Maybe Apple Meant We Should Bury Them In Our Yards For 50 Years

Brian — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:36:13 +0000

For my birthday this year, I convinced Bridget to buy me a Time Capsule network backup server. Apple had just launched the 2TB model and retailers were dumping the older 500GB model, so it was easy to find deals on the smaller ones. Charlotte and I both have Macs, so it seemed like a good way to add a painless backup solution AND the wireless access point built into the Time Capsule let me extend the signal of our home network so that I could sit in the living room and have a nice strong signal. 500 gigs isn’t as much as it used to be in terms of storage, but it’s more than enough for our backup/archival needs.

Now I’m reading that Time Capsules seem to have a disturbingly consistent lifetime limitation of about 18 months. After that length of time, apparently the hard drives wear out from overheating, and, due to Apple’s design of the device, which doesn’t really allow you to open the box and tinker around, the whole thing turns into a lovely white-plastic-and-brushed-aluminum brick. Moreover, because this happens AFTER your warranty has expired, Apple disavows any responsibility for fixing or replacing the thing. Charming.

The writer of the Guardian article has tried to get Apple to own up to the issue; consumer protection laws in the U.K. are a bit stiffer than they are here in the U.S., and there’s a case to be made that Apple does have to replace the drives in units sold there. He also notes that thermal damage is a repeated theme in Apple hardware: similar problems have affected AirPort Express nodes and at least one Mac laptop model. This Gizmodo post about the problem points to a website called The Apple Time Capsule Memorial Register, which hopes to collect enough serial numbers of bricked Time Capsules to demonstrate that Apple is deliberately ignoring the problem.

Since I have a bit to go before my Time Capsule hits that 17 month-17 day wall, I am not quite in disaster recovery mode just yet. I happen to have another 500GB external drive that I was using on my Windows PC, and once I get that cleaned up and reformatted for Mac OS, I can use it to make an archival copy of my Time Capsule drive and set it aside for that fateful day.

BrianKaneOnline » Time Capsule

Maybe Apple Meant We Should Bury Them In Our Yards For 50 Years

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