Time Capsule/Time Machine access from a PC

[missm]

Hi all,

I apologize if this question has been asked before. My Macbook pro took a bath earlier in the week and I can't get it to turn on, so we are struggling with my husband's 7+ year old PC that has seen much better days. I was lucky to get into this site, forget about the idea of searching

It is going to be a while before we can purchase another computer. I have a time capsule and I Have been using time machine to back up my files. I have a few files that I need to get access to. Is there any way to get to these files from the PC? I can "log in" to the time capsule and I can see a bunch of files, it looks like they are the backup files from the time machine (at least i hope they are), but I have no idea how to open them from a PC. Is this possible? What do I need to do?

Thank you for your help! (and if anyone has suggestions on how to fix my macbook, those would be greatly appreciated!)

 

[Kaveman]

Those files are OS X Journaled Disk Images, I'm pretty sure they can only be access from a Mac.
And even then they should be migrated your User space onto that Mac, not directly.
Go in directly can break the whole backup.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

I agree with Kaveman what you purpose is dangerous and will not work.
You can't access another Mac's Time Machine backup. It's specific to that Mac especially using Time Capsule as it does it using a Sparse Image.
You can of course restore to a Mac from a Time Machine backup. When you get your new Mac you transfer everything back to the way it was with your old machine.

Liquid and electronics don't gel well, if you can take bottom of case off submerge in rice for a few days. This might draw the moisture out but personally this has only worked for small devices IE phones and the like.

 

[missm]

Thanks for your replies. Although that was definitely not the news I was hoping to hear. I bought the time capsule b/c it is supposed to work with Mac and PC. Is there something different I can do to backup the files on my mac and have them easily accessible to a PC? Unfortunately, it may be quite some time before I am able to get another computer, especially a Mac. If I were to get an iPad, would I be able to restore my files to that?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Mac is OS X and iPad / iPhone is iOS so no you can't use the TM backup for iPad.
But if you have saved all docs you have worked with iWork to the cloud then yes as soon as you get the iPad and installed iWork they will be there on the iPad.

 

[Kaveman]

The TimeCapsule is the little white box and is a network storage device and it can be used by PC and Mac. TimeMachine is the backup software that runes on the Mac and can save it's files to the TimeCapsule or any other Harddrive, these files can't and shouldn't be access by any other computer directly.

 

[missm]

Thanks! I don't know what exactly the cloud is, so I doubt I have files there!

For future reference, is there a way for me to save files directly to my time capsule, not using time machine, so I can easily access them from any computer? Or a different backup program that I could use?

 

[Kaveman]

I think oldscribe meant iCloud, a very easy way for Apple devices to save documents on the internet.

is there a way for me to save files directly to my time capsule

Sure its just a great network storage device, you log into it, as you must have to have seen the TimeMachine backups, and either save the files directly there via the File > Save option with in your Apps, or drag and drop them onto it once you have finished working on them.

As an aside its never a good idea to work on files across a network, so if you do put your files out on the TimeCapsule, drag them back to the local computer before editing them.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

As Kaveman said I was meaning iCloud. Yes.

And also take note of Kavemans hint re network drive, because
Windows will then be read/write to this drive without adding any utility software to access the Time Capsule. As it is formatted as HFS+, which Windows cannot read/write natively.