SOLVED Time capsule dead, looking for a suitable replacement.

[Lufbrarunner]

My Time Capsule (A1470), fell on the floor and is no longer working. Luckily I have a second Time Machine backup drive which had been alternating backups with the Time Capsule. So I am looking for something to replace the Time Capsule but not sure what is out there, any suggestions?
I have in the past used a Raspberry Pi coupled with a large HD to back up to but my Pis are all on different projects at the moment.

 

[maw_walker]

Not an ideal solution concerning cost, but I use a Synology NAS for Time Machine. It works fine and I use it to store other data in addition to Time Machine backups. I've had it for 3 or 4 years maybe and back then it was about $800 US with the cost of the drives, which I bought separately. A RPi would have been considerably cheaper had I thought about it...

 

[Harry Trent]

Maybe I'm missing something but won't any USB external drive serve your purpose? You can pickup a 4 TB notebook-sized external USB drive on Amazon for about 100 USD. It would just need to be formatted with the Apple file system once you get it.

 

[maw_walker]

Yes they will but not as a network drive. If OP needed a network drive (NAS), which I think Time Capsule is, then a drive hooked to a single machine won't serve that purpose. Will work fine for Time Machine on that one machine though, but you'd have to move the drive to other machines to get back ups for them.

 

[Harry Trent]

First, the OP did not state he needed a network drive or that he was backing up other machines. Second, a USB external drive can indeed be used as a network drive if attached to his router's USB port, assuming the router has this capability. I've never done this with a Mac but I have with Windows.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Yes they will but not as a network drive. If OP needed a network drive (NAS), which I think Time Capsule is, then a drive hooked to a single machine won't serve that purpose. Will work fine for Time Machine on that one machine though, but you'd have to move the drive to other machines to get back ups for them.

I was backing up 2 imacs and a macbook air to the Time Capsule and had an external SSD connected to that via USB as a network drive. The Time Capsule also acted as a router. I am awaiting delivery of two 2tb Time Capsules. Hopefully that will solve my problem.
Each machine also has an external SSD attached for backups, a belt and braces approach.
Thank you both for your input.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

2 Time Capsules delivered today, a little bonus as one was 3tb rather than 2tb. . Both up and running in no time at all