I then started to research my problem, and found many articles about an issue that the first generation time capsules seem to have.  After around 18 months they just seem to die for no reason. I could not remember when my was purchased, so I booked an appointment for genius bar at one of my local Apple stores.

 

After explaining the issue and they carried out all the tests they could, they confirmed the issue was dead and that in fact I had lost all the data on there.  I asked whether or not the unit was still covered by any warranty, a quick check showed I purchased the unit in May 08, so well out of warranty and slightly over the 18 months that most people experienced so that was one small positive out of all this.  Luckily I do not have time machine as my only backup.

 

Now for the positives, I have always heard about Apple support being fantastic, I have had some minor experience before and I have never had a bad experience.  Again this time I was not disappointed, the Genius had explained that this was not good and without having to say a thing, he just said you can have a new one.  Within two minutes he had disappeared out the back then came back with a brand new device, apologised for the inconvenience, also apologised that I may of lost all the data, not his fault I know but it seemed genuine.  They could not allow me to have the drive as they had to take my old unit away, I was not to bothered about this as I say its not my only backup, although an inconvenience as I will have to start again with a new full backup as you know this can take ages.

 

My main backups are SuperDuper clones, with time machine running all the time for the back ups in between, also if there is some major changes, i.e  large photo insert of movie purchased on itunes etc then I also take a manual copy to another external drive that i have.  Nearly all my documents etc are saved in the cloud. For my full backup plan for all my systems you can find that here.

 

After my recent experience my advice would be to people that are using and relying on Time capsule as your only backup solution to quickly get another solution as a backup to your backup.  You can't go wrong with SuperDuper  and an external drive, some may say it can be expensive as you already have a time capsule, but what is the price on your data??, for around £100 you can get a drive and license the super duper, there also is carbon copy cloner which I have heard great things about but I just prefer SuperDuper.

 

So to wrap up, although it is a major bummer that my router blew up, and I can't say I would recommend a time capsule as a router as they may be an issue down the line, apparently the latest versions are better as they are running "greener" hard drives which don't spin up so hot.  I still think its a major design flaw to not expel the heat enough and it should be improved.  


The main positive was the excellent customer service I received, which tbh I think you should get that level of service from most places, shame but this is not always the case.