- Fixing Time Capsule Read Only Error, by Brandon almost 4 years ago
- Data Recovery Plan for Time Capsule With Internal Drive Error, by Brandon about 4 years ago
- Apple Care Keyboard Replacement: 30 Seconds, by markmcb over 4 years ago
- Apple Time Capsule Alternatives, by Brandon over 4 years ago
This article was edited after publication by the author on 03 Jul 2011.
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I Think You're on the Right Track by VnutZ
I don’t have a Time Capsule myself but I would imagine what you described is the only way to do it … to get the data mirrored again on your original drive and then have it copied over during a standard backup. Otherwise, any meta data the Time Capsule software uses to track changes wouldn’t necessarily be correct simply by copying files over. That’s just my edumacated guess.
YOU ARE A GOD!!! by Anonymous
I had to think of how to properly say THANK YOU and that you are the greatest. It took me longer to pull the back off and unscrew all those tiny screws than it did to repair my disk. The instructions (especially with the visuals) helped so much. I also fixed a Western Digital using the same guidelines.
Thanks a milli!!!
Seems to have worked by Anonymous
I have followed the instructions here carefully and all seems to be good. The first time I tried to backup files from the restored drive I got a permissions error and then the contents of the folder disappeared! (a heart stopping moment). I had to restart in order to remount the drive. Then I ran disk warrior again and am now cautiously but successfully backing up smaller folders one by one in order of importance.
Thanks for the reassuring post.
uncovering by Anonymous
Use a hair dryer to warm up the metal cover and the glue will come of easily.
Windows? by Anonymous
Anyone have any idea how to access data on the removed time capsule drive once it is inserted into a hard drive dock in Windows???
Thank you!!!!! by Anonymous
You have just saved Christmas!
I had just finished putting all the photos I shot over Christmas in my iPhoto library on my Time Capsule and and then got the dreaded flashing amber light and the blood chilling message that the internal drive needed to be repaired.
I did a quick search and landed on this page.
The SATA dock arrived in the post this morning, I downloaded Diskwarrior, repaired the drive, and am backing up the files as I type.
Thanks so much for posting this fix!
-John
Excellent fix by Anonymous
This fix worked well and I thank you for leading the way. Removing the rubber cover was challenging. The trick is to treat he rubber mat like a peeling label, but don’t use water. The map is glued so careful and deliberate pulling will prevent tearing.
Amazing!!! by Anonymous
I am not a tech geek and this was so easy and clear!!! Thank you so much for your help and taking the time to write this up, I would have lost my drive and all of my years of family photos and music if it weren’t for you. I sooooo appreciate it! God bless!
Great post! Thanks. by Anonymous
Everything worked for me up until I ran Disk Warrior. For some reason when my time capsule mounted I kept getting a dialogue box saying the alias for the time capsule was broken and essentially was unable to browse the drive. Anyway I put hard drive back in the time capsule case, hooked everything back up and voila! I am able to access the drive again over my network. Also plugged in a 500gb seagate drive to the back of the time capsule and am able to do an archive using airport utility. Which is great! because before I saw this post I wasn’t able do to anything. thanks again.
Brillant! by Anonymous
Tnx. Everything worked nicely. Exactly as described. Great contribution.
Kudos to the author! by Anonymous
This totally saved my day— kudos to the author. I was incredulous all the way through buying DiskWarrior, but everything worked great. I stupidly had migrated my entire family photo collection into iPhoto and was storing the iPhoto Library on the TC when it crashed…
Some other minor observations for future folks: my Desktop looked just like the authors when I turned on the new external HardDrive (with the old TC HD in it). I had the APswap and APconfig. The third one, the one that did not mount, was entitled APdata. This is the one that I assigned DiskWarrior to fix, and it worked within 5 minutes and renamed the drive to my original TC named drive.
Some other worthless comments/observations:
My family’s first experience with Apple Support (iMac, 2 iPads, 3 iPhones, Apple TV, TC)— was very disappointed. Several long phone calls where they repeatedly asked for either $49 or $169 to continue on to support personnel. The nice fella at the Apple Store genius bar basically said to make contact with one of the Apple Service Providers since Apple does not deal with data recovery. Over email with one of the recommended providers, they even suggested that I would likely loose the Warranty when they cracked open the TC. This email was the final straw for me to use the above technique.
My TC was only 6 months old— definitely did not expect the flashing Amber light and “Internal Disc needs Repair” so soon. But it ended up being the right decision to take the authors technique— open it up and void the warranty in the process, but likely recover the files.
Thank you for that. i did save all my data by Anonymous
I was really deseapointed from Apple support… Solution was to erase the disk :( and that was not good. i did post on the support community from Apple and did become nothing else as solution.
Thank you for this solution now i do have all my data.
I’m asking me if the Time Capsule is optimize only for backup and so when you are doing a lot of OI by copying music and film you are making the disk crazy? Funny also that did only appear with Lion and the new Fireware update?
Anyway ……. Thank you a lot Whitout your article I will not have try that.
Saviour!! by Anonymous
You sir, are awesome.
I have a macbook air as my main machine and use the time capsule as my extended hard drive as the air has a teeny one.
Should have read the reviews on the stability of the drive beforehand but what can I say, i’m a fanboy so wanted the time capsule.
Had problems with the time capsule so had to keep unplugging to reset.
When it finally hooked back up it was missing 99% of my files!!
Couldn’t get disk utility to work despite hooking it up via ethernet. Got an external enclosure and run disk warrior and it worked like a charm.
Digital life saved for sure!!
You sir, are a prince! by Anonymous
Your post just saved my ass! My time capsule had the blinking amber light accompanied by the same error message. It was home to my entire iTunes library that included hundreds of gig’s of music, movies and TV shows. I thought they were gone for sure.
I easily followed the steps you outline and voila! I found the data, fixed the corruption on the time capsule with DiskWarrior, and I’m back in business.
Thank you so much!