macbook prossdtime-capsuletime-machineupgrade
I am upgrading the HDD of a MBP 17" Mid-2009 to an SSD.
I have an Airport Time Capsule with Time Machine backups in it.
Do I still need to purchase a USB/SATA connector for my old drive or can I use the Time Capsule? If so, does it need to be physically connected via USB?
Time Machine's thinking is backup everything except what you tell it not to and the time machine hard drive itself. It should not matter how many drives you have connected, they should all be backed up to the time capsule just fine. In other words, you can backup multiple sources but only on one destination, as long as this destination shows up as a single logical drive in the Finder.
Just check in Sys Prefs > Time Machine > Options if the other HD isn't just simply added to the list of exceptions, don't see how it would end up there by itself, but just in case.
And I don't think you can keep working with the same backup, since you divided the data in to 2 separate logical drives. Time Machine just does not think like that. Better start from scratch, perhaps backing up the current backup set to another drive if you need to preserve all the previous backups... Some people need to be able to go back in time to a specific point. I care only to have one up-to-date copy, don't care much about having 30 different ones.
It turned out that the hard drive cable was broken. Replacing it fixed the problem completely.
Best Answer
Migration Assistant can use a Time Capsule as a Time Machine backup source, without the need for a direct connection. Once you've installed OS X, use Migration Assistant to restore from a Time Machine backup, then select your Time Capsule.