How do I connect an external hard drive to an airport?

Here what's going on. I have an old aiport, Iomega external hard drive and a Netgear N router. My goal is so connect the external hard drive to the airport via the USB port so I can access my photos through the network. I have a Mac Book pro with a full hard drive and a PC laptop. The Netgear N router is currently connected to my cable modem and the Airport is connected to the Netgear Router in bridge mode. However when I connect the External HD to the Airport it cannot be seen. I can see it when I connect it to my mac directly but I would prefer to share my pictures over the network and keep the External HD stationary instead of moving wherever my laptop goes. I also read that the Airport can slow down the internet speed because it is not an "N" so that is why I currently have it in bridge mode. Is there anyway to get this done? Thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: lineaurd81

Can you clarify what model you mean by an old Airport? There's dozens of different AirPort base station models, and the only ones that work with a USB harddrive are the AirPort Extreme's with 802.11 n (flat, square-shaped with 4 ethernet ports). The AirPort Expresses and older dome-shaped base stations do not have that capability.
If you have an AirPort Extreme which meets the requirements of connecting a USB drive, you can verify whether it's connected by configuring it manually using the AirPort Utility and looking under the disks tab.
The following article tells you the various ways of connecting to the disk if it is recognized in the AirPort Utility and properly formatted:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1331

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Wondering about the above.

... I bought a hard drive at an Apple store because they told me I could hook it up through my Airport express.
Bzzt. Nope. Bring it back.
Read: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2421
Question: What is an AirPort Express?
Answer: An AirPort Express is a Wi-Fi base station. Besides acting as an Internet access point, it has several specialized features which make it ideal for specific needs.
Printer - Act as a wireless interface for one printer connected to the USB port, making it available to your network
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Words mean things. Imprecise words mean imprecise things. That generally doesn't end well.
Apple ought to read this stuff once in a while.
John Galt wrote:
I thought you were asking about a USB hard disk attached to the Express. That won't work.
I thought right. That won't work. An Extreme or Time Capsule will.

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How do I connect an external hard drive to an airport?

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