...and was quite audible so I replaced the original 500 with a 1.5TB caviar green - now silent (the quietest CG drive) & running cooler than body temp I am puzzled why 'server' grade was chosen especially now that failures are being reported... I might also suggest buying drives in identical pairs (a backup backup) so that if failure happens at least a replacement circuit board is available to try & recover the data - recovery services are rather pricey @ $500 & up! So far so good...

My brother's TM died out of the blue. I think Apple got a bad batch of power supplies. It happens, but Apple needs to fix the problem now.

I am the owner of a time Capsule bought at the same time and that died without warning a few days ago. The only (possible) warning I got was that the hard drive occasionally sounded slightly different in the week previous. Nothing awful, just a slightly different tone on the read/writes. I was just thinking I might get around to backing up the backup when it failed without warning. I was actually looking at it when it happened, and the light just blinked out and that was it. No drama, no sounds, no warnings. Just poof.

The worst part is the Apple secrecy though. The first thing one does is go to the web site and check it out and you have to dig around like crazy to even find a mention of this as a possible problem. Nothing on their site indicates anyone has had any major problems with Time Capsule, but when you dig, you find that thousands and thousands of people have had the same problem as you, but that Apple is just ignoring it.

I'm a big Apple booster, but when it comes to social issues and customer service, their secrecy just works 100% *against* them. I don't know why someone in PR doesn't see that and force a change.

Since April 2008, I've owned two Time Capsules, both of them 1 TB. The first one served it's line of duty for two or three months before dying. My parents took it to the Genius Bar while I was in school, and they diagnosed it as a blown power supply. They gave me a new one, but they didn't bother to swap the drives.

....running cooler than body temp I am puzzled why 'server' grade was chosen especially now that failures are being reported..

Server grade was chosen because they're supposed to be better than regular off-the-shelf drives and be able to stand being on 24/7 and all that c***.

Although it's probably just all marketing hogwash so they can charge more for the same drive...

Well if my Time Capsule's power supply does go out at some point, at least I can reset assured that the 3 year AppleCare warranty I purchased with my computer will cover my Time Capsule for another 1 and a half years.

If I do end up having to replace the unit it really won't matter anyway since the data is only a backup of what's on my computer now. If I thought the data in the backups was so important I'd take the time to backup my backup data.

S*** Happens.

http://cheezburger.com/View.aspx?aid=2700372736

My 500GB Time Capsule, purchased in March 2008, died this morning (11/20/09).

My 20 month old Time Capsule (500gb) died unexpectedly last Saturday... just like as described above. At Noon on Monday, I had a 15 minute call with the Apple support team and at 10a the NEXT DAY, a reconditioned Time Capsule was at my doorstep... no charge.

Sure, I had to go through the hassle, I lost my old backups and it never should have died in the first place... but the fast turn around on this was astounding.

I think my serial number fell within a specific range that qualified for replacement. If you have a dead TC, it's worth the call to see what they'll do for you.