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I’m wondering if you might show details of step by step removal of the stock 2TB Seagate and the step by step insertion and connection of a 4TB HGST drive plus formatting instructions. ie: do we need to format the 4TB drive before installing it in the Time Capsule or can we do that after it’s installed? Please forgive me if this is a stupid request. But the way you show the step by step so far makes a lot of leaps between steps and isn’t really very detailed. I’m very nervous I’m gonna make a mistake because I can’t see every gory detail you have skipped over. You take an aweful lot for granted in your explanation skipping an aweful lot between photographs. One photo shows the hard drive exposed followed by it being out with no way to tell how you got it out and how you got the 4TB drive in. You write how easy it is without showing us how you did it.

I would say you would likely be one of the first to swap out the HD to a larger drive. Are you sure you need to do this? So if you’re game here take some pictures and write down what it took to swap the drive out. Then you too can become a famous IFIXIT author sharing your wealth of knowledge! The only thing I can think of here is I would recommend using same drive within the same vendor & series Apple used in your unit. As to the formatting the drive: No you don’t need to do that before you put it in. If Apple followed the same path as the older Time Capsules you’ll format it via the units firmware via the AirPort Utility from your computer.

I upgraded the HDD in my 2013 2TB Time Capsule to a 4TB. It is possible as iFixit says but about the same level of difficulty as a hard drive replacement in a Mac mini if you have done that. You will need some very thin spudgers to get the base off. Also there are a few thin wire connectors that are not for the faint hearted. Drive used: Seagate Barracuda 4TB 7200rpm (ST4000DX000). It is a hot running drive ordinarily but does not appear to heat the TC up (any different to what the 2TB did). Even with doing the initial backup of 5 Macs at once it did not get too hot. I am guessing the writing speed is not challenging for it, or the internal fan is efficient in moving the hot air from the top down out the vents in the base. A few tips worth noting:

  1. Find a very thin plastic, but stiff, spudger to get the base of. Two or more would help. The black base is a soft plastic and is marked easy. A thin spudger shouldn’t leave any marks.
  2. You need a torx kit. 8 from memory.
  3. Connectors are very delicate. I used long flat tweezers as I have used on minis and MacBooks in the past.
  4. I left the sata cable attached to the logic board and only levered it off the HDD.
  5. HDD is a snug fit. I removed it by holding the device end gently letting the HDD drop out the bottom, being super careful it does not grab wiring. Move it side to side to ease it from the rubber edges holding it in inside.
  6. The HDD is only held in with rubber edges. You may need to reposition the rubber up inside the unit with say a driver before you fit the new drive back in. It is very snug because the 4TB drive has a little more alloy on the edges. It fits fine though. There is no forcing it.
  7. You need to format the HDD through ’erase’ in the AirPort App when you boot back into the TC. You can rename it to what ever. I pre-formatted the drive in HFS+ but the AirPort app brings up a note to rebuild the drive anyway. It’s a simple excercise in the app. UPDATE: So I pulled the Time capsule apart after 14 months to check how dirty it was. Unfortunately is was really packed full of dust. I don’t live in a dusty environment at all either. I was really surprised. There was dust on the transformer (inside) and on the outer blades of the fan. So I did a full clean with vacuum, soft brush and compressed air can.

Dear all! In the moment I have upgraded my TimeCapsule A1470 2TB with an 6TB HDD and it works perfect!! Build in was the old drive, a Seagate Barracuda 2000GB. The new HDD is a WD 6TB WD60EFRX red with SATA-III. Speed is not the big problem (5400 rpm or more). Why to upgrade? In our family we have 6 Macs (4 MBP, 2 MacMini) and now 2TB or 3TB is not enough any more and I didn´t want to add an additional external HDD to the TC. It is much more elegant with an internal 6TB-drive, isn´t it? All is working without anything of formatting the new drive before beginning. You can use the named HDD as it comes out of the box Here the steps: (always be very careful with the thin cables!!!)

  1. Open the housing and remove the internal HDD (like ifixit has done).
  2. Pull out the complete HDD-tray (see ifixit tear down).
  3. Now you have to modify the rubber-holdings on the bottom and on the top in that way, the new drive fits exactly in there. For this please use a very sharp cutter.
  4. Insert the complete tray with the upper rubber-edges into the white plastic-housing.
  5. Slide in the new HDD (!!! be careful with cables!!!). It should now be fixed in the same way as the old one was. Fix all cables again, fix the 4 pieces of Torx again.
  6. Close the black bottom. READY! Now you have only to connect the TC with AC and network and open the Airport Utility software on your Mac. HDD needs to repair. So do this and format/delete and rename the HDD. After a few seconds all ist done! Fell free with a lot of new capacity! Greetings from Germany, Manfred

Hi, I wanna check something with the HDD in my TimeCapsule, but will it be formatted if I put the HDD out of the TC and then later back in? Or does the TC recognize that it’s the same HDD and it just works?

Well, thanks everyone here. Just U/G my Time Capsule to 4TB and the instructions/advice here was all great!

I just followed these guides and successfully upgraded my TC with a 10TB drive, but when I formatted it, it only formatted it as a 2TB (the original drive size). What is the fix for this so that I have the full drive capacity? Help! Thanks in advance