AirDisk File Sharing - Saving Files - Unable to connect via wires then...

Question

OK, I followed these instructions from another poster as I was unable to save Microsoft Word documents directly to the drive via the "Save As" option...
-------- PREVIOUS POSTERS INFO ----------
The solution that works for me is to mount the AirDisk(s) using SMB instead of AFP.
This means you should log on the AEBS and configure the Disk for Windows File Sharing - this is on the 'File Sharing' tab of the Disks configuration group.
You only need to put in a Workgroup Name (I used "Basestation"). Don't worry about the WINS Server.
You should update your AEBS, and turn of the AirDisk Utility.
You then mount your disk(s) using SMB. You can do this using the Finder -> Go -> Connect to Server.
Enter the following:
smb://"YourBaseStationName".local./"YourDiskName"
You should then be asked to enter the Workgroup name, the disk name and the disk password.
This should mount your AirDisk using SMB.
In my experience, this not only solved my problem re saving within Word/Excel, but also increased the speed with which I can access the AirDisk...
(If you want these Disks to mount automatically when you login, then Add these disks to you Start Up items in your login account...)
-------- END POSTER ------
OK, so here is my problem... After doing this, I was able to save a file directly to the drive... I also followed these instructions as it said it would be faster overall... Now, I use Apple Backup 3.1 to backup both my laptops to my external hard drive on the Extreme. Well, when I brought up the drives on my desktop, the names didn't change, but the names of the drives were all capital letters... I think this threw off the Backup program because it said that it doesn't recognize this location, therefore, it showed that he had never backed up to that location before. So, figuring I changed it and caused a few minor changes, that I would just erase the hard drive, plug the hard drive directly into the laptop as I had done before to speed up the inital backup, and then go back to wireless backups thereafter as they wouldn't be "full" backups and would then be faster and tolerable. Well, when I went to connect the drive to my laptop via the USB cable, you could hear the drive mounting, you could see the drives mounted in Disk Utility, but they refused to show up on the desktop, no matter what. What does this mean? Did making the drives work as File Sharing drives make them no longer able to mount via a cable anymore? What gives? Any ideas?

Answer 1

1. My USB 500GB External Hard Drive is currently
partitioned into three different drives. The Volume
Format is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled), what is
that?
Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is one of the HFS formats. Apple does not use the term HFS anymore but it is the same thing. You can find a good explanation about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HFS_Plus
This will explain journalling, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalingfilesystem
2. What is a FAT volume? What does FAT stand for?
Where would I select that?
Here is an explanation about FAT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileAllocationTable
It is a choice in Disk Utility when you erase a disk.
3. What is an HFS volume? What does HFS stand for?
Where would I select that?
See above: Mac OS Extended.
It is a choice in Disk Utility when you erase a disk.
4. What does SMB mean/stand for?
It stands for Server Message Block explained here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ServerMessageBlock
It is a protocol for connecting to volumes over a network.
5. What does AFP mean/stand for?
It stands for Apple File Protocol explained here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleFilingProtocol
It is also a protocol for connecting to volumes over a network.
- Yes, I tried to save an MS Word document to my
AirPort Disk, but it hung up and I got the spinning
beach ball and ended in an error and I had to force
Microsoft Word to quit. Then I saw that posting and
I tried that, I was then able to open an MS Word
document and save it directly to the drive the first
time. However, like I said, it messed up my Backup
3.1 (When mounting as SMB) and made it believe that
this was a whole new drive and that it hadn't backed
up to it before, when it had, but only when I
connected as AFP.
Did Backup work when you connected using AFP?
- So, this would've been a simple fix if I plan on
staying with SMB share, however, when I go to connect
my USB External Hard Drive directly to my laptop, the
partitions do not mount on my drive like they had
before I made the drives a File Sharing device
through AirPort Utility.
Try using Disk Utility to repair the disk or disk permissions and see if you can read it again.
6. How do I get that drive to be recognized by my
computer again when I connect it directly to my
laptop?
I don't know why this is happening you may want to call Apple Support about that.
7. I don't care about anything Windows/PC, so
whatever way is FASTER and provides the BEST results,
let me know!
If you don't have PCs then stick with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as your volume file format.
8. Also, when I select "Connect to server" and then
click "Browse" and then "Network" nothing shows up in
there, but when I type the path in they connect just
fine, why?
That's strange! All available network volumes should show up when you click on the Network icon in the Finder. I don't know why it is not working for you.
THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP!
Some thoughts!
I would stick with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as your volume file format. If backing up to the network share is important to you, I would wait until Apple fixes the problem regarding opening and saving Word files directly to the network share (Air Disk). Save them locally and then copy them to the network share.